When four young Canadian men hit the road in a beat-up trailer with a desire to prove they could do anything, they didn’t realize their endeavor would land them a show on MTV and the power to inspire countless others.
The friends behind the television show “The Buried Life” — Ben Nemtin and Duncan Penn, both 27, and Dave Lingwood and Jonnie Penn, both 24 — spoke at the Memorial Union on the Tempe campus on Thursday night to share their stories and ask the question their show revolves around: “What do you want to do before you die?”
In each episode, armed with video cameras, the quartet checks a goal off their bucket list and also helps a stranger fulfill one of his or her dreams.
Some goals are outlandish, like crashing the Playboy Mansion; others are heartfelt, like paying off their parents’ mortgage.
Lingwood was even excited to complete his goal to ride a bull, which ended in injury.
“I actually tore all the ligaments in my wrist and tore my hamstring, but it was crossed off the list, and I was so happy,” Lingwood said.
Unlike other reality shows like “The Hills,” “The Buried Life” is not scripted at all, and the show producers are not allowed to meddle with what happens.
“If MTV helped us do something, it kind of debases the whole point,” Jonnie Penn said. “The point of the show is to prove regular people can do extraordinary things, and regular people do extraordinary things all the time, but sometimes it’s not reflected in the media.”
“The Buried Life” guys were on the road for three years fulfilling their dreams before they signed on for a show with MTV.
On their own, they named their project “The Buried Life” after a poem by Matthew Arnold, bought an old trailer and funded their trips through odd jobs and sponsors who pitched in for costs like gas.
They started their journey “young, lost and disillusioned,” Jonnie Penn said, but as they gained momentum and realized they were making a difference in people’s lives, they hired a camera crew and bought a purple bus named Penelope from a nudist to make “The Buried Life” bigger.
“We had all this momentum, and we were crossing off things people told us we were never going to cross off, like open the 6 o’clock news,” Nemtin said.
The first person helped by “The Buried Life” was a man named Brent who, after having lived on the streets, needed a truck so he could deliver food to homeless people.
To help, the guys went to a new and used car dealership and, by sharing their story and Brent’s, convinced the owner to sell them a truck for much less than the asking price.
“We offered the guy $480 for a $2,100 truck,” Nemtin said. “It’s amazing what people will do when you give them a chance to be a hero.”
Now that they’ve filmed two seasons with MTV, “The Buried Life” guys said they are approached often by people who want help completing their goals — or who just want to be on television.
During the second season, they said they met a lot of people who want to be on the show to be famous, but they never filmed those people because they want “The Buried Life” to be genuine.
“It’s really easy to see if someone is acting for the camera,” Lingwood said. “That means that they’re probably not genuine about what they want to do.”
Brad Gyori, ASU film and media studies professor who has written for reality shows and talk shows like “The Best of Talk Soup” and “Totally Obsessed,” said people often want to be on reality television for a quick shot to fame.
Gyori, who is also a graduate student pursuing a doctorate in rhetoric and composition, said a lot of reality shows, especially those with big stars like Paris Hilton, are more like a bad improv than real life because scenarios are outlined before filming.
But some shows, such as “Extreme Home Makeover,” can be inspiring, he said.
“It’s tempting to just dismiss [reality television], and a lot of people do,” Gyori said. “They say this is just complete garbage and there’s nothing good about it. But I think there are times they can actually do something that can be uplifting.”
“The Buried Life” might be as close to real life as reality television can get.
Since the guys made it clear to MTV from the beginning that their show would not be a shallow, cheesy television show, they have been able to stay genuine and create a show that has inspired many people.
Recreation and tourism management senior Katelyn Burnett said she likes the quartet’s work ethic because it’s realistic to what anybody would have to do to meet a goal.
“If they need to raise money, they go out into the community and raise it,” she said.
Burnett said she also likes the positive message of the show.
“Anyone at any age can watch this show,” she said. “I would never let my kids watch a show like ‘The Real World.’”
At the end of their presentation, the four friends turned the microphone to audience members and asked them what they wanted to do before they die.
They encouraged everyone to pursue their goals, no matter how impossible they seem.
“The worst thing you can get when you ask someone something is a no,” Nemtin said. “If you don’t ask, you already got a no.”
The last people to share a goal were two women, 18, who said they wanted to give a famous person their numbers — and then flash them.
Much to the surprise of “The Buried Life” guys, the girls got on stage, handed them slips of paper with their numbers, then lifted their shirt and bared their bras.
Reach the reporter at kkfrost@asu.edu
