Toni and Dallas came into The Amazing Race as decisive underdogs. Multi-generational teams rarely perform well on The Amazing Race, and when there came early discussions of the favorites, Toni and Dallas’s names rarely came up. But, they’re steady racing became more and more noticeable as the season progressed, until we all realized that the mother/son duo were legitimate contenders for the million dollars. Unfortunately, their race came to an end on the penultimate leg, mostly thanks to Dallas’s unfortunate loss of the bag containing his passport and all of their team’s money. Earlier this morning, we talked to Toni and Dallas about their time on the race, what really happened with the money and passport, and whether Dallas has kept in touch with his possible showmance, Starr.
Below you will find the transcript and full mp3 audio of the interview.
Hi, this is John from BuddyTV and I’m talking to Toni and Dallas from The Amazing Race. How are you guys?
Toni: We’re doing great.
Dallas: Doing amazing.
I take it you’re back in the states, so you must have found your passports. Did the producers track down the cab?
Toni: In Russia, you can’t actually track down cabs. They’re not regulated by the government, so anyone who owns a car can be a cab driver, which is what made it incredibly difficult. We couldn’t track the cab driver down, but we actually got very, very lucky in that late that evening, after the embassy had closed, somebody did return his passport to the consulate’s office. We weren’t able to get to it or find that out until the next day because the office was closed, but it was there, so we just did our own little road block the next morning, getting ourselves over there and finding that out and we did think we were going to have to get a new passport, and in Russia you have to have visas. You have entry visas and exit visas. So, it would have been an incredibly lengthy process had it not been turned in.
What was that like, watching it and having to relive the show?
Dallas: Well, a lot of the episodes were great, especially ones like in Bolivia when I was a Lucidore fighter and when we were in Kazakhstan, but the one in Russia, that was just painful to watch. They cut it and made it look like I kind of just lost this cab, which was not the case, I took three cabs before I even got to where my mom was there at the end of that road block. It wasn’t until I got out of the second cab that I realized that it had got left in the first cab, due to when they were changing my battery on my microphone, which is underneath my t-shirt, strapped around my chest, so they had to undo the fanny pack that was carrying everything. They made it look like it was cut real quick, in this one cab and that’s that, but it was almost two hours before I even got to my mom at that Road Block. So, two hours, three cabs later, no passport and money and the day that had looked like another stroll in the park became, “Hey, take my passport. Thanks, thumbs up, see you later, peace.” But, that’s not how it went down.
Before you two were eliminated, you did come in first place in the previous leg –
Toni: That was great. It was really important. We had run through the legs and we were hot on people’s tails all the time and so when, especially in India, when we knew that the leg was really ours and it had been so close and we were stuck in this crazy traffic jam and knew that things outside of our control were the reasons we were falling into second place, it was really wonderful to actually get that first place. Dallas wasn’t going to let anything get in our way that day.
Dallas: I was so sick of coming in second so many times. I think we had to set the record for most second places without getting a first, so we got it and it was just so relieving to come across that mat. We had worked so hard and it was finally just the biggest relief to hear Phil say you’re number one.
There’s always a prize for coming in first, and it’s usually some getaway, and it always seems a little romantic, so it’s always weird when family members or a mother or son win it.
Dallas: I know where you’re going with this, and I’m going to give you an answer. (Toni starts to object) Mom, shh. We went on The Bonnie Hunt Show yesterday and it airs today. On the Bonnie Hunt Show, I told Bonnie, “Hey, Bonnie, I need a favor from you. My mom’s a single woman. Beautiful, intelligent and smart. I need you to help me find her a guy.” And Bonnie said she was going to do what she can. She’s going to put it up on her website and allow viewers to nominate people and we’re going to go back to the show in a few weeks and, you know, find somebody. Hopefully we get some sparks to happen and we get my mom to go on this romantic getaway with her new spark.
Are you on board with that, Toni?
Toni: Well. OK. In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t really have a lot of say or control over my child, but that was not my original plan. I personally was thinking that we would trade one trip for another with Nick and Starr. They could each take a romantic trip, each one of them and they could trade me one of their unromantic trips and we could work that out, but I don’t know (laughs). Dallas comes up with all kinds of plans.
Have you stayed in contact with a lot of the other teams?
Toni: Yeah, we’re in pretty close contact with all the other teams. We all really do enjoy each other and we had a great time on the race and there are people we didn’t get nearly enough time with. Anita and Arthur. Stephanie, Anthony. They were really great people for the time that we were with them. It’s given us an opportunity to kind of grow in those relationships with those teams we didn’t have time with. We’re in email contact with everybody. We got homemade jam from Anita and Arthur, and it’s just wonderful.
And Dallas, have you talked to Starr, how is that going?
Dallas: That’s the million dollar question right there.
Yeah, well, you’re the one who’s trying to get your mom a date on national television and so it’s only fair.
Dallas: Me and Starr have been dating since the show ended in about May. So, we’ve been together – she lives in New York and I’m in California. Long distance, but we’re just taking it one day at a time.
-Interview Conducted by John Kubicek
(Image Courtesy of CBS)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
