Survivor Nicaragua: Marty Piombo Interview

Hey guys!  I spoke to Marty this afternoon and here’s what he had to say about his time on Survivor Nicaragua:  

Ashli Rae:   Do you regret giving Sash the immunity idol?

Marty Piombo:  No absolutely not. The result speaks for itself. If I had been voted off that night that would be a very different answer for you but I got everything I wanted out of giving him the idol. If I burned the idol and had given it to Jeff that night, I would have incurred the wrath and hatred of that tribe and it would have guaranteed I’d be leaving at the next tribal.

AR:  Was there anything you could have done to get NaOnka or Brenda out of the game?

MP:   No I don’t think either one of those was an option for me. The only thing I would say about the game that I wish I had made a more concerted effort was to regain trust and reestablish trust in a relationship with Holly because I saw promise in her. In the beginning she showed some attributes that discouraged me whether it was the incident involving Danny’s shoes and aligning with Wendy Jo showed bad judgment but she kind of comes around a little bit and she has good morals and good values. I think she was somebody I could have talked some sense too.

AR:  What was up with NaOnka flipping you the bird when you were walking back from voting?

MP:  NaOnka was having a senseless tirade I think partly because she’s a pretty destructive person kind of in a childish way as Probst would say. Sometimes she’s senseless without any purpose. My gut instinct is she knew I was going home and she was taking pop shots and also because I’m sure she’d become aware that I was trying to flush the idol out.

AR:  Where did things go wrong between you and Jane?

MP:   Jane started out in the first five minutes of the game by introducing herself to me and Jimmy Johnson and she said my husband just died, I need the money, please don’t vote me off. That was a huge red flag for me. Then she aligned herself with Wendy Jo and Jimmy T and those were two more red flags because they just didn‘t know what was going on. We tried to warm up to her both Jill and I did. I don’t know what the issues were on her side whether we were apparently more educated or something just didn’t jive with her background. But at the end of the day I put a huge target on her back. It was very pragmatic, not emotional, it was not a personal thing. I didn’t think she was a bad person or hateful. It was just very true. This woman had every single ingredient for winning the million dollars.

AR:  What was your relationship with Jimmy Johnson and why did you want him voted off so quickly?

MP:   I love Jimmy Johnson. He’s a great guy, class act. I spent a ton of time with him. We had a super relationship. Jimmy had announced that he was going to play the game with no alliances and strategically for me I had a real issue with that because if you’re playing with no alliances it kind of means you’re a floater but if you’re not in my alliance then on any given day you could be against my alliance. If he had said Marty I want to work with you, let’s do something together, I would have absolutely been on board.