Any fellow Big Brother fanatics in the area know that Wichita Falls resident James Huling was cast to be on the show’s 17th season and walked away as America’s favorite player, earning $25,000.
Big Brother airs on CBS during the summer and is a reality TV game show in which the players, or houseguests, are confined in a house for a summer competing against each other to win half a million dollars.
Being a huge Big Brother fan since I was 12 years old I have seen every season since and was especially excited for this year’s season to see someone from my small hometown on the show. After the season ended and James returned to Wichita Falls as America’s favorite player, he held a meet-and-greet at his favorite hangout, Whiskeyta Club, Oct. 16 for his fans here in town. He brought along four other houseguests from the show; Meg Maley, Clay Honeycutt, Jeff Weldon and Jackie Ibarra.
I had the opportunity to not only meet some of my favorite houseguests but to also meet up with James and Meg afterwards at Lucy Park for an interview to find out what life is like for two reality TV stars fresh off the show.
When did you first come to Wichita Falls?
James: I came to Wichita Falls October 31 of last year. One of my roommates that I’m staying with now, Jason, we met in the military. He was in the air force and I was in the army and we met up at a party and we’ve been best friends since then. He was pretty much just like “Hey come to Wichita Falls. We got oil industries here, you can make $70,000 – $80,000 starting off. Come stay with me,” and I said heck yeah and came to Wichita Falls. It says the golden opportunity so I ended up here and as I was waiting to get a call back from pro-tech, Big Brother called me after I put in a 2-minute video and said they wanted me and that’s how I ended up here.
How do you like Wichita Falls so far?
James: It’s really nice. The only thing I’m getting used to is the water drought, coming from South Carolina there’s water everywhere. But the people are real friendly here in Wichita Falls, everyone sticks together it seems like and I really like that. I like it here.
What’s it like coming to this small city of Wichita Falls compared to your hometown in New York City?
Meg: Oh my goodness, I’ve done so many firsts this weekend. I fired a shotgun, I drove a truck and I don’t even drive a car normally, everyone’s so nice here. I keep kidding with [James] I feel like I’m at his Thanksgiving dinner like everyone is family here. It’s very different than where I’m from.
What made you decide to go on Big Brother?
James: I was always a Big Brother fan so when I saw that they were doing open casting calls and sending in videos I was like, hey I might have a shot getting on. It says unique, diverse, we need someone with a big personality and I felt like I matched all three of those so I just sent in a video.
What is life like before Big Brother versus after Big Brother?
Meg: I feel like right now everything is still very Big Brother related. We don’t really have anything else to talk about but Big Brother since we’ve been locked in a house for three months. But it’s starting to get back to reality. We just want to be able to talk to as many people as we can and reach out to everyone that has been watching us and supporting us so that’s really what mine and James’ time has been dedicated to for the last couple of weeks.
Living in the Big Brother house?
James: It was different and it was crazy. We had 17 different personalities locked up in a confined space and like the slogan, “expect the unexpected” that’s what happened. You throw everybody in at one spot and you’re competing for half a million dollars so the game starts the minute your foot goes through that front door. It’s intense because you don’t know who to trust, you don’t know who is going to lie to you, is this person really who they say they are, so you’re always on a constant paranoia level. You never can truly say this person is my best friend because all in reality you’re going to have to stab each other in the back sooner or later to get to the end to the final two. But in the case of mine and Meg’s situation, we made it all the way as far as we could and had pretty good integrity with each other. If anybody was going to take me out of the game it probably would’ve been her because I trusted her, I had my game in her hands. She knew everything about me and I knew everything about her.
What were some strategies you guys had in the game?
Meg: Honestly, I knew coming in that obviously competitions were not going to be my strong point. Anyone that knows me knows I’m not athletic at all, so I knew that my social game was going to be what I had to bring. Even to the fact that I would make up games in the house, we used to do it on a Wednesday night which was the night before eviction we used to call “witching Wednesdays” so we could try to keep everyone together so there’s no scheming going on. Social game is a huge part of the game.
James: Meg had a really good social game, mine was 50/50. They knew me on a physical threat level too. They were like “James is able to win competitions, he’s won HOH’s and battle of the blocks and veto’s,” and they saw me in a different aspect but I did have a social game as well. It might not have been as strong as Meg because everyone loves Meg, if you sat next to her you were going home. But other than that it was kind of half and half for me.
What do you see for your future?
James: Right now we’ve got a huge response from America. The thing that people don’t understand is, when you go into the Big Brother house you go in as Meg and James from New York City and from Wichita Falls, Texas, but when you come out of the box it’s like you’re like “oh my gosh everybody knows me,” and you’re kind of on a celebrity based level. I mean not saying you’re equal to Taylor Swift or someone like that but when you go into Walmart everyone knows you and they want to take pictures, you autograph peoples hats and pieces of paper. You don’t want to give that up and just work back at a regular eight to five job and just forget about Big Brother. You kind of have a commitment to the fans and it’s so hectic because you got hundreds and thousands of fans that want to know what Meg’s doing and want to know what I’m doing. They want us periscoping, they want us snap chatting, and they want us sending out tweets. So I feel like I’ve got to find something in the entertainment industry, more TV shows, more reality shows and go from there and see what happens.
Meg: I always describe this as, you know when you graduate college and you’re at a family reunion and your aunt Sally is like “So what are you going to do now, do you have a job?” That’s what we’re going through again. I feel like I just graduated college and people are like “So what are you doing to do?” and I don’t know. I’ve had a background in some media related things and I think that that’s probably where I hope to maybe take some of this back with, so who knows. I’m the first person to say I live everyday, day to day. Not always the smartest I’ll tell you that. You never know what’s going to come the next day, you could always get a phone call about random things. I mean, four months ago if you’d ask me if I was going to be on Big Brother I would be shocked.
James: Big Brother is a huge stepping stone. It’s something that you can use to exploit other entertainment industries. Your foots already in the door. You don’t realize how much Big Brother opens up the doors for you if you have a good relationship with the public as far as they’ve like what they’ve seen. If you’re someone that was the villain that no one likes, you were just this evil person inside the house, then Big Brother will probably be the only legacy that you’re going to have. But if you go in the game, play with integrity, America loves you, then you’ll get a good response when you get out and you’ll have more opportunities and people are gong to want to work with you. They’re going to want you on their show, they’re going to want you working for the businesses, market for them, you can help out with charity, so there’s a good platform that you can use once you get outside of the Big Brother house.
What would you advise someone who wants to audition for Big Brother?
Meg: I always say that you have to figure out what you bring to the table. You could think that you’re the most boring person in the world but there’s something that’s different about you so you kind of have to play that up. My video was so awkward if you ever see it it’s like the most uncomfortable thing ever. You just have to brag about yourself a little and figure out what you bring to the show. You also don’t want to be on the show trying to be something you’re not, you’re living there so make sure that you’re you in your interviews or whoever you’re going to be for those 98 days. Another thing to remember too is that they’re putting different casts together every year and we all compliment each other in this weird way so if you’re not on this season there’s no reason that you couldn’t be on next season. There’s no right way to go about it, it’s just however you think is the right way.
James: Big Brother has been on for 17 seasons so the casting directors there, they know, they’ve got a keen sense. Robyn Kass is awesome and she’s got a good keen sense of what she wants and she said normally she can tell within a minute to a minute and a half that this is who we want or this is not who we want and she’ll pick up on if you’re trying to oversell yourself or you’re trying to be fake about something. She asks hard questions and it’s really hard to put you on point, “What do you have to offer for Big Brother?” You’ve got to explain yourself. Normally people say, “I’m the life of the party, I’m the best, I’m gong to make your ratings go up,” and that’s not what she’s looking for because she’s going to be like, “Well, what makes you the life of the party? Don’t worry about our ratings, let us worry about that, we want to know about you and how you are as a person.” Just be yourself, find out what you want to sell, and if you’re a loud obnoxious person that can’t ever win competitions then be that person. If you’re a quiet, shy person that can’t talk to people, sell that, that’s what you’ve got to sell. And if they need that person, you’ll get in.
Do you have any life advice for students at MSU?
Meg: Honestly, this whole experience has been something that I never thought was going to be for me and I think that that relates to anything in life. I’m a big believer in saying yes to any opportunity that comes your way because you never know what that’s going to lead to or who you’re going to meet. Don’t be afraid to ask for something that you want and fight for that. You never know what tomorrow brings, the only way you’re going to have new experiences is to go out and try.
James: Take risks and chances. All my friends told me, “James, you’re just different, you’re a unique man and I’ve never met anybody like you in my whole life,” and I’m like, I’ve never met anybody like me in my whole life and I look for them. So if you know you’ve got something different about you, something unique, go out there and search for it. You’ve got to put in a little work for it but in the end it will pay off.
