Tom Green Talks ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ After His Eviction From the ‘Loony Bin’
Q&A
Dominating recent competitions on Celebrity Big Brother and bringing humor throughout, Tom Green broke out as a fan favorite. However, the laughter stopped when the comedian joined Natalie Eva Marie as the two houseguests to fall during double-eviction night heading into the finale.
Signs were there Green might be on borrowed time after his “Team Tomato” alliance brother Kato Kaelin was sent packing. Now returned to civilization, here the 47-year-old attempts to make sense of the insanity that only the CBS reality show competition can provide.
What does it feel like to breathe the fresh air again?
Tom Green: It’s a nice feeling. I’m at home in Los Angeles. I’m excited to be sleeping in my own bed and out of that loony bin.
What’s the first thing you did when you got home?
My girlfriend and I got together. My friend picked me up at the studio, we had a quick dinner, and I actually saw my good friend Kato Kaelin for a moment while I was waiting for my girlfriend to arrive.
We got together for about 45 minutes and had a chat about what we just experienced. I think we really have become quite close through this ordeal. I think we’re going to be spending more time together. We actually live in the same area in Los Angeles. I’m looking forward to it. It was a nice quiet night with my girlfriend. It was an amazing.
When you first signed on for this, and being the first Canadian houseguest, did you think you were going to make it this far and would become such a strong player?
I’m starting to hear some of the things people are saying. I believe “competition beast” is one of the hashtags I’ve seen. That is pretty cool, because I did pretty well in those Veto and HOH competitions. I won four, so in a short season like that, it’s a pretty cool thing.
I always said when I went in that I wanted to try to make it through halfway. So, to basically have been in every episode of the season heading into the finale. I’m pretty happy with the way it went. Being somebody who enjoys a good story. I enjoy having a good beginning, middle and end to things. I actually enjoyed gong out in a blaze of glory like the way I did. I felt it was a nice time to leave.
Do you think you’ll take this confidence outside the house and into your other work and real life?
I took away a learning experience. I tour doing standup comedy for the last several years. I travel all around the world, so it takes a certain confidence to get up on stage to tell jokes and make people laugh for an hour or so. I definitely think it will be good for material. There will be funny stories I can tell from the house.
Big Brother has a lot of really hardcore fans. I’ve seen a great response from the Big Brother fans online who are really happy with the way I played the game. I’m touring now doing stand up. All my dates are on my website TomGreen.com. I’m looking forward to people coming out to my shows where I plant to inject a lot of Big Brother info into my standup show.
Photo: CBS
One of the most entertaining things since you were part of the house was your random activities (dancing, song about coffee), especially when you were alone at all hours of the night. Was that your way of staying sane and passing the time? Did you find it hard sleeping in that sort of pressure-cooker environment?
The house is sort of a volatile place. I was really surprised at how competitor it was. When I was thinking of doing Celebrity Big Brother that it would be a camaraderie there, and people would play it like a fun game. I didn’t realize how vicious it would get. It really did get pretty brutal.
I started to realize I needed time to myself at night to have some fun. I was really getting the feeling just the way the cameras moved. You have no interaction with anyone. I wasn’t able to get any feedback online. Frankly, I didn’t know 100-percent how much was broadcast. You’d see the cameras moving with me, I thought it was a good chance for me to do some entertaining and funny stuff.
The house was so competitive. There was so much intensity that joking around during the day when everyone was there wouldn’t have probably helped my game. Being a comedian, I wanted to have fun and do something for the fans streaming on Pop TV and streaming on CBS All Access. That was by far my favorite part, late night goofing around.
How did the Celebrity Big Brother experience compare to Celebrity Apprentice?
There are definitely parallels. Apprentice, I had never done a show like that. It is surprising when you put professional people in a competitive environment; people can really dig into their cleats where it becomes like high school, even elementary school to be honest with you. The big difference is you couldn’t leave.
On Celebrity Apprentice, you got to go back to a hotel and a night to walk around and be on your own. This was 24/7 in this cuckoo’s-nest environment where people were just at their wit’s end. I was amazing how wacky it was in there.
I think that’s what makes it so amazing and the genus of the show. Being someone who studied broadcasting in school and always been interested in video, the whole concept of privacy and how we as human beings interact with one another. It all added up to an incredibly interesting experience for me. I think Celebrity Apprentice prepared me a little for this, but nothing can really prepare you for Big Brother.
Was it worse getting fired by Donald Trump or walking out the door of the Big Brother house?
Both were actually on par with one another. When I got fired by Donald Trump, he wasn’t the president at the time. It didn’t have the same kind of notability even though it was a huge show. The other thing is I spent a lot of time in the Big Brother house, 24 hours a day for over 20 days. It was a big moment. As much as I wanted to win, and I gave it my best shot, walking out that door was almost a victory in itself. I was really happy to get out of there.
Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS
You were also subtly helping spread awareness of your friend Adam Luedicke’s t-shirt business. You were wearing his designed shirts in relation to a GoFundMe for his wife Rochelle Brooks, who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. Now that you’re out of the house, what it is like to see the impact you had from doing that?
My friend’s wife is dealing with a very serious illness. He makes these amazing shirts on ThePosterList.com. I just wanted to show support for my friend. The shirts are really cool, so I wanted to wear them. I didn’t realize it hadn’t gotten the attention it got until I got out of the house. I’m happy to see that and wishing his wife the best and praying for her quick recovery.
With the finale coming up, do you have your mind set on who you want to win this?
I pretty much know who I want to win. I was friendly after Kato left with Kandi [Burruss] and Dina [Lohan.] I’d be happy if either one of them were to win this. I think it would be a great ending if they were the final two.
I know when I got out, I was under lights and Julie Chen was asking me questions. It was surreal because I was trying to acclimate with what is going on and think I blurted out Lolo [Jones]. Really, it doesn’t make sense because I was on the block and trying to evict her, so I don’t know why I said that. I’m Team Kandi and Team Dina. I hope one of them gets it.
The two-hour season finale of Celebrity Big Brother airs Wednesday, February 13, 9/8c, CBS
