Spring Break
An amazing night
Charla and Mirna talk about their experience as reality TV stars
Ryan Reed
Issue date: 9/24/07 Section: News
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“The Amazing Event” grew quite a crowd with every seat filled and Towson University President Bob Caret and mass communication professor Dr. Richard Vatz both in attendance.
Faddoul started her speech by talking about her experience at Towson University. “I loved my experience here at Towson University, learning and interacting with the students and teachers,” Faddoul said. “The professors were amazing, they gave us so much attention and were always focused on providing the most up to date information to teaching us essential knowledgeable facts."
Faddoul went on to discuss her dwarfism and the surgeries she underwent. She expressed that no matter what, as long as you have a “positive outlook and you stay focused, the sky is the limit.” It was those words that helped guide her in eventually managing 10 of her own properties. Faddoul also shared with the audience that she and her husband are expecting their first child.
After the applause subsided from the baby announcement, Faddoul discussed how they made it on The Amazing Race. “In 2004 I received an email from a dwarfism yahoo group that I’m a member of which stated that The Amazing Race was looking for a little person to be on their show, I was shocked,” Faddoul said.
Faddoul contacted her cousin Buchinski and told her the good news. Buchinski had been watching The Amazing Race since 2002 and always knew she could do better than most teams that were on previous seasons.
With the decision made, the cousins set out to make an audition tape which they showed to the audience. The highlight of the tape was near the end when Faddoul put Buchinski on her shoulders and walked towards the camera.
The video impressed many and led the cousins all the way to Los Angeles where they had to impress CBS executives. Their personalities impressed the executives and the rest was history. Faddoul and Buchinski were picked to be on The Amazing Race season 5.
“Being on The Amazing Race was an adventure of a lifetime,” Faddoul said. She went on to explain why the audience didn’t always see there laid back moments and only saw their abrasive, super-competitive moments. “We had our laid back fun moments but those are not as interesting for viewers to watch because there is no action involved,” Faddoul said.
Buchinski also described how difficult the race was. She held up a backpack, which could be seen on the back of any Towson University student, and stated that all of your belongings had to fit in that backpack.
Unfortunately for Faddoul and Buchinski, they were eliminated in Episode 7 but their personalities won them fans all over the world. Even though their race had come to an end, their journey through Hollywood was just begining . Buchinski discussed all of the television shows (Regis and Kelly, Mad TV, Jimmy Kimmel and The View) they appeared on and then showed clips of the shows they were on to the audience. “We had a little taste of Hollywood and it was really exciting and beyond our wildest imaginations,” Buchinski said.
After their wild ride as celebrities, the cousins returned to their normal lives; that was until The Amazing Race came calling again. Faddoul and Buchinski spotted their name on the Internet linking them to the upcoming Amazing Race All-Stars Edition. They both decided they couldn’t pass up another once in a lifetime opportunity and agreed to go back on the show.
“This was not a typical season of the race, this was the toughest of the toughest and we had people like Rob and Amber. If you don’t know who Rob and Amber are, they are to reality TV what the Yankees are to baseball,” Buchinski said. “If you haven’t watched us, we are kind of like the benchwarmers of the junior leagues, we’re lucky if we get to play once in awhile.” Buchinski dubbed the match up between her team and Rob and Amber as the Yankees vs. the benchwarmers.
In perhaps one of the greatest upsets in reality television, Faddoul and Buchinski defeated Rob and Amber and continued all the way to the final episode. Unfortunately, they were 20 minutes too late and came in second place. Despite the devastating loss, they weren’t upset. “We were very proud of our accomplishments, we came to the country 30 years ago and we had already, before we stepped foot on TV, lived a very fulfilling life and our parents were very proud we were able to live the American dream,” Buchinski said.
The Amazing Event concluded with Faddoul and Buchinski answering questions from the audience.
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