Jason Cameron host of DIY Network’s ‘Desperate Landscapes’ and ‘Man Caves’ talks w/ Mark & Theresa
Theresa: And you are inside MyFixitUpLife with my husband Mark.
Mark: And my wife Theresa. And I’m feeling kinda desperate today…desperate to go outside cause it’s like awesome degrees out right now.
Theresa: It’s awesome degrees out?
Mark: It’s awesome degrees out.
Theresa: I’m surprised you don’t do the local weather segments; you’re not a meteorologist here in Philadelphia.
Mark: Part time job, scientist.
Theresa: Good Morning everyone, it’s awesome degrees outside.
Mark: That’s enough for me I’m going outside.
Theresa: Ha ha…well we have someone on the line, Mark, who knows a little bit about your desperation to go outside.
Mark: Yes we do. We’re joined by ‘Desperate Landscapes’ host, licensed contractor, and home improvement polymath, Jason Cameron. Are you with us Jason?
Jason: I am with you guys. It is awesome degrees out…that’s a great way to describe it.
Theresa: Oh no you agree with him.
Jason: That’s almost as accurate as we get from the weather people anyways so I’ll take awesome degrees.
Mark: So are you in the Northeast at this time?
Jason: I’m actually at Bristol Speedway believe it or not in Tennessee. We’re actually doing a ‘Man Caves’ episode today and the next couple of days at the Speedway. So exciting. I’m actually looking down on the short track right now it’s pretty amazing. I’m in one of the VIP booths.
Mark: Nice, nice. Now do they have all kinds of chicken wings and other things that get eaten in the VIP booth at a racecar event?
Jason: There won’t be when I’m done with it.
Theresa: That is so cool that you get to go there to do ‘Man Caves.’ You guys go everywhere for that show. I even saw…wasn’t there one at the Wax Museum?
Jason: Yes, Madame Tussauds in New York. And this was the funny this was that people always ask me if I have a Man Cave yet and my sad response is no because we shot over 100 episodes and my co-host, Tony Siragusa — Goose, his house has a Man Cave, his restaurant has a Man Cave and now his wax figure at Madame Tussauds has a Man Cave thanks to me, and me, no Man Cave yet so that’s pretty sad.
Mark: So basically you’re being beaten out by inanimate objects.
Jason: Pretty much. That’s what it boils down to. They were going to do a wax figure of both Goose and I but they chose to do him first, and that was probably the problem, they probably ran out of wax by the time they were done with him.
Theresa: Well maybe you don’t have a Man Cave yet so you can do a spin off of both of your shows and it can be ‘Desperate Man Caves’ or something like that.
Mark: That sounds awful.
Jason: Trust me once I get a house, because my wife and I live in a condo that’s the issue, but trust me once I have a house DIY is going to be out there in full force. I’m having the whole house done by DIY.
Mark: Nice!
Theresa: That is pretty awesome.
Mark: That’s a smart move.
Theresa: Now I saw that you guys are looking for America’s most desperate landscape again this year.
Jason: We’re always looking. And we all see them too when we’re driving around through those neighborhoods. So yeah, this is the official kickoff, the search for America’s most desperate landscape. And the people listening have until April 30th to apply and that means going to diynetwork.com and submitting a video or pictures of how desperate they really are because that’s what we wanna see how desperate they really are, we wanna see their personalities. And I’ll give a little inside advise to your listeners right now — when you submit a video, and we’ve all seen this when you put someone on camera that’s very shy and quiet, you want somebody who’s the opposite on camera. You want somebody with energy and a lot of personality. That goes a long way because let’s face it at the end of the day it’s a show, it’s entertainment. So not only do we want to teach people what we’re doing but we want people who are engaging and entertaining. That’s important to not put somebody on camera that doesn’t want to be on camera.
Mark: So question for you because you just pre-answered the question that I had about the videotape, it’s incredible. Should they look at hiring you as a spokes person for them for your show?
Jason: Well we could negotiate that, that’s interesting. Ha Ha. But no I would definitely put someone on camera that is engaging and entertaining. That definitely peaks the interest of the producers and myself when we actually see the video and were weeding through all these. We want people that are going to be fun to be with and engaging and entertaining on camera. So yeah, it’s important to do that.
Theresa: Well we like that as viewers too. As people that are ridiculous. And I’ve been told many times that my husband, Mark, is well a little bit hard to take sometimes in person, but he’s perfect for you know radio and for television. If you’re kind of annoying…you’d be awesome on TV.
Jason: That’s interesting because I have the same relationship with Goose. He’s very annoying and he bothers me all the time but we seem to make it work somehow.
Theresa: Well he’s fantastic on TV, so I don’t know what that says. So you travel around all the time for the shows, and one thing that Mark and I were saying right before you called in to each other during the commercial is, what do you eat when you’re traveling around? Because you stay so fit and I can imagine that you’re going to all kinds of events and you’re on set.
Mark: And contractors are famous, as you know, for living on McDonald’s and potato chips, and throwing the bags in their truck. We’ve been on enough TV show sets where catering services comprises of a giant bag of M&Ms. It’s seriously a real diet question because what do you do? How do you not eat all the stuff?
Jason: Well it’s interesting that you guys brought that up because that’s something that I fight with all the time, and obviously my other life is fitness. That’s my other life outside of this. And anybody that’s serious about fitness, it’s always on the front of his or her mind. In other words, when I travel, the first question I ask when I get to the hotel is ‘Where’s the closest gym?’ And people are like how do you go work out after working all day long, and I’m like I wish it was as simple as just working all day, but it’s not. You still have to get into the gym. So it’s really just a matter of staying dedicated to eating clean, and you’re right, catering services that’s usually what you get is a smorgasbord of candy. So you have to do your do diligence and if they’re going to bring food in, as long as they’ve got grilled chicken breast on the thing I’m a happy guy. That’s all I need. So it is harder but you just have to find a way to eat better when you’re traveling.
Mark: And do you have the moments where you’re like look it’s 9 o’clock I’ve been here since about 12 hours before 9 o’clock. I’m starving, man, that cake looks awesome?
Jason: Ha Ha of course. My weakness is chocolate chip cookies. I mean you put a plate of chocolate chip cookies in front of me forget about it I’ll eat four or five of them but that’s why I work out hard so I can afford to have those things every once in a while. Otherwise I wouldn’t be doing it.
Mark: Oh that’s great. Do you find, and I go to the gym a lot too and fitness has been a theme in my life for as long as I can remember, do you find that like lugging rocks all day, and being on camera and it all takes energy out of you, but if you go — and I’m making this up — but run on the treadmill for half an hour or do a weight set, that you feel better the next day?
Jason: Always. Working out and fitness has been a constant in my life since I was like 18 or 19 years old so it’s just something that I instinctively do so I always feel better. If I go three or four days without working out I feel terrible. But if I stick to my schedule which is pretty much five days a week then I always feel better. So it’s very helpful when somebody practices and keeps up with the regular routine.
Theresa: That is so cool.
Mark: How did you get into it in the first place? Like what was your entry point? Were you on the wrestling team, or did you weigh ten pounds?
Jason: I was always an athlete, I was an athlete since I was younger so I was always into the perspective of working out as it pertains to the sport, but I then just feel in love with working out and weight lifting and seriously got into it. And I got certified and was actually a trainer for a long time. When I first moved out to New York, my first gig was Men’s Health/Men’s Fitness their model and I was a trainer for them, so I did that for years. And enjoyed it a lot but that obviously wasn’t my main goal. My main goal was acting, funny enough, and then I fell into this whole genre of home improvement because that’s what I grew up in. I’m a licensed contractor, so it was an easy fit for me it was just perfect. So that’s a nutshell basically of 20 years of my life.
Mark: Mine is one word.
Theresa: Well let me bring something else into the picture. I was checking out the Dream Dog Park that you’re working on, and you just broke ground like a couple weeks ago for the Beneful Renovation Project…tell us about that.
Jason: That is something that I’m doing on the side with Beneful. It is a Dream Dog Park and it’s an amazing thing. We might be shooting it this year as part of a special but anyways we’ll see what happens. I am excited about it, but I’m even more excited about the search though.
Theresa: That’s an incredible thing. To be able to win a 25 thousand dollar makeover for your yard, it blows my mind. Who doesn’t want to have that?
Jason: Well exactly, who doesn’t want to have that? And the thing is people think about it because a lot of people spend a lot of their time, money, and energy on the inside of their house, right? And they always tend to forget about the curb appeal. Which is huge because if you’re looking to sell or buy, the first thing people see is the curb appeal. And if it’s not there and it’s desperate, they’re probably not even going to want to look at the house. So it’s important to spend the time and energy and if we can come in and obviously it’s a desperate situation, and transform it into an amazing space from the worst to first, who wouldn’t want that?
Mark: Worst to first…love that.
Theresa: Worst to first, I am so using that.
Mark: I’m passing that off like I invented it.
Jason: I’ll use awesome degrees and you guys can use worst to first.
Mark: Ha Ha even trade.
Theresa: So when you’re traveling around and everything and you’re making over all these landscapes and you live in a condo right with your wife? And you have this dream of having this house where you can have 14 Man Caves all dedicated to your own personal hobbies and everything like that…is there like an outdoor Man Cave that you fantasize about too?
Jason: Always. All of the above. We’ve done some outdoor ones recently too that were like beer gardens. We did a beer garden Man Cave for a guy in his backyard so yeah something like that is always appealing because we have great shows on DIY that have to do with backyards like ‘Indoors Out’ and the backyard makeovers like ‘Yard Crashers’ that kind of thing that really focus on the backyard and make it almost an extension of your living space. I will definitely do something like that when I get my own space.
Mark: You know you sound both like a seasoned veteran and a twelve-year-old boy. You know when I get my license; I’m totally driving to the store. And then at the same time, it’s like who else could do it better than you?
Theresa: It must be really hard though because you’re traveling around and you’re helping out all of these people with their landscapes and you know trying to makeover a man’s space and you come home and your wife is there and she’s probably been home all this time, and you walk in and it’s like woman land probably at home where she has everything where she wants.
Jason: Well most guys can relate to that and that’s why I try to explain to the ladies when they get upset that we’re doing a Man Cave not a Woman Cave. I’m like it’s basically, and most of your husbands out there will agree with this, we usually agree with the wife. She usually dictates what’s going to happen with the whole house and we usually just say ‘Yes Dear’ because it’s happy wife, happy life, but we just want that one tiny space that’s in the basement or in the garage. We don’t care…where it’s our stuff that she doesn’t like, that we can put in there and you have your own space.
Mark: Well I’ll tell you what we don’t like, is that we have to take a break. So we’ll be back with more MyFixitUpLife.
Check out the MyFixitUpLife talk show that features this interview with Jason Cameron.
