HGTV’s ‘Cousins Undercover’ Anthony Carrino talks with MyFixitUpLife

Anthony talks adventures, motorcycles and helping neighborhood heroes with his show, Cousins Undercover.

Mark: You’re inside MyFixitUpLife with my wife, Theresa.

Theresa: And my husband, Mark.

Mark: We’re building big, building back, and building for heroes.

Theresa: Really?

Mark: Yeah.

Theresa: We are?

Mark: Cousins Undercover.

Theresa: We are.

Anthony: I think that’s us.

Theresa: Oh, I think that is you, Anthony. How are you?

Anthony: Good. How are you guys doing?

Theresa: We are doing great, and I’m excited that we’re getting an opportunity to talk to you without John.

Anthony: Oh, Wow. Do you want me to tell him that?

Theresa: Maybe. I don’t know, because it’s nice. Every time that I’d seen you guys do interviews or we’ve talked to you, it’s always you guys together. So, it’s kind of nice to have special time together.

Anthony: You know what, I’m totally kidding around. I’ll tell you what, the more we talk to you guys, the more we’re becoming friends. It is nice to chat kind of one-on-one, because John and I are the dynamic duo. We’re always together. Thankfully we love it, but definitely nice to chat with you guys one-on-one.

Theresa: Now, we follow you on Instagram and Twitter, and everywhere. I’ve seen these photos of your travels, motorcycle out there in Africa somewhere, and all kinds of crazy stuff, which to me is … I’m a safety girl, so all of those are all in the category of dangerous, and that’s the kind of stuff that my husband, Mark really associates with, so what I’m saying is: Does John go with you on any of those trips?

Anthony: John is an adventurous guy. The one thing he does not do is two-wheel adventures. So, he did not go to South Africa with me, but on the flip-side of that, we spent our New Year’s in the tundra on Minnesota, on a lake in a cabin with no electricity, no heat, and no running water.

Theresa: Now, why did you choose that?

Anthony: We went dog sledding up there. Actually my girlfriend’s from Minnesota, so we went New Year’s in the city, and then me and my girlfriend and John and his wife drove four and a half hours north to a place called Ely, Minnesota. We then took a four-mile snowmobile ride across two frozen lakes in negative twenty-degree weather. That’s where our cabin was situated. On a little lake called Triangle Lake, way, way, way up. It was pretty damn cool, I got to tell you.

Theresa: These women must love you a lot, because I would have to be sedated in order to actually be lured through that entire journey. I would.

Anthony: No, they’re adventurous. The both of them are adventurous. You know it was one of those things that … We were sitting around playing cards, and we’re like, “You know, it’s so funny.  You think back, and it’s like, man I wonder what people used to do all day.” We figured it out. You know what they did? They survived. They cut wood. They chipped though the ice to get water for their house. They made sure the fire didn’t go out. There were some busy days. So, we had a good time, just kind of staying busy with the kind of chores that are almost forgotten, that no longer really exist.

Theresa: Now, I really like that, except I would turn the temperature up to maybe like thirty or forty degrees. That would be my …

Anthony: My cousin can build one hell of a fire, and we got that potbelly stove cranking to the point where we actually were opening the windows.

Theresa: Oh, wow.

Mark: Wow.

Anthony: Yeah.

Mark: Wow, before I ask you any more questions, I want to point out this is why I purposely don’t follow you on Twitter @CarrinoAnthony. I don’t want to know! I mean …

Theresa: You don’t want to know what you’re missing out on? Honey, look here!  Look, Anthony, he’s got his motorcycle. He’s in the desert somewhere. Look at him! He’s off doing man-things, with other men.

Anthony: That’s it.

Theresa: Yeah.

Mark: Oh, my goodness.

Anthony: Listen, the only way I got to every meeting that I had today was the shear fact that it’s above forty degrees, and I could be on my motorcycle.

Mark: Nice, what do you ride when you’re in town?

Anthony: Yeah, I’m on a BMW R1200GS, and I am a complete BMW freak. The bikes are top-notch. The GS, I call my swiss army knife. I can keep up with the hot-shots in the corners on the Japanese speed bikes. I can go off-road, and it’s also kind of like my urban assault vehicle to kind of crawl into and out of potholes, so I can really do it all with that motorcycle.

Mark: Theresa’s looking at me like “Mark, you know what this motorcycle is, don’t you,” and I’m looking back at her like, “Yes I do.”

Theresa: I have no idea.

Anthony: Mark, spend ten more minutes talking about bikes with me, and I guarantee you will go buy one this week.

Theresa: Do you still have a motorcycle license, hun?

Mark: I still have a motorcycle license.

Theresa: He still has it. He doesn’t own one, though, right now, and I think that he would like to own one, so …

Anthony: Listen, I’ll get you set up with the motorcycle safety foundation course. Theresa will be happy, and then we can go riding.

Mark: Bring it on.

Theresa: As long as I don’t have to get on it.

Mark: As long as she doesn’t have to be involved, she’s good.

Theresa: No, I’ll watch from the … Well, I don’t even want to watch. It’s like whenever Mark is up on a roof. I sort of start tearing up. I can’t handle it, because he doesn’t just go up on the roof! He’s running up and down the roof, and it’s in icy weather. It makes me want to … I don’t know.

Anthony: Well, if I remember correctly, the last time you guys were here, he was climbing the fire pole inside of our office, so I do know that he is quite the climber.

Theresa: And he climbed the outside of your brick building, too.

Anthony: That’s right.

Theresa: Yeah, and there was no …

Mark: Try to sound less disappointed.

Theresa: I know, there was no safety. No one propped him up. He just climbed a brick building.

Anthony: It’s incredible. Incredible.

Mark: Oh, that’s funny.

Theresa: Yeah, kind of like a spider-man. So, we want to talk about your show, Cousins Undercover, though.

Anthony: Yeah, let’s do it.

Theresa: We are so inspired and in awe of that show, and what you guys are doing for people all over the country, and recognizing neighborhood heroes is something that we think should be done more often.

Mark: It’s like that show, the weight loss show, Biggest Loser. It should be sponsored by the government. It’s that big of a thing to change people’s lives.

Theresa: It should be.

Anthony: Well, first I just want to say thank you, because there’s really not a better compliment we could get, and we are very, very proud of the show. So, that does mean quite a bit, so thank you guys for that. I really appreciate it. Yeah, I agree.  We actually just … As season two is getting ready to premiere here coming in June. We don’t have a date just yet, but it will be June. We were talking without social media manager, and we’re going to really try and promote the help-your-neighbor kind of attitude, and try to get people involved in DIY projects that help other people in the neighborhood, returning vet., someone who is disabled, someone who is just older. We’ve just kind of come up with the idea, and we want to see if we can do some social media good instead of just social media chatter, and use Cousins Undercover as the impetus for the whole thing and hopefully get kind of an army of DIYers that just go out and help in their local community.

Mark: Wow, and we’re behind you, and we’ll help you through our social channels too.

Anthony: Cool!

Mark: One question I have is, if you can share it, is there one story, one hero, one person that particularly caught you and you’re like, “Yeah, this is awesome,” or is particularly connected with you on an emotional level?

Anthony: Wow, at the risk of sounding cheesy, it really is a weekly basis with that stuff. Every time you think you’re not going to hear a better story, you do. It’s such a reassurance in humanity that these people are there, you know? Everybody always is so quick to look at the negative, or report on the negative, or how much negative is there in the media, but the one thing that I think we really enjoyed is that we get to be a part of the positive, and it’s about the positive messages, about sharing the positive stories. So, to see it on a weekly basis, and just know that these people are out there fighting the good fight for everybody, and being selfless about it … I would really have to think about who would be the best one. I’m just happy that they’re all out there doing what they are doing.

Theresa: I have to say, thinking about it from another perspective, is that the people that are helping you guys help them … It must be giving them such a great opportunity to be able to do  something to serve them back in sort of a way. You know, to give them an opportunity to give back to the person that’s helping them.

Anthony: Theresa, you hit the nail on the head. There’s so many facets of giving that’s part of the show. First of all, there’s the quote-unquote hero. The people that we’re surprising and giving back to. You’ll see this season. People just say, “I never expected this. It’s not why I do what I do.” Even as we are giving them this renovation, they are like, “Well, I didn’t expect this. I didn’t want this.” They are just so humble about the whole thing. It really rings true, but then on the flip-side, like you were mentioning, you have all these volunteers that come out, a lot of whom do not even know these home-owners. They are just coming out to volunteer. They heard that The Cousins were in town. They heard that HGTV was in town, and they wanted to volunteer. You see a transformation over these three days of the satisfaction and the pure joy they get out of being there and creating something, and then getting to watch the family kind of react to it when they get home.

Theresa: Now, for such giving people, do they ever try to divert the attention from themselves, and say my friend, my sister, my neighbor could really use this help more than me?

Anthony: The best story I can think of is last … Two episodes ago, we gave the home back to this young family. The woman in particular, she not only took the time to tell us that it’s because of her community and the support that she has that she’s able to do what she does for these young kids, but they took the time to have a plaque made for my cousin and I, and our entire production staff and contractors, to say “Thank you,” for what we did for them.

Mark: You know what? Let’s leave it there.

Theresa: Yeah.

Anthony: Right?

Mark: Let’s leave it at selfless, inspired, and not to overuse those words. This is what those words are for.

Theresa: Yeah.

Mark: So, I will follow you on Twitter @CarrinoAnthony, CousinsTV on Facebook, but only for that. Follow us into a break. We’ll be back with more of MyFixitUpLife.