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Reprinted
by permission, Dallas Voice, Voice Publishing Company, Inc. |
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| TUBE - Success story |
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| Friendly JR.’s bartender Kevin
follows Oprah’s path as contestant on “The
Benefactor” |
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By Daniel A.
Kusner
Life+Style
Editor
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| The formula is like watching
those dorks from 7th grade befriend the spoiled
kid with nouveau riche parents. ABC’s new reality
show “The Benefactor,” shot in Dallas this year,
features 16 people who suck up to local
billionaire Mark Cuban in the hopes of winning $1
million.
Cuban’s story is a rags-to-riches
tale. At 12, he sold garbage bags door-to-door and
worked like a dog — teaching disco lessons and
starting chain letters — to put himself through
Indiana University.
He made a killing by
selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo in 1998. In 2000,
Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks and became the
team’s biggest cheerleader. His newest ventures
include HDNet, a high-definition broadcasting
company, and 2929 Entertainment, the company that
owns Landmark Theaters and Magnolia Pictures.
On “The Benefactor,” Cuban is looking for a
creative and competitive risk-taker to determine
who has what it takes to be “successful.” Perhaps
someone like him. The challenges are apparently
based on Cuban’s life experiences.
Even by
reality standards, “The Benefactor” is a brutal
show. In the premiere episode, which airs Monday
at 7 p.m., three contestants are cut — all before
a single suitcase is unpacked. Although the game
could take a sharp turn later on, one strategy
seems paramount: You better worship everything
about Mark Cuban!
Thirty-three-year-old Kevin —
first names only in reality TV — has been
bartending at JR.’s for the past five years. On
Monday nights, he emerges from behind the bar to
host “Queer Factor,” an eating contest. Caven
Enterprises plastered Kevin’s cheerful face along
Cedar Springs Road in a huge billboard that hung
outside the scaffolding near the Village Station.
On “The Benefactor,” however, his occupation is
listed as a nanny.
Out of the lucky 16, Kevin
is the only contestant from Dallas. In April, he
attended an open audition at Eddie Dean’s Ranch.
“I went because I was broke, honey,” Kevin
remembers.
He saw an ad with Cuban handing
money out to strangers. After some research, Kevin
discovered that the show didn’t involve dare
stunts, like cliff diving or octopus
eyeball-swallowing.
“I said, ‘Well, if all I
got to do is show up and just be in a house with
this guy. Heck, I can do that,’” he says.
Kevin’s car broke down on the way to the
cattle call. He grabbed a cab, arrived at 8:45
a.m. and saw approximately 900 people already
standing in line. There were casting calls in four
other cities, and hopefuls could submit video
applications. So what made him stand out?
“I
was just me, which means being really honest. Not
brutal or reading people. Just telling the honest
truth,” he explains.
Like Cuban, Kevin wasn’t
born on easy street. He’s the youngest of 10 kids
and grew up in Wichita Falls, where his family
raised hogs. It was a challenging childhood. If
Kevin wasn’t helping raise his nieces and nephews,
he was working whatever jobs he could find:
Whataburger, Chuck E. Cheese.
“We didn’t have
any money. And when I think about those days it
really tears me up,” he says.
According to
Kevin, his family was short on money and love. He
mentions the words “tragic,” “dysfunctional,”
“abuse” and “beaten” but doesn’t want to say much
more.
“Growing up was bad. Things are so much
better now,” he says. “But I had to leave my
entire family behind just to survive.”
Kevin
says he hasn’t seen his mom in 10 years, and he
hasn’t seen some of his siblings since a funeral
in 1985.
College wasn’t his ticket over the
rainbow. After a year at Midwestern State
University in Wichita Falls, Kevin dropped out.
“I couldn’t afford it. When you can’t pay to
stay in school, trust me, they won’t let you back
in,” he says.
Although Kevin puts on the poor
mouth and brushes over his painful past, he’s
quite a chatterbox. He says he was obviously gay
from a young age. One of his primary survival
skills was the gift of gab and making people
laugh.
“The Benefactor” isn’t his first time
on TV. In the early ’90s, he appeared on a one of
Joan Rivers’ shows called “Life Swap,” where
Rivers would go to a contestant’s hometown and do
their job while the winner would take over her
spot. Kevin lost to a flight attendant, but he was
flown to New York and Rivers almost donned his
Chuck E. Cheese uniform.
Kevin liked New York
and couldn’t wait to get out of Wichita Falls.
With dreams of being a standup comic, he fled to
Manhattan. But the adventure didn’t last. He
returned to Dallas penniless — but not broken.
He quickly got a job cleaning houses and found
a guardian angel — wisecracking drag goddess and
host of an amateur talent night, Valerie Lohr.
Lohr encouraged Kevin to do “horrible drag
comedy,” he says. “I was a mess, but I got
paid.”
He tried to pull off a fierce Tina
Turner look, but people said “that I looked like
Oprah,” he laughs.
From the very start, “The
Benefactor” establishes that Kevin is a devoted
Oprah-holic. During our interview, he even recited
her “All my life, I had to fight …” monologue from
“The Color Purple.”
The comedy-drag gig was a
good move — he was booked on two episodes of Maury
Povich.
Kevin is prohibited from discussing
almost everything about “Benefactor.” In the
premiere episode, he mostly flies under the radar
while the other contestants’ neuroses unfurl. But
Kevin didn’t say my assessment was wrong when I
asked if he’s the token “struggling, gay, black,
Oprah wannabe” contestant, which — if Cuban
approves — could be a winning
strategy.
Speaking of Cuban — Kevin says people
frequently ask whether his gaydar needle took a
bounce when Cuban came onto the set. In the first
episode, Cuban can’t get enough of high-fiving the
cute muscle-boy contestants and laughing at their
jokes. With the other contestants, he’s like an
IRS agent during an audit.
The JR.’s bartender
says his gaydar is scalpel sharp, “And no. I never
thought Mark Cuban was gay,” Kevin says.
It’s
already been reported that the cast made a stop —
with camera crews in tow — to The Rose Room and
JR.’s. But Kevin can’t comment on that experience.
He continues bartending and working as a nanny
for a Dallas family.
As a kid, he promised
himself that when he was older he’d never be a
doormat. And it seems like he’s primed to flex his
confrontational skills on national
television.
“Growing up I didn’t have a voice.
Everybody told me what to do. When I got angry, I
couldn’t speak my mind,” he remembers. “Now, if
people annoy me, I clear things up right there.
And if they lie to me or do things behind my back,
don’t think that I won’t know about it.”
Since
word got out that he was cast on “The Benefactor,”
Kevin, who’s single, says he’s suddenly had
numerous requests for dates. He finds that rather
suspicious.
“The gold diggers are coming out
of the woodwork,” he laughs. “And that’s why I
keep a lot of people at arm’s length. If you can’t
trust your own blood then it’s real hard to trust
somebody else. That’s why I’m single. But I’m
learning. Sometimes I even give people a second or
third chance.”
“The Benefactor” premieres Sept.
13 at 7 p.m. on ABC. Kevin attends a premiere
party and hosts “Queer Factor” at JR.’s, 3923
Cedar Springs Rd. Sept. 13 at 7 p.m. 214-559-0650. |
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