by Thinus Ferreira
The "corporate law geek" Mike Laws (32) from Cape Town became the third castaway voted out of Survivor South Africa: Immunity Island on M-Net (DStv 101) after a tribe shuffle led to a blindside that saw him get ousted despite his plea to his tribemates to vote for someone else.
Why did you decide to enter Survivor SA?
Mike Laws: I really enjoyed the show as a kid and I hit a point where I thought that I want to live my dreams and not dream them anymore and I was curious to see if I could survive in the wild after years of being a Sandton yuppie.
During Covid did you have any new reservations about going ahead with it?
Mike Laws: I mean, I had entered Survivor SA before Covid had happened. Then, by the time t went into production I was pretty assured that we'd be operating under safe conditions so I felt fine to go ahead.
What was the experience of Survivor SA: Immunity Island that you expected it to be and what was the whole experience not what you thought it would be?
Mike Laws: I expected it to be fun and difficult and it turned out to be extremely fun and extremely difficult.
We saw you lay out everything to try and stay. In the moment, how successful did you think you were at the time to persuade your tribemates not to vote you out and did you think it would work? Do you think you went far enough?
Mike Laws: I thought the chance of me persuading them was very, very low.
To be honest, the argument I made to them I didn't really believe myself - it was purely a case of "rolling the dice and see what works". I had no idea in reality how close I came to actually persuade them but I thought it was a suicide mission and a very difficult task. When I got voted out I wasn't surprised.
Do you think that you irritated some of your fellow castaways and if so, whom? Or was it more a trust issue, or what do you think contributed to them voting for you?
Mike Laws: My old Vuna tribemates felt that they probably had better chances working with Carla going forward than me and maybe they felt that I was a bigger threat.
There's that scene on the beach where they're all talking about it and Chappies feels that I'm a bigger threat and I guess that's what led to it.
You came across as funnier and more relaxed than a lot of the others. And it only didn't rain for the first day. How did you shrug off the environmental circumstances? It didn't seem as if it got to you a lot or did you just hide it? Where were you mentally?
Mike Laws: A lot of it had to do with my tooth, funny enough.
After I chipped my tooth it almost felt like a message from the Survivor gods saying: "I've got to take myself less seriously, stop being a lawyer and start being a pirate and enjoy this game for being what it is. You never know when you're going to go home, so just have as much fun as you can".
I've had a relationship with anxiety for many years and in that time I tried to very consciously manage myself and do self-care and I guess it came in handy in that moment - especially in the second episode.
You can see a lot of moments of my eyes just closed and breathing. I'm just doing grounding exercises and trying to keep zen.
Obviously, you're back in civilisation but how long did it take you to acclimatise back and when did you fix your tooth?
Mike Laws: It sounds funny - the most difficult thing to acclimate with was my cellphone because we were off our phones for a while and it was the strangest thing going back on the grid or going back online.
I found it to be a very tense experience and it took me a while to get used to technology again. Even a month afterwards I found my phone a bit overwhelming.
The tooth I think I only got fixed in January or February this year - that was because we left the island and I had to do some travel for work and couldn't get it fixed then, I came back and it was Covid and it didn't feel safe going to the dentists.
I think I only got around to it in late January or February. I had that chipped tooth for ages after Survivor SA actually.
Looking back to see what happened behind your back, what is there that you were not aware of that you think was crucial or pivotal in terms of the island inside-politik? What would you have done differently if you knew?
Mike Laws: In the absolute short-term sense in the episode during which I left, the biggest data point that I was missing was Santoni, right. Santi - who I adore by the way, I just think she's the coolest person. I'm a big Santoni stan.
But I had lost track of where our relationship was at and I think in retrospect that I had paid more attention to it and had invested a bit more time in it. I think especially in that third episode I had assumed that our working relationship on that day was better than what it actually was and that was a big oversight on my part.
Is there maybe a moment or something interesting from the tribal council where you got a hint or idea that your head might be on the chopping block and that tonight it might be you going home or was it a blindside right up until the end?
Mike Laws: No, there is definitely a moment in the show where - I think it might be subtle for everyone else, but for me it's so funny that the producers included it in that way: I do a weird mouth click - I have a visual tick or just a visual kind of show because in that moment I thought: "Oh, it's definitely me going home tonight".
It was something that Paul had said or Chappies had said that sounded a bit dodgy to me and I thought, oh yeah, I'm definitely about to go home.
That's why, when I turned to Chappies and said "Did you really mean what you said and are you committed?" at that point I was 95% sure that I was going to go home and I thought, well, I'm going to go kicking and screaming and I want to make Chappies feel as bad as possible on the way out.
But he played it cool as a cucumber and very correctly and I think he's an excellent player. He handled it like a champ.
What is there that irritated you?
Mike Laws: I wouldn't say that I didn't enjoy it - it's part of the whole experience and if it wasn't tough it wouldn't be as cool and as intense an experience and fun but I just had no idea how hardcore the lack of sleep is.
We weren't able to sleep for so many night because it would just rain the whole night and we're wet. It turns out it's very difficult when you are freezing cold and sopping wet and trying to sleep on bamboo. It's very hard.
Warda says it at the beginning of the second episode when she said that she's feeling delirious and that's a feeling that's very common and I've never experienced sleep deprivation to that extent and it's really hardcore. That was hard. That was really hard.
We'll see you at the reunion again right at the end Mike - or you'll see all of them right at the end, is there someone that you'll specifically want to talk to and ask something?
Mike Laws: I'm so excited to see everyone! You know, it's like family you know. You fight and you say crazy things about each other but you've been through such an experience together and the underlying bedrock is one of love and enjoyment.
I'm just so looking forward to just meet up again and laugh and "klets" and have a good time.
If I had to ask a specific question - and I'm very curious - I'd love to ask Tyson, Warda and Anesu - in fact, I just want to debate with the old Vuna tribe - if the tribe swop didn't happen that episode, what do we think could have happened in like a parallel universe? I think that's a really interesting question.
I certainly have some theories but I have no idea and it's so curious to see where everyone was at. It's academic but I'm just so curious to ask that.
Survivor SA: Immunity Island is on M-Net (DStv 101) on Thursdays at 19:30
