MELISSA GIUGNO — Staff Writer
“What do you want to do before you die?” This question was the root of the MTV show, The Buried Life.
The question arose when the stars of the series, Duncan and Johnnie Penn, Ben Nemtin, and Dave Lingwood, were all at individual crossroads in life and asked themselves what was really important to them.
With a humorous twist, Dave Lingwood and Ben Nemtin came to Southern to show an in-depth look behind the scenes and into the cast members’ lives.
Lingwood started off explaining how the friends weren’t always so close; sarcastically, he even decided to share how he disliked Ben for taking his little sister to prom.
The guys were acquaintances from the same hometown. Duncan and Johnnie are brothers, while Johnnie and Lingwood previously breakdanced together. At the time, they were all frustrated by the direction their life was taking and wanted ideas to change things up.
“We basically got together and decided to make a movie and we made a list,” said Lingwood. They had each other leave the screen for a few minutes to write down anything they wanted to do before they die, no matter how ludicrous. “We worked for enough money to buy a camera and for an RV; we [also] took two weeks off of work and off from school.”
The boys were broke but hopeful, and the promise of a new venture kept the mission going.
Some quirky misadventures they explained were things such as how they went about starting the six o’clock news, or their mission to ride a bull.
To start the six o’clock news, the guys explained how they parked in front of a news station and casually asked anyone who walked out, “Hey, can we start the six o’clock news?” Their response
was, along the lines of, “Are you nuts? Get this RV out of here.”
The boys didn’t give up; they stayed parked there for entire night and continued the questioning. Desperate to get the crazy guys and broken RV out of there, they were willing to give them what they wanted to get them to leave.
Another mission that almost wasn’t possible for Lingwood was bull riding. Everyone he reached out to would ask about his experience on riding bulls, he would sarcastically respond, telling them he’s never rode a bull, but he’s well versed on a bike.
Of course, for his own safety they all turned him down, until he met a crazy cowboy who would help the boys complete their mission.
They travelled to meet the cowboy.
Ideally, the guys would be prepped with some intense training or some sort of in-depth education
of bulls; instead, some mechanical bull riding is what trained the Buried Life cast for this feat.
It was Lingwood’s mission to ride the bull and he shared his sarcastic detest for Duncan wanting to impose on this mission; for his hassle, he had to beat Duncan by being the best.
He described Duncan as having “impeccable form,” seeing as Duncan stayed on for eight minutes, much more than Lingwood’s time. So for the sake of beating him, he decided to try again.
But this was a bad idea, as he showed a video of him falling off the bull, almost being trampled and suffering some intense injuries. He was ultimately okay and happier because he crossed another task off their list.
Lingwood and Nemtin then opened the floor to the audience and asked them, what is it you want to do before you die?
Many came up and shared their heart-felt wishes, such as opening a memorial for deceased friends at their local school or helping them bring a loved one back to America.
The guys asked a lot of them to meet with them after the show, so they could help them fulfill these tasks.
Lingwood’s reasoning for the Buried Life cast starting the college tour? “We spoke at our university to ESL students. Duncan and I earned $40 for every engagement, and that’s how we made money at the time. And we liked speaking to our peers; that’s why we started The Buried Life-for our friends. It’s a really good way to help spread the message that we’re trying to [convey]. Also, it’s really cool way to meet people who have been touched by our show.”
Lingwood’s favorite accomplishment:
“[Making] TV shows. It’s pretty cool because it took so long to happen.” He also shared that next season the guys are trying to go to space, literally.
If that doesn’t happen, Nemtin suggested they’d grow mustaches, but Lingwood humorously reminded him that would take him much longer than a mission into space.
