Reality TV star Jarrod Schulz is used to stepping into the unknown. In fact, he thrives on it.
Schulz and his partner Brandi Passante have starred on all 10 seasons of the popular reality series, Storage Wars.
For the uninitiated, in California, when rent is not paid on storage units for more than three months, its contents are auctioned off.
Storage Wars follows a group of professional buyers who must decide, with just a cursory look at the contents of the storage unit, whether to buy it.
“I like to do things that are undetermined. It’s got to be a surprise. I like to take a chance and not know the outcome,” Schulz says in a phone interview from Orange County, California.
It is this love for the unexpected that drew Schulz to Celebrity Car Wars Season Two, an eight-episode series that springs various driving challenges on contestants.
Schulz learned about Celebrity Car Wars after attending History Con in Manila last year.
“The first season of Celebrity Car Wars was about to premiere and I saw the highlight reel for the show and I saw people taking chances. I thought, ‘That’s right up my alley.’
“I talked to the network (executives) and told them if they made a second season, I wanted to be involved in it.”
In Celebrity Car Wars, Schulz is competing with personalities from across Asia including Guy Ratchanont, Phoemela Baranda, Aerin Yuktadatta, Harith Iskander and Dominic Lau. Schulz views Lau as his biggest competitor on the show.
The cast of Celebrity Car Wars Season Two (from left) Schulz, Harith, Lau, Guy, Aerin and Phoemela.
“We got along really well off-camera. I spent time with each contestant whether individually or as a group.
“When the cameras were down, everybody got along. When the cameras went up, everyone wanted to win. So it was a good mix of friendship and competition,” he says.
Some of the challenges include riding on a 4X4 and driving with the least amount of fuel. But it wasn’t the driving that proved most difficult for Schulz.
“A lot of the car challenges, and along with it the possibility of crashing and running into each other, wasn’t as challenging as being put in the middle of a town in the Philippines and trying to communicate and convince the locals to get in a car,” he shares, referring to a task where he had to fit as many people inside a car.
“It was difficult because of the language and cultural barrier.”
Filming in the Philippines
Filming Celebrity Car Wars in the Philippines marked his second time in Asia.
He looks back: “My first trip to Asia (for History Con in Manila last year) was very subdued. They put me up in the nicest hotels.
“Coming out for Celebrity Car Wars was very different because we’re in the villages and we were mixed in with everyone.
“We ate where the locals ate, shopped where they shopped. It was eye opening for me to see the different cultures and how they live.”
Schulz has now returned to the United States to film Storage Wars.
He says the series is filmed all year round as there is always a storage auction. Schulz and Passante attend an auction (that draws an average of 20 people) at least once a week.
“One of my most favourite finds is a safe that I found back in Season Three or Four. Normally, when we find a safe, it’s empty. We opened this one and it was completely full of old coins and US currency. I think it was worth US$10,000 (RM42,000) to US$12,000 (RM50,000).
“It was a pretty substantial score and I’m also interested in collecting old currencies.”
Schulz also shares his criteria in buying a storage unit. “You learn over time the most important thing about a storage unit is, if people pack it and keep it nice and neat it means they take pride in their stuff. So they probably have better quality items than somebody who just throws everything in there.”
Celebrity Car Wars Season Two airs every Monday at 9.55pm on History (Astro Ch 555).
