Yahoo Lifestyle 'The Amazing Race 37's Mark Crawford and Larry Graham Tricked the Other Teams Into Believing They Were Celebrities (Exclusive)
Pack your bags, because The Amazing Race is back! Every week, Parade's Mike Bloom will bring you interviews with the team most recently eliminated from the race.
Mark Crawford and Larry Graham met working barges on the Mississippi River. But they felt like fish out of water when they flew to Hong Kong on The Amazing Race, Larry's first time ever out of the country. Despite being one of the older teams, the best friends were able to keep pace with the pack, until they hit the first-ever "Fork in the Road." They chose to learn a Chinese lion dance, but their struggles moving had them feeling anything but pride. As a result, they fell into last place. And, despite catching up to some of the other teams, Mark and Larry lost a close race to the mat, making their first international visit a brief one.
Now, out of the race, Mark and Larry talk with Parade about how close they were to actually surviving the leg, an unseen injury Larry got right off the plane, and how they were able to convince the rest of the teams that Larry was famous.
Related: Everything to Know About The Amazing Race 37
To start, what was your fandom with The Amazing Race? And what made you decide to go from watching the action to participating in it?
Mark Crawford: So it started with me. My wife actually started watching the show back when it first began, and she's the one to say, "No, that ain't happening. You come here and watch this. Look at what these fools are doing." And so I started watching, and it became a thing that we watch. We love reality shows. I applied for Survivor two or three times, Tough as Nails, and this show a few times. And, actually, it's pretty tough to get people to commit [because] you're embarrassing yourself on national TV. But it's also a time factor. So I told Larry, "Buddy, you're gotta do it with me." And he's my buddy. He's not going to let me down. And so he started watching it and caught up. And I'll let him finish the story.
Larry Graham: Mark showed up talking, "Let's travel the world." And I thought he's talking about cruise ships and everything. And next thing, we're trying to get in shape. Thousands of people apply. And I really never thought it would happen. And I'll be, it happened! So it's pretty cool.
Mark: That day of the first episode started that morning in LA, and we were doing video; we would retake several things. And then "3, 2, 1, let's go." So we raced around LA, got to the airport. Midnight is when we caught our flight of the first day. So we were up all day. So then it was a 14-hour flight when the flight landed in Hong Kong. Then it was like, "Okay, guys, ready? 3-2-1, let's go." So if you work the clock, it was two straight days that we were just going. So fatigue makes you absent minded and doing crazy things. We were pumped up. All the teams were pumped up on adrenaline and fatigue, but didn't know it.
It seemed like a pretty close finish between you, Courtney and Jasmin, and Nick and Mike at the Pit Stop. Was that the case in reality?
Mark: Yes it was. We could literally see the other teams when we got out of the cab. They were there. So it was that close. Phil claims that was three teams that finished closer than anybody ever has.
Larry: Between the black team, the yellow team and us, it was probably 45 seconds. I'll say less than a minute. Because literally, we were trying to get the cab to stop, and there was a bus there. And he wouldn't stop, and they were getting out of the cab. So the time we settled up the cab, we were running behind, and that's how close it was.
Wow. So let's talk about what put you behind in the first place. What made you decide to pick "Dance" on the Fork in the Road, and how do you look back on that decision?
Larry: Well, like I said on the show, we couldn't pronounce even the stop signs and just the signs of the street. So we knew singing wouldn't probably be our best thing to do. And there's going to be two teams behind us at the dance. And there's one team we knew was going to be about an hour. So we're hoping they would be behind us so they would give us even more time. But they ended up getting in the other lane.
Mark: We can call it like it is. I cannot sing, and Larry's worse than I am. So it really wasn't a fork, it was just the direction we had to go.
You guys seemed to really struggle in the dancing. Was there anything in particular that led to your issues?
Larry: When you fail, you go back. And the instructor wanted to start where we screwed up. But we need to start from the front and do the whole thing. And he couldn't understand it and was kind of getting a little bit frustrated. But it's a judgment call. We thought we did great the first time we did it. It's not like you can either jump over a five foot pole. It's a lot of discretion and that kind of stuff.
During your downtime, you had some time to interact with the other teams. Were there any particular teams you were getting along with during your time on the show?
Mark: Yes, so actually we, we were the more talkative ones. Even when we're supposed to not talk to any team or they're gonna electrocute you or something. We, we did communicate with a lot of them on the first day. Just a little fun fact, when we were sitting around after one of the photoshoots, and we were around each other and able to communicate a little bit, Larry and I had this scheme planned. We were gonna let them think that Larry was somebody. So when the two young girls, [Bernie and Carrigain], she's a little busy buddy, just a little jabber jaw. So we had her with her back to us. And I said, "Larry, they still don't have a clue who you are." And her little ears perked up. And so that turned into the rumor mill. And so for a long time, through this entire show, they were trying to figure out who Larry was. And that turned into a big thing. Even after we were gone, it was still going on to who Larry was. And in the end, all he's my friend! That's who he is.
But we would have probably teamed up pretty quick, and we had several teams that we were looking at. Melinda and Erica. They agreed, "Golly, we hated y'all got out because y'all was our pick." Jeff and pops, man, they would have been great to team up with. Pops had a bad leg like Larry had a bad leg. Teaming up is paramount, even in this game. But we were well on our way.
I need to go back to this Larry celebrity hoax. Larry, were you trying to pretend to be someone in particular? Did you have an air of superiority about you?
Larry: [Laughs.] I had a beard. So everybody's trying to hide something if you have a beard. But it was so much fun because we knew she was trying to hear our strategy. And then when we said that, oh, it was on. Even at the airport, she's like, "I know who you are." "Shh, don't tell anybody else!" "I won't." Then she walked away. [Laughs.] That was fun.
Well let's turn the focus inward. Larry, you have this very sweet moment on the mat where you talk about how much Mark's friendship means to you. Where did that come from?
Larry: Hell if I know! I mean, it's just you're in Hong Kong, and we had done the best we could. We're in the middle of the race the whole time, and a few slow taxis or whatever just messes you up. I'm here with my best friend. I had already hurt my leg. You got off the plane, and you just have all those emotions. I don't know what happened, to be truthful. Usually he's a cry baby, not me.
Mark: That's the fun thing. I got to poke at him instantly. "I'm Mr. Unsensitive now!" But we were in our little week of quarantine, he said, "Yeah, you're going to wind up crying." So it backfired.
I want to go back to something you mentioned Larry. How did you injure your leg?
Larry: What happened when we were in Hong Kong, we took off running for the taxis. And it's kind of going downhill, and there's another team in front, and she stopped. And when I planted my foot, I could feel my knee hyperextend. I could feel the tendon. But it was tight that it would hurt only if you moved a certain way. And it just got worse and worse. It started swelling on me. Three days I had to wear packs. But that's just being old.
Finally, Larry, this was your first time out of the country. While it wasn't a long time, it certainly seemed like a good time. What was your first international experience like?
Larry: I told people last night. Our first flight was 14 hours out of the country. Then I took another 14 hours back into the country. [Laughs.] Mark and I belong to a motorcycle club. And we actually rode our motorcycles in, I think it was in September, to Canada. We went over in Canada. So I got to use my passport twice the same year. So that's pretty cool.
