By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL — Lisa Keiffer remembers the first day in the South Pacific, as she was among 16 Survivor contestants ready to start season nine.
“They dropped us off in a Viking-style boat and we were all rowing towards the island where the show was about to start,” she said. “I felt so grateful to be on the show—God had given me the thing in life I had most wanted—and I started crying because I was so happy.”
It wasn’t the only time during the Vanuatu season in 2004 that Keiffer, a Mandeville mom of six, got emotional at the very thought of where she was.
“One night during the show I went out near the water and sat on a big rock,” she recalled. “I looked up at the sky and it truly looked like a billion stars. I started crying and praised God for the chance he had given me.”
Keiffer is all smiles these days as she thinks back to her opportunity in ’04 to play as a contestant on the top-rated reality television show, Survivor.
Forever to be in the elite fraternity of Survivor players, Keiffer is now 52 and said she would return to play again if given that opportunity.
“I felt so privileged to get picked,” she said. “I would do it again in a second.”
Keiffer had many of the Survivor qualities when she heard about the show months before it had ever aired on TV. Growing up in New Orleans, she went to LSU in Baton Rouge and was a cheerleader for the Tigers before earning a public relations degree and working in pharmaceutical sales for 10 years.
“I remember driving in my car one day and hearing a CBS ad for the show,” she said. “It was 2000 and they were just beginning to get people to send in a video to be on the show. It had still never aired.”
Keiffer was remarried with her second husband, and only a year away from having her third baby in three years. The couple had brought together a total of three children from their first marriages.
“I was ready for a vacation to the South Pacific!” she said with a laugh.
Keiffer said she began thinking about a video the moment she heard the commercial on the radio, and eventually sent in “something very crazy and unique that showed me saying I could survive anything if I survived six kids.”
The video had no talking throughout the entire thing, only showing her in outlandish situations created due to her children, and finally ending with her only comment, challenging Survivor to take her on for the show.
But 2000 became the start of a four year wait for Keiffer, and many different videos trying to be on the show. Additionally, her husband was initially against her trying to make it.
“When I mentioned it to my husband he did not want me to try out. But then we watched the first season, and then the second, and finally he agreed to let me try,” she said. “I’m the kind of person who will find a way to get a ‘yes’ when I’m told ‘no’ about anything.”
Keiffer’s first response from the show ended in a flop as she was called by the casting director and advanced to the first round of the interviews, only to “mess up the interview.”
She tried out for show number five and was called again, this time doing well on the interview, but being told they wanted her to try out for Big Brother.
“That’s about the time I heard a pastor in Slidell was on the show,” she said. “I was so mad. But the funny thing is we later got to know each other and are now great friends.”
Keiffer didn’t quit and sent in a video for shows 7 and 8, but failed to get a call. She wasn’t going to try for season 9 before one of her sons urged her to keep trying.
“I didn’t even make a new video,” she said.
This time she was called to the interview round, but two weeks later, was told she didn’t make it, instead being told they wanted her to try for Amazing Race.
“I knew they liked me, but finally I asked why they didn’t pick me for Survivor,” she said she asked the casting director. “I was told the biggest category of entries is from moms, so I was up against so many.”
Sending in a video for the Amazing Race show, she decided to visit her son in Los Angeles, accepting the Survivor possibility was fading away. Instead, while she was coincidentally in L.A., she was on her way to the airport to end her visit when Survivor called.
“They said, ‘we know this is last minute, but is there any way you could be at the Doubletree Hotel at 4 this afternoon?’ I knew the Doubletree was where they did the final round of interviews, which means you are among 50 or so for the final decision,” she said. “We flew through traffic to just make it and I was sent up to a room where I sat down with a huge crowd, including Jeff Probst on my right and Mark Burnett across the table.”
As she left the room and interview, she heard someone on a walkie-talkie say, “keep L.K. here. And they only use your initials when you come in for the interview, so I knew I had a chance.”
Keiffer was selected for season 9 in the South Pacific and was the seventh person voted off, after working in an alliance with younger women.
“When we picked teams, the one thing I didn’t want was to be with all women, but that’s how it ended up,” she said. “As a cheerleader, I know that can be difficult.”
Keiffer is “a tennis addict” and still in top physical condition today. Preparing for the show in 2004, she quit eating sugar and caffeine, and worked out for two months to get in “the best shape of my life” at age 44.
“The entire premise of the show is me,” she said. “It’s outdoors, competitive, dealing with people—the show drew me in from the very moment I heard about it.”
Keiffer said the only part of the show that was difficult for her was the cold every night, since the sun went down near 7 p.m. and didn’t come up until 6:30 the next morning.
She said she has contacted the show several times to try and get another chance, especially now that former players are being asked to play again.
“I would do it again,” she said. “Everything you see on the show is completely real. There is nothing that is fake or set up, and that’s what I loved about all the challenges. I hope I get another chance to try—it was a dream come true for me.”