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Amazingly er... gross Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Clayson Whitney pretends he's about to eat a live mouse, something he wouldn't normally do - unless it could mean $50,000 and a spot on NBC's "Fear Factor." Whitney says he overcame his aversion to eating live, crunchy things when he landed a spot on the show, though he won't reveal the specifics of his stunts. Did he eat something hard and crunchy and alive? You'll have to watch the show to find out By MARK FREEMAN Clayson Whitney told himself he would lie in a bed of snakes, munch buffalo testicles and even hold a mouse in his mouth for a chance to get his mug on TV and a shot at winning $50,000. "But eating something that's hard and crunchy and alive, that would mentally be pretty hard to do," says Whitney, a 26-year-old Medford real estate salesman. And that's just what Whitney did as part of a freak-you-out television show that asks competitors to face their grossest fears in exchange for money and 15 minutes of TV fame. Whitney overcame his fear of the munchies as a contestant on NBC's "Fear Factor" episode taped earlier this month in Los Angeles and set for airing early next year. "I can't tell you exactly what I ate, but it was exactly what I feared and it was amazingly gross," Whitney says. "When people see it, they'll want to turn off their TV sets." Whitney beat out 20,000 other people for a chance at competing in the syndicated show. Then he had to pass a battery of psychological tests to prove he was sane enough to eat bugs on camera, then beat out five other competitors in three primal-fear stunts to determine the winner. "It was the craziest experience of my life, for sure," Whitney says. "I've never done anything that wild, and it was nothing I was prepared for." In its first season, "Fear Factor" was the nation's most-watched show when it aired at 8 p.m. Mondays last summer. It will re-appear on NBC next month. The episode with Whitney likely won't air until January, says Bob Meyer from NBC's publicity department. The show follows a simple premise: ask six competitors to do three mind-over-body stunts that get at humans' most primal fears, with just one winner. A South Medford High School and Southern Oregon University graduate, Whitney didn't have his sights on fear-defying fame until a friend in Portland persuaded him to fly to San Diego last month for "Fear Factor" auditions. But his handsome, boyish looks helped him land a spot on a show that was taped over eight days earlier this month. Neither Whitney nor the show's producers will reveal exactly which three stunts Whitney and the other contestants on his episode were asked to do. But the first stunt was a straight, terrifying do-it-or-don't-do-it dare that Whitney passed rather easily, he says. The second stunt is always the grossest, with past shows having contestants eat pig's eyes or drink worm martinis. Whitney says he "barely made it through" his bug-eating ordeal to qualify for the all-or-nothing final round. Whitney won't reveal if he won, but he promises an exciting conclusion. Looking back, the ordeal seems even crazier now than when he started. "If somebody had straight-up asked me to do those three things for $50,000, I probably wouldn't have done it," Whitney says. But he's better off for doing it - and not just because he knows that he could eat creepy-crawlies if need be. "The show is really about mind over matter, and I feel that, mentally, I can do a lot more than what I thought I could," Whitney says. "And it was definitely the experience of a lifetime." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.