Sunday’s Big Brother eviction saw fan-favourite Ian Joass, evicted from the house in the ultimate blindside.
For the 26-year-old from Perth, who had made a strong alliance with Daniel Gorringe, Mat Garrick and Xavier Molyneux, it was just as much a shock to him as we saw on TV.
When asked if he was surprised by the outcome during an interview with TheLatch—, Joass said, “very much so”.
“I don’t think it was just me who got blindsided by that one,” he added. “Everybody had said their alliance had made up their minds about that.”
Joass, a waiter and lover of fossil hunting, applied for Big Brother “out of curiosity” over “what this whole reality TV thing was about”.
In fact, he’d never really watched reality television before — and neither had most of his mates.
“How better to find out than from the inside,” Joass said of his first foray into the medium. “I grew up in a house that was primarily ABC and SBS and none of my friends really watched reality TV until now. A few of them have even sent me messages being like, ‘Oh, you bugger! Now I have to watch Big Brother.”
While it’s the first show of this kind that Joass has seen (and been a part of) he’s definitely tuning in every night.
“Oh yeah! I’m getting my own little bit of narcissism in,” he joked.
Throughout his time on the show, Joass made headlines when his pet huntsman spider, Patricia, unexpectedly passed away and while he wasn’t there to send her off, his girlfriend Kerryn (Kez), took “better care of her” than even he would have.
“My girlfriend took so much more care than I was ever expecting,” Joass said. ” I was flabbergasted by how much effort she went to. She took her to the vet and got an intravenous drip in her.
“She got saline solution [put into her] at the vets to try and help her recover and then she had her euthanised by the vets. I love her so much and she did such a good job with Patricia.”
According to Joass, spiders have different life cycles depending on which spider they are and a huntsman can only live for one to two years. Patricia was older than one and so he was expecting her to die this year.
“She started to get a bit lethargic and wasn’t eating, and something obviously wasn’t quite right.”
Joass certainly was an interesting figure in the house, and here, he talks to TheLatch— about his time in the house, how Talia and Daniel have been edited and why Xavier is the most strategic player.
Anita Lyons: Hi Ian, I was really heartbroken when you were evicted so early. You really looked like you had hit your stride within the house.
Ian Joass: Oh mate, you and me both. It’s always the way. The minute you start to settle in and get a little bit comfortable with things, that’s when you go.
AL: You established yourself has such a strong housemate, on and off the screen. Australia loved you. Have you been surprised at the support you have received now that the show is on?
IJ: Oh, yeah, I definitely wasn’t expecting to be this popular. It’s a bit daunting, to be honest.
It’s ridiculous. I didn’t do anything too spectacular. I was just me.
AL: Well, that’s probably why everyone loves you because you’re very comfortable in your own skin.
IJ: Well I’ve got nobody else to be.
AL: I also loved that you turned up with just a backpack.
IJ: When you go camping, it trains you how to pack light and pack efficiently. But I think that is the only reason that I wasn’t wearing different shirts on the show though. I’ve been watching all of the challenges, and I’ve got the same red shirt in about four of them!
AL: That’s hilarious! How funny, I didn’t even notice! In terms of your eviction, did you feel blindsided by being knocked out?
IJ: Very much so and I don’t think it was just me who got blindsided by that one. Everybody had said their alliance had made up their minds about that.
AL: When you applied, why did you think you’d make a good housemate?
IJ: I honestly don’t know. I’m amazed that I made it this far through the game. I had no strategy really. I just wanted to try and get along with people and make some good memories.
AL: Effectively, it was Angela and Garth who got you evicted, have you spoken to them since?
IJ: Oh yeah! We’ve kind of kept in contact after the pre-filmed part of the show finished. We’ve been chatting a lot and filling each other in what happened after we left.
It has been a lot better for us, I reckon than just going off on wild rumours. It’s much better to get the information straight from the source and Garth filled me in, I think, pretty soon after we all got out.
AL: Oh, wow! So after the eviction, you left in the car and had no idea what happened?
IJ: Yeah, exactly.
I didn’t really know how to react to it [the eviction] to be honest, it was just so out of left-field for me.
AL: You had such a good connection in the house with Daniel. Why do you think that was?
IJ: I had a really good connection with a bunch of people in that house, but Daniel was one of the top ones.
He was just an all-round decent bloke. We hit it off from day one and him and Mat, Zoe and Xavier, they were all super supportive of me from the get-go. It’s why I got into an alliance with them. We just decided that we all liked each other a lot and didn’t want to see anybody leave.
AL: Were you surprised at the friendships you made inside the house?
IJ: I set out with the intention of making friends in the house but I just didn’t realise it would be that easy or that we would have such amazing people in there.
I think Dan and Talia [Rycroft] and a few others have been done pretty dirty in their edit. They were genuinely lovely people.
AL: Were you happy with your edit?
IJ: Oh, yeah. I mean, I’d be foolish not to be; they’ve done really well by me.
They only focused on about 10% of what actually went on in the house and of course, it would have to be the most dramatic and uncharacteristic 10% of them. Dan, for the most part, was super supportive, super friendly and very, very funny and witty.
I used to really love watching him and Garth joke with each other, they kind of fed off each other in a comedy duo.
I never imagined I would make it this far during the game or make connections that I have with the other people. I’m probably going to be friends with them for the rest of my life and definitely can see me going over to their places when this is all over.
AL: What was the most challenging thing about living with 17 strangers?
IJ: Just the constant pressure-cooker environment. I mean, it was designed to manufacture tension and conflict.
But because it’s so intense all the time, it can get a bit much. They had periods, well rest days where we could recuperate but when the challenges were going on, it seemed like we were going straight from an eviction to a food challenge and back to another eviction challenge. It was fast-paced and intense.
I would quite like to go back.
AL: Who do you think is playing the most strategic game?
IJ: I think Xavier to be honest. He’s not getting much footage, poor bloke, but he was well-connected with everybody in the house and he was able to come up with reasons why we should vote his, that made sense to everybody. He was a good tactician and good at arguing his point.
AL: Who do you think is going to win?
IJ: I reckon it’s going to be down to Xavier, Mat or Dan. I think because of strategy and likeability — although, as my eviction has shown, likeability will only get you so far.
Big Brother continues Sunday at 7.00 pm and Monday and Tuesday at 7.30 pm, only on Channel 7.