Digital Social Hour
Inside Reality TV's Fake World: Former Star Tells All | John Ferguson DSH #990
Wed, 18 Dec 2024
🎬 Go behind the scenes of reality TV's staged world as a former star reveals shocking secrets about how shows are really made! From re-shooting entrances to scripted moments, get an insider's raw and honest perspective on what actually happens when cameras roll. Join this candid conversation with John Ferguson as he shares his eye-opening experiences in the entertainment industry, including his time on "Little People, Big World" and "The Amazing Race Canada." Discover the truth about staged scenes, manufactured drama, and why reality TV isn't always what it seems. Beyond the reality TV revelations, John opens up about his journey as a little person in entertainment, his philosophy on authenticity, and how he's turned unique opportunities into a platform for positive change. Get ready for an honest, entertaining, and surprisingly uplifting look at life both on and off camera. From navigating the entertainment industry to finding success on social media, this episode is packed with real talk about representation, authenticity, and making it in the digital age. Don't miss this revealing conversation that will change how you watch reality TV forever! 🎥 #watchmojo #selfimprovement #loveitorlistit #shorts #realitytv CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:50 - When Did You Stop Growing? 04:17 - Is Being a Little Person Genetic? 07:30 - Meeting Peter Dinklage 12:35 - Little People of America Convention 17:01 - The Amazing Race Canada Experience 18:39 - The Amazing Race Overview 20:48 - Impact of The Amazing Race on Sean 23:54 - Mindset of Little People 25:00 - Costs of Being a Little Person 28:00 - Is the "M Word" Offensive? 30:00 - Health Implications for Little People 33:15 - University: Is It Worth the Investment? 34:44 - Do You Want Kids? 37:43 - Employment Challenges for Little People 40:54 - Meeting Your First Little Person 41:48 - Final Thoughts & Predictions APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [email protected] GUEST: John Ferguson https://www.instagram.com/johnlferguso https://www.youtube.com/@johnlferguson SPONSORS: BetterHelp: https://www.betterhelp.com/DSH LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What shocking secrets about reality TV does John Ferguson reveal?
It's actually crazy to see that reality shows are not reality at all. I was actually at their house for three days, and after three days, they hit me up and said, can you reenter the house as if you just arrived? And I already slept there. Walk in again, and I was like, oh, wow, this house is beautiful. I never expected anything like it.
And my sheets were all over the place because I was already sleeping there. And they actually aired it as well, so it was funny. That's funny.
All right, guys. Shortest guest I've ever had on, John Ferguson. Thanks for coming on, man.
Chapter 2: When did John Ferguson stop growing?
I had no idea how tall you were. You made me feel even shorter than I already am. Yeah. It is an absolute honor to be on here, Sean.
Dude, it's a pleasure. I can't wait to get to know your world. Dude. You're the first little person I've ever talked to. Really? Yeah.
Well, I hope I'm the best little person and the most unforgettable one you've ever spoken to. I love it, man. So what's your height? 4'1". Okay. I've always claimed I was four foot two until I got humble. And then I realized I am an inch lower than four foot two. You think you shrunk? I think I might have just worn the... I grew up wearing Vans. They have such big soles.
So I think once I switched over to the other sneakers I wear, I lost an inch. Wow. Yeah.
So when did you stop growing?
When I was about eight years old. It was hard as well because I played hockey because I'm Canadian. And when I stopped growing and all my friends like really started growing and they were hitting their growth spurts and everything. And my mom was like, hey, John, like you are not going to get any taller. And then there was hitting in hockey when I was about 13.
And that's when it really hit me like, hey, John, I had to look myself in the mirror. Hey, John, you're no longer going to get any taller and all your friends are going to keep growing. You're little for the rest of your life. And that was like a huge, hard-hitting moment for me when I realized I couldn't play sports. I always wanted to play hockey growing up and end up in the NHL.
And realizing I was small and coming to terms with that was the hardest thing ever in my entire life. Wow. But it took about five years of like growing up after the age of 13 when I realized I can leverage my height to really put smiles on everyone's faces. And I realized everyone's unique in their own way.
And you can either be upset with how you are or you could really accept who you are and use it to your advantage. And that's what I've done now. I love that, man. Wow. So you said you were eight years old when you stopped? Eight years old when I stopped growing. And I was about four foot one. Massive head, though. The head never stopped growing. The head, I think, is still growing. I love it.
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Chapter 3: Is being a little person genetic?
Dude, I play all the time. And guess what? When I'm sitting, I'm the same height usually as everyone else. I don't know about Howard. But I have the same size torso, just smaller limbs and quite a large head.
Did they put you at Dwight Howard's table?
No, they didn't. I think I'm playing with, I actually don't know who I'm playing with. You need to study the field. I'm excited. No, no, no, dude. I'm just hopping in. Just going to improvise it, but I'm ready to play. Nice. I'm so ready to play.
Let's do it, dude. So is this a genetic thing? How does it work?
Uh, so my whole family's average height. Really? I have no one else in my family who is little. Um, I think it's one of the, I think it's the 24th chromosome. I think it was like my father's semen or something that made me short, but I have one in 40,000 where my mom and dad are average height and they had a little person.
However, me, since I'm already a little person, if I were to reproduce with an average height person. Yeah. then it's a 50-50 shot if it's little or average height like you. And then if I were to reproduce with another little person, 50% chance it's small, 25% chance it's little.
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Chapter 4: What was the Amazing Race Canada experience like?
What did you think about that whole incident?
I think it was a little bit aggressive for Peter to bring that up because he's already set for life. And there are little people who are just solely actors. And this is their shot to make a solid rack of money. And now after Peter said that, he has a platform where if he says something where... it's mean that they're making fun of us.
You just screwed over seven little people, at least, who will now be unemployed and lose an opportunity to make a whole lot of money.
Wow, so you actually disagreed with Peter's take.
A little bit, yeah. Fox News actually reached out to me and wanted me to speak on it in a segment, but... I really didn't feel like super sad on explaining it.
I don't know about the mainstream media also.
Dude, I held off. I was on one segment with someone on Fox News. I think his name is Jesse Waters. I think I heard of him. And he was speaking on pranks because I created this one Uber Eats prank where the Uber driver or whatever ended up grabbing me. And they brought it up. They were like, were you assaulted? And it was live on Fox. And I was like... Oh, God. Whoa.
I'm afraid of the live media now.
Yeah. I mean, they'll spin the story however they want. They just did it with Kamala's interview. I don't know which network that was, but apparently it was a 41-minute interview, and they only showed like seven minutes or something.
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Chapter 5: How does John Ferguson feel about representation for little people?
No, no, it already aired and everything. I think they're on the last episode, but I was eliminated on the fourth episode. There's 11 episodes. And I will tell everybody, it was the greatest experience of my whole life. Wow. The Amazing Race really made me realize who I am. And I had no phone, no connection whatsoever. With the outside world, I had no TV. I read books.
I haven't read books since like freaking middle school. I got to read books. It really helped me realize what I want to do in life. And I kind of had like a philosopher-esque eye-opening experience.
realization that I want to start creating a lot more things that relate with what I want to do and who I really want to like represent I want to do more for the little people community um I feel like there's so many minorities now play the victim and all that and I'm like dude the little people actually do go through a lot of things like a lot of stereotypes we are one of the last unrepresented groups of quote unquote minorities even though I hate even using that word
that hardly get any good representation in the mainstream media. So I realized during the race without a connection with the real world, so I had so much time to think that I want to do more for them. And I also want to expand my brand where I never say no to an opportunity. That's why when you reach out, you're like, hey, do you want to hop on the pod? I'm like, yeah, I do.
You should never say no to any opportunity. But for the actual race, however, that was physically challenging. I bet. It looks intense.
Holy cow.
Dude, I totally believed walking into it. Cause as we mentioned earlier, that reality TV is all scripted. He needs to raise cake, my ass man, physically. Yeah. Like every day it was like you had a backpack and they weren't lying. They will not hold on to any of your stuff. So you have all your clothes, all your food, everything you're running.
You got to pack light.
and dude you're running you you don't have a car or anything you're running like miles it was so cool because at the end of it dude i was shredded so this is the best shape i've ever been in i wasn't drinking or anything it was such a cool experience however when they reached out to me and asked me if i wanted to be on it i had this plan of obviously bringing on a partner who was small because i thought that would be so cool
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Chapter 6: What are the challenges and joys of being a little person in entertainment?
Dude, the Canadian one's on their 11th season. Wow. I think the U.S. one's on their 36th season. Dude, they're crushing it. Bro, you have to be on it. I'm down. With those freaking legs, bro, you could really go a long way.
I got to put them to use. Yeah. I want to go on Survivor. Would you ever go on Survivor? I would do it.
Yeah.
It would be cool.
I would have it on any of the shows. After the amazing race experience. I would do it all. Like, it's so cool. And, dude, you're flying around for free. Right. Like, there's nothing better than not having to worry about, like, grabbing flights and all that stuff. Do they cover your hotels, too? Everything's covered. Like, you don't walk into it with a wallet.
Like, you don't even have your – all you have is your driver's license.
That's it?
And then they hold on to everything else. Damn. Yeah. So I don't even have a credit card. So you don't have a phone. But for some reason, they fed me a lot of protein bars and that made me fart a lot. So the Amazing Race made my fart smell so bad. And now I weirdly have an addiction to protein bars. And you still are eating them? Dude, last night I ate them in Vegas. I went to CVS.
I got like four Quest protein bars. Oh, the cookies and cream one? Yeah.
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Chapter 7: What insights does John have about the Little People of America convention?
I intermittent fast like you. So the problem with that though is you feel great during the day, but then you got to eat a lot in your last two meals. So I have to eat like heavy meals.
I try to quit eating at least three hours before I fall asleep or else I feel like groggy in the morning. Right. You ever have that?
Yeah. Yeah.
Dude, wait.
So what's like your main meal? Uh, like it varies. Like when I go to buffets, I eat 12 plates. I'll get a little bit of everything, but you know, chicken, steak, mashed potatoes, broccoli. Dude, we should go to catch. Catch is nice.
We should catch up a catch and just eat 3000 calories each. You think you could do that? I want to do an oyster challenge where I eat 40 oysters in one minute. Whoa.
That sounds hard because you have to suck them out. That part takes a while. I'm a sucker. If they just laid them out maybe and then you could use a straw. I wouldn't do any hot sauce or anything. I don't want anything holding me back. Damn. Raw. I need some sauce on my oysters, bro. Dude.
They're too oyster-y for me. I love seafood. It's like my thing. I think in a whole other world, I was a sea creature.
I thought I was a pirate in my past life because I'm good at navigating. Ah, okay. Yeah, I believe in that stuff.
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Chapter 8: What are John's thoughts on the portrayal of little people in media?
Everyone thinks because I'm small, my clothing is cheap. Well, guess what? I have a big booty, but I have short limbs. So there I have to get adult-sized pants because of my big booty, but I have to hem them. And all that. So it's even more expensive for me to buy pants than you. Damn. Because I'm grabbing the same price pants, but then I'm also having to hire somebody to hem the bottoms. Wow.
That's annoying. So you got to stop doing squats then. Uh-huh. No, no. It's like if you're a little person with achondroplasia, that's like the specific type I have. Yeah. You just have a big booty. Damn. So there's specific types within the little people community. I have a wagon. That's why I'm excited to see Blac Chyna tonight. Yeah. Because her and I can speak about how we have big booties.
Yeah, you got to twerk together. Oh my God, we should twerk on the table. That'd be fire.
Yeah, you got to do something.
All in twerk. Let's do it, bro. What are the other types? There's acromesomelia. Dude, I can't even pronounce them, but there's a heck of a lot of them. I think there's over 200. What? The other one is hypochondriplasia. That's like one of the main ones. That's when you're about like 4'6". So like you're right around the cutoff, which is 4'10". And hypo, like you have like longer limbs.
You look a little more normal. I don't like using that word, obviously, but you do look a little more regular. And a lot of them end up in the Paralympics for swimming. Oh, got it.
So you could have entered the Paralympics?
Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. But I can't swim. Dude, you throw me in the damn water. Swimming's tough. I'm very heavy up top. I can't float, dude. Yeah, I sink.
I literally can't float. If you ever hate me, just throw me in water.
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