The Buried Life comes to campus

On Monday, the Speakers Committee hosted two former cast members from MTV’s The Buried Life for a talk and meet and greet in the Seeley G. Mudd building on Monday evening.

The Buried Life was a hit reality documentary series that followed four friends originally from Canada — Ben Nemtin, Jonnie Penn, Duncan Penn and Dave Lingwood — as they traveled across North America to mark 100 things off their collective bucket list. As they journeyed in a purple bus named Penelope to complete their list, the four guys also helped strangers they met along the way to achieve their goals and encouraged others to make their own bucket lists, asking each person the show’s tagline question, “What do you want to do before you die?”

The series ran for two seasons from January 2010 to November 2010 and received positive reviews and a nomination for VH1’s Do Something TV Show Award. The four cast members went on to release a New York Times bestseller, What Do You Want to Do Before You Die?

Former cast members Dave Lingwood and Ben Nemtin came to USC to speak about their experiences on the show, answer questions and offer tips on how USC students can achieve their own goals from their bucket lists. According to Speakers Committee director Amanda Schmitt, the members of The Buried Life contacted Program Board about their interest in putting on the event at USC.

Lingwood and Nemtin spent the majority of their presentation discussing details of their adventures as well as their sources of inspiration. After the presentation, they invited audience members to share items on their bucket lists.

Lingwood and Nemtin shared personal stories that originally inspired the four to make a documentary of a road trip across Canada in 2006. Nemtin talked about his struggle to find a passion as a kinesiology major while in college. Lingwood similarly spoke of his inspiration, which he joked was about losing the weight he gained from college and thus, making a huge lifestyle change.

“At that point, we sort of all came together and thought about the things we wanted to do in our lives,” Nemtin said.

By reaching out to local companies and sponsors, they were able to get funds to buy camera equipment and a vehicle, allowing them to document a two-week road trip across North America. They managed to cross off a variety of random things from their bucket list in their native Canada and the United States, including becoming a knight for a day and making the front page of a newspaper.

Eventually they captured the attention of MTV, who offered to make their adventures into a reality documentary series. They started pulling off more and more ambitious feats. From crashing the red carpet to partying at the Playboy Mansion and even playing the basketball with President Barack Obama, the four guys did it while having a moral conscience. They helped both people who reached out to them as well as strangers they randomly met with some of their personal dreams. The Buried Life members were able to buy a truck for a homeless man, reunite an estranged father and son and even give a girl a prosthetic arm.

Lingwood and Nemtin encouraged audience members have big goals.

“Be audacious. Mediocre goals are one of the most competitive places to be. Think about audacious goals because no one is doing that. So statistically, you have a higher chance of getting that one than shooting for mediocre goals,” Nemtin said.

Lea Fang, event co-chair for the Speakers Committee, felt the event was a memorable experience.

“I hadn’t seen The Buried Life before but Dave [Lingwood] and Ben [Nemtin] were hilarious and now I’m inspired to not only watch the show, but also to start working on my own bucket list,” Fang said.

The Buried Life members closed the event by telling the audience about a contest they’re hosting, the winner of which would then be able to take a friend and tour around the world with them. They challenged the audience to send in videos of themselves achieving items on their own bucket lists as part of the contest.