Interview with "Beauty and the Geek"’s Greg Paul

AE: One of the things Beauty and the Geek is known for is the way it describes the cast based on interests. One season there was someone described as “Vice-President, Dukes of Hazard Fan Club” and another person was described as “Owns 25,000 comics”. If they hadn’t described you as “Self-proclaimed Gaysian” what do you think they would have said about you? What makes you a geek?
GP: I do tons of different stuff. I’m all about DIY [do-it-yourself], crafts, very gay stuff. Basically, I’m a geek because I’m isolated in my room and I do origami and cake decoration and bake and I sew and I do tons of arts and crafts and stuff rather than go out socializing and immersing myself in the gay culture.

AE: On the show, you said you feel like an outsider among gay people and among other geeks. How do you think straight geeks tend to treat gay geeks?
GP: I don’t know. I just never knew where I fit in really. I never encountered – it’s mainly about the culture… it’s hard to explain.

AE: You just don’t see an obvious place for yourself in either group?
GP: Right.

AE: Your bio on the website says you’re a clothing designer/pastry chef. Can you tell us more about what you do?
GP: I went to the world’s most prestigious college called the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. I’ve done wedding cakes and bar mitzvahs and stuff like that. Right now, I have a clothing line called Gaypparel where I do humor tees and runway hoodies and stuff like that.

AE: Do people recognize you on the street now that the show’s been airing?
GP: They do. I’ve actually signed some autographs and gotten noticed by some people. It’s really nice.

AE: You and Randi, from what we saw on the show, seemed to have a really positive effect on each other. You seemed a little more confident with her encouragement and your sweetness seemed to mellow her a bit for the most part. Did your personality differences help even both of you out?
GP: Definitely. I’m definitely not as self-conscious as I was before about who I am. I’m a lot more loud than I used to be and I totally wanted to work on that. We had an amazing relationship and it wasn’t portrayed at all. We had such a great connection, we had so much fun together and we talked to each other so much. It’s unfortunate they didn’t show that.

AE: The way the show portrayed your elimination, it looked like it was her fault you two were sent to the elimination room. Do you blame her?
GP: Not at all. I tell my friends and family that it wasn’t Randi’s fault. She was really sweet and she cared about everybody in the house and she was always concerned about Joe [the geek with whom she argued] and – it’s two sided, as well. She’s a really sweet girl and really funny and goofy and they didn’t show that.

Greg (right) with teammate Randi

AE: Are there any other cast members you still keep in touch with?
GP: Definitely. I hung out with Cara last night. Cara and I have plans to move in together. I’ve been hanging around her a lot and Amanda. And I saw Letitia and Matt during the premiere and I talk to mostly everybody on the phone and on MySpace.

AE: How did you feel about the Beauties vs. Geeks twist when it was announced? Did it change your expectations?
GP: It did. I didn’t expect that at all. We were all kind of upset about it, but we just rolled with the punches.

AE: When they let the beauties and geeks pair up after all and you guys had to stand there and wait to be picked was that like a bad flashback to PE class?
GP: Definitely. They didn’t show it but the girls interviewed all of us and we had to tell them what our first choices were and our top three. They made their decision out of that, but as you could see it was really difficult for the girls. And I was really happy with whoever I ended up with.