Singing to the choir, sort of

By Jim Memmott

Amazing Race, Season 23, Episode 6

Gdansk, Poland/Vienna, Austria --  So you think you've got the right stuff for The Amazing Race.

You sky dive, you eat bugs, you speak Mandarin, Farsi and French;

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you can drive a stick shift and read a train schedule.

But can you sing? With the Vienna Boys Choir. In a language not your own.

Yes, in its 23^rd Season, the Race turned cruel and unusual forcing racers to sing Die Forelle (The Trout) by Schubert, a song about fishing that carries a warning or two. (Ex: “Girls, see seducers with their tackle.”)

For some of the racers the challenge was relatively easy. Travis of the ER doctors got through it on two attempts in good voice, and he and Nicole went on to finish first.

But for Oklahoma Tim, pal and partner of Oklahoma Danny, the singing

Now they could sing

was torture. (As it was for the boys of the choir who could not stop smirking as they listened. Come on, kids, show some class!)

“I can’t even sing music in English,” Tim said said before he started, “so this is going to be pretty hard singing in German.”

Taking forever to get Die Forelle right enough, Tim lost too much time, and he and Danny finished seventh of seven teams and were eliminated from the race. (Taking the pool's Team Beltway with them.)

If life were fair, Tim and Marie, the feuding exes, would have gone home in their place, eliminated for their brazen appropriation of Jason and Amy’s cab.

The heist may have been within the rules – the cabby had taken J and A’s backpacks out of the cab, so technically, it may no longer have been theirs.

Tim and Marie

But the morally alert baseball wives, Nicky and Kim (an emerging power team) had already passed up a chance to commandeer the cab, signaling to us in viewer land that taxi theft is a no-no. (Except, of course, if it’s raining and you’ve got to back to Brooklyn and, well, local rules apply.)

Marie, however, is shameless, as any one who has been half awake watching the Race knows. She may have been in Gdansk, the birthplace of the Solidarity movement; she may have been friends with Amy and Tim; but she’s a villain and villains do what villains do.

“Let’s go steal someone’s cab,” she said, even before committing the crime. That's right, even before. And once she and a slightly chagrined Tim were in the cab, Marie hatched a plan to blame the misdeed on the Afghanimals.

You gotta love her; you gotta hate her; she’s made the Amazing Race amazing again. (I know, it has never been anything short of amazing. I just liked that line.)

So there you are.

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We’re down to six teams.

The only guy squad remaining would be the wacky Afghanimals.

Jamal of that duo couldn’t sing either, but he did well enough and stole  some hearts by picking up the choirmaster after he won the yellow envelope. (If there had been a vat of Gatorade handy, he would have soaked the guy.)

There are two female duos still racing, the baseball wives and the L.A. Kings Ice Crew skaters, Ally and Ashley. If you’re a betting person, the Icers would be the odds-on favorites to be eliminated next, as they have two sixth place finishes and four seventh places finishes on the season.

The other three teams are couples.

On paper, Nicole and Travis are the favorites. As she noted, they’ve won two legs and they still have the express pass to get themselves out of trouble.

Amy and Jason, though, proved their resilience when they made up for time lost to a cancelled (because of high winds) fast-forward bungee jump. And Amy can sing.

Jason and Amy

Tim and Marie, nonetheless, have the devil on their side, and you gotta give him his due.

Overheard:

Amy (on going to Vienna): That’s where the Sound of Music is.

Okie Tim: When you say clowns, I think the Afghanimals.

The other Tim: I always wanted to perform with the Vienna Boys Choir.

Marie: At the end of the day; it’s a race; it’s a million dollars.

Amy: Jason, someone else took our damn taxi.

Danny (in the maze): This seems confusing.

Jason: We’re going to kick their ass. We’re a better team.

Okie Tim: For never even leaving the country, I think we did make it pretty dang far.

Order of Finish:

1) Nicole and Travis

2) Nicky and Kim

3) Leo and Jamal

4) Tim and Marie

5) Jason and Amy

6) Ally and Ashley

7) Tim and Danny