TRAVERSE CITY -- When Michael "Frosti" Zernow got a phone call from his parkour mentor asking if he was interested in participating in "Survivor: China," Zernow at first didn't understand.
"I thought I was going to be one of the guys who gets to test all the games," said the Traverse City resident, one of 16 contestants on the CBS TV reality series that makes its season premiere at 8 p.m. Thursday.
A 20-year-old film student at Columbia College in Chicago, Zernow returned in early August after two months of filming the series, which took place at the huge man-made Zhelin Lake in the ancient Jiangxi Province. The 15th installment of the series pits members of the Zhan Hu (Fighting Tiger) and Fei Long (Flying Dragon) tribes against each other in a game of skill and cunning on one of the most remote locations on earth.
The series' youngest contestant, Zernow said he was approached after representatives of the show saw a Web site promoting his accomplishments as a freerunning and parkour athlete, two related forms of acrobatics that involve overcoming obstacles in the fastest and most efficient or elegant manner. Sworn to secrecy, he told friends only that he would be leaving for a few months and would be incommunicado.
"The fact that I was going and disappearing for a while, people are kind of getting used to it," said Zernow, who has performed around the world. "It was kind of cryptic telling them I wouldn't have Internet, I wouldn't have a phone. People figured it was either going to be some reality TV show or the Army."
Though he was recruited, Zernow said he had to go through a rigorous audition process that included interviews, making a tape and filling out mounds of paperwork, including liability release forms.
In a TV Guide interview, "Survivor" host Jeff Probst called "Survivor: China" one of the show's most difficult and demanding seasons to film, with heat and humidity, deadly snakes and intense locations. Contestants or "castaways" are marooned with only the clothes on their backs at two separate islands on the lake.
The show's physical challenges weren't lost on Zernow, who said he helped prepare by beefing up his weight, to almost 160 pounds.
"I was trying to eat a lot of food because I know everybody loses weight. I was eating fatty food, bulking up, which is kind of backwards for me," said the former Traverse City Central High School wrestling and track co-captain. "I was thinking down the road, thinking, 'I'll be really happy I ate that extra hot dog.'"
Other preparations included watching previous episodes of the show for tips on strategy -- but only in moderation, he said.
"I'm a different kind of contestant than everybody else who's been on the show," he said. "I wanted to have my own ideas and my own, unique way of approaching the game."
One of two contestants from Michigan -- Sherea Lloyd, a 26-year-old elementary teacher from Atlanta, is originally from Pontiac -- Zernow has a style, flair and personality that will make him stand out from others on the show, said Mark Toorock, Zernow's friend, parkour mentor and manager.
"What I've often wished is if the show really is a survival show, drop me on an island with a pocket knife. And in that situation, he'd do great," Toorock said. "Because not only is he physically talented, but he's a super cool guy. He's so likeable, he's so easygoing -- not easygoing boring, easygoing interesting. He's mellow by nature. So I think he'd get along with people and not set up conflict. He's not the confrontational one, he's not someone with a big ego. I think he will be a universally very liked person."
Other contestants include a professional poker player, a former model, a flight attendant, a hiking guide, a jeweler, a professional wrestler, a student, a school lunch worker, a grave digger, a musician, a chicken farmer, a Christian radio talk show host, a waitress and a surfing instructor.
Merilyn Ueno had no doubt that her son was up to the show's challenges. Besides his physical abilities, she said Zernow has the leadership and teamwork qualities required to excel on it. Still, she worried.
"I knew it would be a very difficult, strenuous, arduous experience," she said. "It's not like some of the other reality shows where they're in a house with beds and showers and they just connive. They have the hardships of living outdoors. They didn't even have a toothbrush."
But she said she and husband Doug Zernow, who together operate Zernow Advertising, never considered nixing the idea.
"His whole career in entertainment is what he wants to do and he wants to do it in parkour and freerunning. He thought this would help," she said. "How could I say no? It was a big opportunity. He would be known nationwide."
Now that filming is over, Ueno said not even she or her husband know how Zernow fared. They'll watch the series unfold on TV, along with their friends and family.
"Michael signed an agreement and he stands by his word," said Ueno, who maintained secrecy about his participation by telling people he got a job in the entertainment field and had to go away for the summer. "There are some people who probably tell their closest friends and family, but my son is not one of them."
The couple will preside over a season premiere party open to the public Thursday from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Blue Tractor Cook Shop on Union Street. Attendees can watch the show on four plasma TVs and take advantage of a 9 p.m. Happy Hour, which offers discount and special appetizers and drinks.
"We got rid of karaoke to replace it with 'Survivor,'" said general manager Mary Pat Compagnari, who will make the TVs available on other Thursdays if a "Survivor" majority rules. "We'll be here every Thursday and so will I, now, to see what happens."
Ueno said she is making "Frosti rules" and "frostisavestheworld.com" buttons and stickers to hand out to friends and clients, like those from Northwestern Bank.
"Some of those people are giddy," she said. "They are just nuts about 'Survivor' and they're ecstatic that Michael is going to be on it."
Like others in the series, "Survivor: China" has sparked a flurry of rumors and speculation on Web sites and blogs, like the one that reported that Zernow's parents live in Hawaii. Ueno said the funniest was an entry on a Singapore blog that called Zernow "supposedly Asian."
"He sure doesn't look Caucasian," said Ueno, who is Japanese.
Other speculation has it that Zernow, a member of the Zhan Hu Tribe who will just go by the name "Frosti" on the show, survives episodes one and two.
Zernow is staying mum.
"Even now, it's so hard not to say something," he said. "But it's going to be worth it to wait and let (people) find out on their own. It'll be so much more fun."
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