An Interview with Jack Usher from ‘The Anonymous’

THE ANONYMOUS -- "Silent Mode" Episode 109 -- Pictured: Jack Usher -- (Photo by: Rico Torres/USA Network)

After skipping an elimination during last week’s episode of The Anonymous on USA Network, they resumed with a vengeance during last night’s episode. For Jack, the loveable gamer that invented some amazing strategies during his time on the show, was sent home by Victoria. And to properly bid farewell to Jack, we sat down with him to discuss his experiences on the show. 
 
John Betancourt: I’d love to start by asking what I’ve asked all of your competitors, how you came to be involved in the show. 
 
Jack Usher: It’s actually a fun background story. My friends and I during Covid, during lockdown, we had nothing to do. Nobody could go to work or anything. So, to pass the time and stay connected, we got really hooked on the board game Settlers of Catan, and we played, you know, addictively. The joke was, we were the best players in the world, but we only played against each other. And then when Covid started letting up, and there were actually --we found there were in person tournaments. And we were like, “Let's see if we're actually any good,” you know, we go to the tournaments. One of my buddies wins the first tournament, qualifies for the US Nationals.
 
I then, I'm like, I want to play in nationals. Go to five more tournaments. Six of us end up qualifying for nationals. I make semis, get knocked out by my friend. He then goes on to win the US Nationals. He then goes on to play in Worlds, comes in second place in the world. So, in a sense, we are some of the best players in the world. As ridiculous as that is, and casting reached out to him. They figured a Catan player might be good at this game. He's an actor, so he, you know, doesn't want to be pegged as the reality TV guy by casting, for, you know, actual traditional stuff, but he sent him my way, which I'm very appreciative of. Shout out to Eric Freeman, incredible Catan player, great friend, and that's how I got on the show. As ridiculous as that is.
 
John Betancourt: Yeah, no, I love that. That's, that's quite the journey. But obbviously, I have to go right to the million-dollar question… that was an emotional goodbye. That was, definitely, I think, the most emotional goodbye of anybody to date on the show. How hard was it to go home?
 
Jack Usher: For me, it was really tough. And I think it was maybe the toughest for me for a few reasons. One is that I was doing really well, and so I felt like I really started to feel like I could win the whole thing at the beginning of the show. You know, it's not even real yet. It's all ridiculous, and then you start really doing well, and then you can, kind of, like, taste it. There's also another element for me, where, you know, I'm the gamer, I'm the games guy. This is sort of my whole identity, in a way. And so, I was trying to, essentially, like, realize my own identity by winning and but in a sense, losing is… that is such a central part of gaming. It's like, if you're a gamer, you've lost, and I've lost. The thing that I tell people when I beat them at games, and they're like, “I'll never be as good as you,” or “How are you so good?” is I've lost more times than you've played. And so, you gotta ultimately, you know, losing is a good friend of mine, and there's as many lessons to be learned from losing, if not more than winning. So yeah, it was super tough, and I really wanted it. I don't know if anyone else there wanted it quite like how I did, but hey, that's, that's the game, and I was super lucky to play at all. 
 
John Betancourt: You also had some of the best strategies out there. I think really, you and Xavier probably had the two best strategies to go with. And I'm kind of curious how you came up with the amazing strategies that you came up with. Because, I mean, you won The Anonymous multiple times, I think, more than anybody else in the game, and you just kept figuring out ways to do it.
 
Jack Usher: Yeah. So, it's so interesting. It's the first iteration of this show. And so, I basically came in and was just trying stuff. I'd like hypothesize an idea and then try it. And sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't, but some of them were very successful. So, my initial idea was I wanted to double bluff as a woman pretending to be a man, and so I thought the football handle was the most, in my opinion, gendered handle towards being a man. And I threw in some language about, oh, dudes, you know, I don't think they aired one, but people started making, like, puns on their own handles, like, “I'm just here eating my popcorn,” and I said something like, “Well, I think this conversation's been a touchdown,” which, to me, is so like, you know, someone who doesn't know anything about football really would say that, like, it doesn't really even make sense. So that was my try, that, in addition to putting Andy at risk, who, by the way, I had no intention of sending home, but I thought that that was probably my best chance, and it really worked. And then afterwards, on the second handle, I had to try something different, and I stumbled upon the Xavier strategy of pretending to be Lilly or Bismah.
 
So, I was just trying stuff, and some of it really worked, and there were parts that didn't totally work, uh, I would definitely, if I were to do it again, I think my big error was being a little too vocal. Ultimately, towards the end, I think as I like, got closer to the end of the game, I started, like, doing too much, but I think I did pretty well in Anonymous mode. I don't think anybody at any point was had me locked in and pegged as a handle like how I think people did for a lot of people.
 
John Betancourt: Now you kind of mentioned some of what you would do a little differently, maybe being a little less vocal. What else would you have done, strategy wise, differently now that you’ve had time to kind of reflect on this
 
Jack Usher: Interesting yeah, what would I have done? I would not have partnered with Xavier for the partner challenge.
 
John Betancourt: I wonder why, that was a tad messy. Stacking those boxes. 
 
Jack Usher: Oh, yeah, totally. I… that was, that was a brutal challenge. It was also so windy. I don't know if youcould tell that, but also because, we were already sitting there talking, and DANI announced the challenge and said, “You’ve got to partner up with someone.” And he was right there, pick someone now, and it was like, “Okay, we're here. Let's go.” In retrospect, I wasn't playing for safety in that challenge because I had just gotten safety, and I didn't want to be the guy who's always safe, because I wanted to lower my threat level. But I think by partnering with Xavier, you know, some of his shine, you know, rubbed off on me, and he was always going to be the most threatening player to anyone in the game at every stage. So, I think I had to get in with Xavier, but also maintain a little bit of a distance from him, which I think I failed to do, especially by partnering with him. 
 
John Betancourt: Now in staying with time to reflect, I'm very curious what you're going to miss the most about being on this show. 
 
Jack Usher: Wow. What am I going to miss the most? You know, it's a dumb answer, but the people. I really think the other players were super special people who I don't -- they're not necessarily the type of people I get to interact with every day. And I think as sometimes, as you get older, your pool of connections sort of whittles down. And so just getting to get out there and meet all these different characters, um, was really special, that… that was a really special element of the game. Um, so that's like, the lame answer, which is true, though, but maybe also just getting to be, like, unabashedly, like, underhanded. I think that that is fun. I don't… I'm very, you know, straight up in real life. And part of why I love to play games is because it's an arena where everybody knows the thing. Everyone knows you're playing to win, and lying is and deceit is totally part of the game. And so, I think having an arena to do that where it's totally acceptable, I will miss that, but I also have other games, so I'll get other chances.
 
This Interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. 

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