One of the stars of Discovery Channel’s The Deadliest Catch meets an interesting crowd in Lakewood Ranch
July 10th, 2009 by Cooper Levey-Baker in News, Sarasota-Manatee
Ed. note: This piece, by Editorial Intern Robert Johnson, will appear in next week’s issue of Creative Loafing.
Captain Keith Colburn kicked off a flurry of Deadliest Catch personality appearances last Tuesday, when he held a question-and-answer session in the Fete Ballroom at Polo Grill & Bar of Lakewood Ranch.
Oh captain, my captain, does Capt. Keith have some outspoken locals at his meet and greet.
Local mathematician Kate Stein says: “He’s an idiot. And he’s greedy … not smart. His brother Mouse…” She looks at my blank stare and seems to understand that she has stumbled upon a new and more immediate idiot, before continuing: “He almost killed him, and his crew. I mean if it was possible to take out 250 pots in a haul, everyone would be doing it!”
Apparently, Capt. Keith tried to minimize the back-and-forth shore trips by carrying all his crab pots out at once, thus saving money and time. Not a popular choice.
Stein rolls out more facts: Opelio season lasts for about a month or so in January. Opelios are the snow crab you munch on at all-you-can-eat buffets. King crab season, meanwhile, starts in October and used to last only three to five days. The season now runs as long as three months, the extension an effort to increase prices and safety. There are actually three species of king crab: red, blue and golden (brown). Red is the most sought after: It tastes sweetest and the legs are always the most tightly packed with meat.
It’s amazing the range of people here at Polo Grill: one of the most eclectic mix of Sarasotans I’ve seen in one place. Ever. Which clearly is not saying much, but it still speaks to the universal appeal of the show, which has become Discovery Chanel’s most popular series.
And I admit that with Swamp Loggers, The Deadliest Catch, Ice Road Truckers, et al, it’s nice to catch people at what should be their best, working hard to achieve a place among us and bring food to the table. This generation of reality shows doesn’t sit on top of people who are focused solely on themselves during shooting, an activity that seems to sidestep any evolutionary defenses we may have and go right to the glaringly worst of us as a species.
Not that we’re always at our best when we’re at work.
When I ask Colburn what his relationship is like with the other ship captains, he lifts his hat and passes a hand over his head, likely coming up with an answer he’s used before: “We’re like the seagulls in Finding Nemo.”
It took a minute, but he gets the laugh he expects. “Mine. Mine. Mine?”
July 13th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Very well-written article!! Funny and informative-I’d like to see more articles written like this.