Paso Robles local Clinton Brand featured in new reality show ‘The Great Grass Race’
Clinton Brand.
Cross country riding lawnmower race to stream on new reality network Menace Vision
– Clinton Brand, a 22-year-old musician and rapper from Paso Robles, is a member of one of the six teams racing Craftsman T110 riding mowers across the United States in a three-month trip. The contestants choose their own courses across the country while “wheeling and dealing for food, shelter, and even gas.” The winners get cash prizes. The race starts at 9 a.m. July 10 in Moorpark CA after a July 9 kick-off party and ends sometime in October in New York. The race will stream on Menace Vision.
The two-person teams are driving the riding mowers, pulling a trailer, and each team followed by a camera crew across the country with no cash and only clothing, a flashlight, and a cell phone. They have to inspire people they meet along the way to donate gas, meals, and sleeping arrangements. The competition rules prohibit cash donations. The cross-country trip is extra challenging because riding mowers are not licensed to drive on public streets, roads, or highways, but they can be operated along roadsides.
In a recent interview with the Paso Robles Daily News, Brand said he learned about the competition “when I was having a tough day. I wanted to find ways to spread out and get on TV. While looking through websites I found this competition and filled out the application. I had to make and submit a video as part of the application and next thing I knew, I got the call.”
Brand said he’s “excited and nervous at the same time.” “I’ve never traveled before except to Nevada and Florida to visit family. I have faith in God it will all work out.”
Brand lives in Paso Robles with his grandfather and two dogs, “Bubba Ray” and “Brandy.” Born in Pittsburgh PA, Brand had a turbulent upbringing, spending the majority of his childhood in foster care. After graduation from high school, he attended a community college and the Academy of Art University, both in San Francisco, studying audio and video production before dropping out to pursue his dream career as a rapper. His favorite rappers are Eminem, Hopsin, and Logic, but the musical influence doesn’t stop there. His grandfather introduced him to Elvis, Frank Sinatra, and Frankie Valle.
The Great Grass Race is the brainchild of show creator/executive producer Denis Oliver, a native of Neuville-les-Dames in France. “I wanted a show that everyone could relate to while also forcing people, including strangers, to work together toward a common objective,” said Oliver. “This long lawnmower ride is a metaphor for our longing to bridge the tremendous distance we feel between each other right now.”
Oliver says he got the inspiration while watching “The Straight Story,” a David Lynch-directed drama about Alvin Straight, a World War II veteran who travels by lawnmower across Iowa and Wisconsin to visit his dying, estranged brother. “We have super-fast cars slumbering in the garage with dying batteries as we lament that we can’t visit our loved ones. But the human spirit can triumph over all things,” said Oliver.
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