'The Amazing Race 36's Kishori Turner and Karishma Cordero Reveal Unseen Alliances
Kishori Turner (L) and Karishma Cordero (R)
Pack your bags, because The Amazing Race is back! Every week, Parade's Mike Bloom will bring you interviews with the team most recently eliminated from the race.
Though at different heights, Kishori Turner and Karishma Cordero stand under the same motto: If you're not first, you're last. Perhaps it was this credo that instilled the cousins with a state of constantly being in flux and chaos. Since tragically losing her parents at 17, Karishma has tried to live life to the fullest, most notably becoming an avid skydiver. And indeed, she and Kishori ran five legs of The Amazing Race not looking before they leapt. While they were able to still make a safe landing every time, a tough building Roadblock left them without a chute.
Kishori and Karishma's race was plagued with least one struggle per leg. Their gaffe ranged from trouble driving stick shift to even missing a Detour when they followed teams to the wrong location. A commonality seemed to be Karishma's Roadblock performances, as she would eagerly take the task based on the prompt, only to find out it was more in Kishori's wheelhouse. That exact situation happened in Argentina, as Karishma stepped up at the skate park, assuming her experience on a board would be handy. Unfortunately, she was tasked with not riding a skateboard, but building one, which proved to be her undoing. It was a tough final day for the cousins, as Karishma wiped out during the Roadblock and Kishori was forced to confront her fear of heights on the Detour. But the two hit the Pit Stop smiling, capping off a delightfully chaotic journey.
Now, out of the race, Kishori and Karishma talk with Parade.com about how they navigated through the chaos of their race, how much they truly struggled driving stick, and an alliance they made that never made the edit.
Related: Everything to Know About The Amazing Race 36
What's your history with The Amazing Race, and how did you end up partnering up together for the race?
Kishori Turner: So I grew up watching the show with friends and family, I started watching when I was six, so as a superfan. And I just thought, "Why don't I just submit an audition tape? Why not?" And I originally applied with one of my guy friends from college. And then Joy Gordo from casting called me up and she was like, "Hey, do you have like a sister, or a female teammate? Because we really want an all girl team." And I was like, "I don't have a sister. But I have a cousin who I consider like my sister. And she's super spontaneous and adventurous. And I think she'd be great entertainment." And then from there, the process went on, and Karishma can continue the story.
Karishma Cordero: So I was studying abroad on Semester at Sea when she first called me. And I always think it's full circle, because I was sailing, and there was a huge storm out in the middle of the ocean. So when we're out sailing, you have no cell service at all. You're out for a couple of days. And the captain was like, "There's a huge storm tonight in Portugal, we're going to be staying put tonight." So that meant I had cell service. So I was in the library studying, and Kishori calls me, just like," Pick up the phone right now!" And I was like, "What's going on?" Kishori's like, "Just be in a room by yourself." So I go up to the top of the ship. We're ported in Portugal. I'm in the rain. And I was like, "What's going on?" She goes, "We're getting on the call with the casting producer for The Amazing Race. Do you want to do it?" And I was like, "Oh, of course I want to do it! That sounds amazing. That sounds so fun." And after that, we got on the call. Joy loved both of us together. And then we went forward with the process. And the rest is history.
Well let's go from the beginning of your race to the end. You were the last to leave the Roadblock. Did you think your time was most likely up? Or were you hoping you'd get by by the skin of your teeth once again?
Karishma: For me, I think going on The Amazing Race, just watching so many seasons and knowing it's not over until it's over. And so when I did the skateboard, and I was building it, and I knew I was the last person to leave, I still had hope. I was like, "Okay, everybody's as chaotic as us, as you can see watching the season. People are messing up. People are getting lost. Something happens and you can't just get it." From the moment we left the skateboard, I was like, "We are going to keep racing. We're not going to put our heads down. Let's keep going. We never know." That's just how it worked out for the rest of the episode. Who knows, we could totally make it. It's The Amazing Race, anything can happen! So I really wasn't getting down on myself after I left the skateboard. I was like, "We're still in this. It is not over until Phil comes and gets us," and he never did that. So that's okay. We made it to the ending and we crossed the finish line. So I had my head up the entire time in hopes that maybe something would happen and we'd make it.
What about you, Kishori? Tough to keep your head up when you're looking down while climbing that wall!
Kishori: [Laughs.] I think for me, it was interesting. Because almost every episode, we were riding the back of the pack. But we always made it every episode skin of our teeth. We kept fighting and kept pushing forward. And so I think we had that mentality of like, "Okay, we're not gonna give up. We never know. Every other episode, we've made it."
On that note, how tough was it for you to keep going all those times you did make mistakes and try to recover?
Karishma: I think it was just complete chaos for us. We're just chaotic in general. So it only makes sense for us to go through this in a chaotic way. But we had so much fun doing it. If we were to do the race again, anything I think I should have taken in terms of the Roadblock, just give it to Kishori and vice versa. Because she did everything I was going to do. All the things she was good at, I was taking. I was like, "Are you kidding me? Another puzzle? More directions? Building something?" Tese are all the things that, when we left for the race beforehand, we're like, "Okay, this is X, Y, and Z." I was like, "I can jump off anything .I'm not scared of anything. I'll do anything with that." And Kishori will take all the brain games, the puzzles, the direction stuff. We get there and it was just complete opposite so it was funny how that all worked out. But it makes sense for us to race that way. It only makes sense for Kishori and I to race that way. [Laughs.]
Kishori: Absolute chaos, But it does check out for us. I was also gonna say, in general, like because I think Karishma was obviously going through trials and tribulations in life. We each had our own things and problems and challenges. I think that just makes us even stronger and very independent individuals. And so we have this mentality of not giving up. But also, it's okay to be the underdog, because the underdogs still fight their way to the finish line. And so I was really proud of how far we came together. But Karishma's right. We were talking about this yesterday. But we did laugh, because at the end of the race, we were joking [that] every challenge that I said I would do, she should have taken every time. And every challenge she said she would do, I should have taken. It was just funny how it all went down. But again, that's the race. It's chaotic. It's unpredictable. You really just don't know like what curveballs are going to be thrown your way.
Yeah, what was going on with those Roadblocks? It seemed like every time you both got tricked by the prompt into thinking the task was something it's not.
Karishma: I think if we would have made it another leg I would have just been like, "Kishori, take it. I'm not doing anymore. I'm tired." But yeah, it was just crazy. Because in Colombia, it was like, "Who's feeling artsy?" And when we pull up to the place, I could see kind of stands behind. I saw all these sculptures. I'm like, "What if they make me do a sculpture and just remake it by hand? I can knock that out in maybe two minutes." I've been doing ceramics my whole life. I can throw a bowl in three minutes; that stuff comes easy. And I was like, "Okay, I can do art." And then the skateboarding, I was so nervous. Because we got there and was a skate park. I'm like, "What else are they gonna have us do? I can skate. Great. This works out great for me." And then it just wasn't. So I think, after that, we kind of went forward like, "Okay, if we make it out of this alive, everything I think I should do, I'm just gonna give to Kishori."
Kishori: I think it's also trusting your gut and just giving it to the other person. I hesitated on the skateboard challenge. I was going to do it. And then I hesitated for a second because I was like, "Oh my God. Karishma grew up skateboarding. What if it's skateboarding and then I fall headfirst?" [Laughs.] Again, you really don't know what you're gonna get. And you just have to hope for the best and try your best.
Something else we saw you have troubles with was the stick shift driving this past leg. What was that experience like for you? Was it true to how it was edited?
Karishma: So it was dramatized. I think it's funny going into it because we both agreed that I was going to drive because Kishori grew up in DC and she didn't get her license until she was 23, something like that. So I was like, "Oh, I can take the car stuff. I've been driving since I was 15. II can do this. I'll learn stick". And so I took lessons going forward. I took seven lessons. And I think it's funny when people talk about it, they're like, "Oh, why don't we just go get a stick shift car and drive everywhere?" It's not that easy to find a stick shift car. People don't have stick shift cars anymore. And so I had one friend who had one and obviously he's not gonna let me go drive a stick shift car on the highway when I'm learning. So he let me go around the parking lot. I learned that and then I took lessons and I felt pretty good.
Kishori: They were expensive, too, those lessons!
Karishma: I bought maybe la couple of grand on stick shift lessosn. It is expensive. And people think it's easy and accessible. There's just no stick shift cars anymore, unless you have one. And so going forward, I felt confident doing the stick shift. But people don't think about, we left for the race. And you do that portion where you're doing all your press stuff before you leave for the race. Then we went to Mexico, then we went to Colombia. And so it was a while before I got back into the stick shift car. Stick shift stage fright is what I call it. I was like, "Oh crap." And on top of it, it was a Volkswagen. So the gears were different than a normal stick. I had the car at the beginning in second gear the entire time because I just couldn't get it into first. And so that scene where I'm messing up and I'm trying to get it in to first was that moment. But after that, I was good. I felt like I did a really good job.
Kishori: But also if you look at the edit, it's interesting because they did swap it. They show us in the car as if we hadn't gotten to the Detour yet. That scene happened at the Detour. As we were parking for the Detour, that happened.
I was wondering about that. Because all of a sudden we get an external perspective on your parking, which is unusual for the race.
Karishma: It was funny. I thought it was. Honestly, I would do the same if I was the cameraman.
Kishori: But then it switched to the city view. So it's really dramatized to make it seem like it was like multiple times. But it really was that just that moment.
Karishma: I think that's where I struggle the most. There were a couple of times where yes, I stalled out. But I think relatively to past people who have really messed up sick, I could get it by the end of it. After the first maybe 30, 45 minutes of driving. I felt like I kind of got the hang of it. And I was fine.
We saw briefly in Colombia you work with Angie and Danny, and Derek and Shelisa help you identify the meats during the cooking challenge. As the season has focused lately on teams helping each other, did you have those sorts of arrangements with other teams as well?
Karishma: Oh, yes. 100% We had many alliances throughout the race that weren't showed. Juan and shane, them helping us in Mexico when we went to the wrong challenge and when we got it backwards, they were somebody we felt really close with. And then Derek and Shelisa, I'd say we're probably our closest allies are the whole race. In Colombia, Shelisa and I did that puzzle together. It just wasn't shown. We did that entire puzzle together. And there's a scene where I'm running around. Shelisa's crying because I'm running around memorizing the statues. I wasn't there at the time, but Kishori told me afterwards. She was saying, "Karishma, Karishma!" Because she got a check, and because she got the check, they closed it and they wouldn't let me see it. And we were working together the entire time.
Kishori: Yeah, it was surprising how that was edited. I was surprised they didn't show that. Because it was a huge shamanic moment. Like she was literally crying, calling out for Karishma basically. Because they were working together to help her. And they had been tag teaming. And the guy literally closed the blinds.
Karishma: Because she got her check. And I wasn't there. And so that was interesting. Because we worked really close with them. I would say that was probably our biggest alliances throughout the race. And on the skateboard challenge, I worked with Derek. Derek was telling me how to use the tools. He was helping me out a lot during that challenge. We love them so much. We call them "Race Mom and Dad."
Well let's stay on the subject of family. What did you learn most about the other person racing around the world together?
Kishori: I think I learned a lot about Karishma. I think as a team, we are very out there go-getters. But with Karishma, something that I love about her is she literally grabs life by the balls and is very spontaneous. And I think that's something that I've picked up from her just to really continue to live life to the fullest and push boundaries and push limits. I think that's what makes our relationships so fun is, out of our family, we do embody that chaotic spirit and living life to the fullest. Karishma's zest for life is something that I've definitely admired and picked up on.
Karishma: I think I learned truly how patient Kishori is throughout the race, because she had so much patience with me. I was struggling in a lot of these Roadblocks. She was sitting there crying for me at the puzzle challenge. She was sitting there waiting me for me to build a skateboard. But she could have been mean. We could have gone home and she could be like, "You kind of messed this race up for us." She was never ill willed to me the entire time. She was always so positive. Everything happened for a reason. We did this race and we had fun together. And I felt apologetic because I did feel like, at the end, where we got out, if I would have given Kishori that task, maybe we would have made it out. And who knows what would have happened. She never made me feel guilty about that. And that's when I really learned she's just very patient. She's very loving. She does act as like an older sister to me. Throughout the entire race because she was in the room, like, "You need to drink this water. You need to drink these vitamins. You need to eat." She was washing my clothes in the bathtub. She was really taking care of me. While how I am, I'm just like, "Okay, whatever, sure." I say yes to everything. So our dynamic was really fun to discover, and all the time together was just a blast. I loved it.
