Returning 'Survivor' Castaway Michael Skupin Returns to Farmington Hills

Michael Skupin is all about living a "less ordinary" life. And the reality television star, author and speaker will bring that message to the Farmington Community Library Main Library on Saturday. 

Skupin, who grew up near the library in Farmington Hills, has twice been a cast member on Survivor, a reality TV game show. He said he believes everyone can live a life filled with adventure, the way he does.

"It just lays dormant in them," the 50-year-old father of seven said. "Sometimes, I just bring it out of them. I show people the fun side of just doing it."

Getting a second shot is also a big theme for Skupin. His first Survivor experience, in the Australian outback 12 years ago, ended after just 17 days, when he inhaled smoke and fell into a camp fire, severely burning his hands. He's back this year, competing in the Philippines with two other contestants who left the show early for medical reasons in previous seasons.

"Back then, I was 38, I was strong," Skupin said. "Now, I've got a little bit of gray hair. But physically, I'm in the exact same shape, the exact same weight."

He stays fit for one very good reason: to keep up with his children, who range in age from 7 to 24. Skupin said he coaches his children's sports teams and often gets called in on pick-up games. His family's going away present when he left to start taping Survivor in March was a "polar bear swim" in freezing cold water. 

"It's so important to me to still be active in their lives," he said, adding he plays in basketball and lacrosse leagues with one of his sons. 

The mental and emotional pressure on Survivor is different this time around, he said. Available natural food sources are "almost non-existent" this time around, Skupin said, and because a returning player won last year, "all the new players are saying, 'He has to go.' ... It's been a very challenging emotional journey this time."

Having grown up in Farmington Hills when it was Farmington Township, Skupin remembers riding his bike on dirt roads, working at the Orchard Movie Theater on Orchard Lake Road (now the Holocaust Memorial Center), and working at Family Buggy restaurant, which closed earlier this year. 

"I always appreciated the down to earth, Farmington culture," Skupin said. "In Farmington, it was all about who you were ... In other places, it was often more about what you were driving and what you wore." 

Skupin says his presentation at the library will include video clips and some reflections from his time on Survivor, along with his journey since that time, from working with the Wounded Warriors project to being asked to run for Senate and surviving a plane crash. Even those who've never seen Survivor, he said, will enjoy and understand what he has to say. 

"It's funny, entertaining, and I kind of even gross you out sometimes," he said. 

There's no charge to attend Skupin's presentation Saturday, 2 p.m., at the Farmington Community Library Main Library, 32737 W. 12 Mile Rd., Farmington Hills. For information, call 248-553-0300 or visit farmlib.org.