Zach “Catfish” Yankush and Mike “Rooftop” Escamilla are known for their BMX bike skills, but now they are also the stars of “Strangers In Danger,” an extreme show on Fuel TV, which features the two traveling in various countries experiencing the most extreme activities those countries had to offer.
Even though the two are experienced in extreme stunts, there were some parts of the show that were too extreme even for them. “I’m pretty much scaring myself everyday,” said Yankush. “There was one time where we were 20 stories up in a high rise in Seoul South Korea…we were doing building maintenance with the building crew, and we were hanging by a rope off the building.”
“I’m more scared of the animals moreso than the stunts,” said Escamilla. “[Animals like horses and snakes] are scarier because you don’t know how they’re going to react. You don’t know what they’re going to do. But for stunts, I can look at a thing and double, triple check it because I have knowledge of that stuff. It takes the fear out of it for me.”
The most extreme event thus far is when Escamilla and Yankush took their BMX bikes to the forbidden zone outside the Chernobyl nuclear plant, becoming the first guys ever in the forbidden zone. “We rode the bikes through the forbidden zone, and we had to leave those bikes there,” said Escamilla. “Now we’re banned for five years, which is a bummer since I was going to go vacation there in the summer.”
The two would love to have a season done in America, because there’s a lot of extreme stuff Americans do everyday that we take for granted. “I’d love to go to a ranch, follow coast guards..it’s so awesome because we could do what’s going on right here in Ameirca. Like, the number of hours kids can play on their Xbox. We could show them what’s going on out there so they can get out of the house.”
Aside from being entertained by the stunts they perform, Yankush and Escamilla really want the show to make viewers want to experience something new. “Just get out there and travel,” said Yankush. “Even just traveling a little bit broadens your perspective of other countries and your own. If you see us smiling the whole time we’re in another country, it’s because it’s so rad.”
“People ask me all the time, ‘How do you do those stunts?'” said Escamilla. “You just gotta do it.”
“Strangers In Danger,” which also features something called “virgin eggs” which Yankush and Escamilla heavily warn against (click here to see why), airs every Tuesday at 10:30 ET/PT on Fuel TV. The episode featuring the Chernobyl BMX biking airs next week.
