The premiere of Bravo's new reality show set in Whistler, Après Ski, is fast approaching (Nov. 2), so Curbed Ski decided to get the inside scoop from one of the show's stars: Jim Sced. Sced is one of five concierges hired by Joey Gibbons to pamper the clients of Gibbons Life, a travel startup promising the ultimate experiences to its high-end clients. The show looks to be a mix of high-altitude hijinks and what happens when five people are picked to work together and live in a house. Curbed Ski will be recapping the episodes as they air, but right now, get a first look behind the scenes in our Q&A.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
What were you doing when you joined the show? Did you have any hospitality experience before this?
Not in the exact parameters that this business is operating in. Years ago, I had some good promotional experience and worked in hospitality indirectly for a few years. What sort of made it was that I had experience in Whistler and the ins-and-outs of the mountain, and the areas that I do know that would have been a big asset for the show
So they kind of sold you on being the mountain man for the show?
Yeah, I guess so.
In the first episode, we haven't seen any skiing yet. Is that coming?
Yeah. We do a couple different excursions. We do a heli trip and a backcountry snowmobile trip. And we get on the mountain with three sets of clients. There is a good amount of skiing. It's not the full focus, but there is a decent amount.
There's a pretty wide range of backgrounds in terms of the concierges. Did they tell you you'd be in sort of a Real World house?
Initially, that wasn't the case. Because of certain sort of restrictions we ended up being in the house together. And it wasn't everybody, it was just five of us. Tamara [Moore] and Elise [Wims] (the CEO and manager, respectively) were in different areas, and Joey [Gibbons] obviously was in his own zone.
How was that part of the show? Was that part of the fun or drama — your downtime interactions?
It's definitely an interesting dynamic. I'd lived on my own for five years. To be thrown into a house with with four other big personalities is … you know. It had its moments, but we made it work. Everybody was pretty conscientious of others. We made the best of it.
It seemed like the two mountain people, you and Lynsey Dyer, were not used to taking orders. You pushed back on some of Elise's critiques about how you dressed. Did you have to get used to taking orders again?
It was definitely an interesting dynamic there with the initial management structure — the wardrobe malfunction. We were living the truth of what mountain life is. The fact is when you're in Whistler everyone wears appropriate clothes for the conditions because one minute it's sunny and the next minute it's snowing, and one minute you're in the village having a coffee and the next minute we're at the top of the mountain. So we were dressed appropriate. I don't think a cocktail dress would have suited that so much, unless she had some real thermals underneath.
We read about Joey Gibbons saying that Whistler is a character. Do you think the show gives a good tour of everything that comes along with being in Whistler?
I hope so. Whistler has a lot of stuff going on for it, and I think we did a good amount of R&D and showed some good sides. I think Whistler has a lot more to offer, but maybe future seasons could pick up on. But it's definitely an amazing place, and there's a lot of really spectacular areas and things to show up there. I hope we opened people's eyes up to how great of a resort it is. It's been voted the No. 1 resort in North America over and over again for the past 15 years because of what it is and the infrastructure that's in place.
You have 12 groups through this season. What did you do with your time away from guests in Whistler?
To be honest, there wasn't a ton of downtime. We're shooting five days, six days a week and kind of scrambling to get it all done. And in my off days, I was back in the city managing my business projects the best that I could. So it wasn't a lot of down time. We did have the opportunity to get out on the hill on occasion when we weren't being filmed, but that wasn't a lot.
So what are you going to do when it comes on? You're still in Canada, right? (Where it's not showing) How are you going to have a watch party?
I'm not in the States. As it stands right now, I think there's talks of it being in Canada shortly. So we'll see. Being a cast member, I think we have ways of seeing it.
Whether it's you or the producers, early on, there's some allusions to something between you and Lynsey. What can you tell us?
You'll have to see. We're not alluding to too much, and I'm not allowed to say too much but there's some fine points there. You guys will see.
The season premiere of Après Ski will be at 10 p.m. ET/PT and 9 p.m. CT on Nov. 2, right after Vanderpump Rules.
· Après Ski [Official site]
· Details Emerge About the Bravo Show in Whistler [Curbed Ski]
· Bravo Greenlights "Après Ski" Reality Show Set in Whistler [Curbed Ski]