When most people think of reality shows, they think of big personalities, difficult situations, and a big payoff. Hobokenite Adam Poch of Big Brother fame fits the bill with his charismatic personality, yet he’d be the first to tell you that just being on the reality show was the reward.

And no, you cynical bastards, it’s not just because he came in third place! Poch will tell you that one of his dreams was to be on CBS’s reality show Big Brother. So much so that he auditioned not once, not twice, but three times before he was accepted onto the show for the 13^th Season.

“I’ve been a fan of the show for many years,” said Poch. “On Season 8, Evel Dick was on the show and while watching it I said – ‘I could do this.’”

By Season 10, Poch got an audition, but he says he realized he blew it.

“I don’t think I showed them the kind of person I really am,” he recalls.

In person, Poch is big – both in spirit and in size. He looks in fact like a bouncer you might see outside of a hip alternative music club in the city, or perhaps a physically fit man who works in construction. In any case, he looks like someone you wouldn’t want to mess with. But his tough look only tells part of his story. Underneath his formidable exterior lies a very generous heart. Other people pick up on that too. He was given the nickname “Heavy Metal Teddy Bear,” by friends. The name is now his twitter handle Heavy Metal Teddy.

By his next audition, he was better prepared. Poch realized he needed to focus on the more interesting parts of his personality. He told screeners: “My name is Adam. I’m 38. My three passions in life are heavy metal, bacon, and 90210.”

“It was three times before I got it,” he said. “I still had to go through the whole process, waiting for the phone calls and all. It wasn’t until I walked into the house that I believed I was on the show.”

81 Days

The premise of the show is simple. The contestants all live under the same roof for 75 days, face challenges – the winners are rewarded while losers are eliminated – until eventually, there are only a few left in the house and only one is declared winner. Sounds simple, until you stop to consider that the residents of the house are essentially sequestered and have no knowledge of the outside world. As a finalist, Poch was sequestered for total of 81 days, removed from civilization, friends and his life.

“We didn’t know if the NFL strike was over,” Adam explained. “We had no Internet. No TV. No books. No phone calls.”

The only respite was when a contestant was named Head of Household. Then they got a letter and pictures from loved ones. At the end of the turn, you got to keep the letter but not the pictures, he said.

“In life, you can just walk away sometimes. In the house, you can never really be alone,” he said.

Poch said that you had to find ways to cope with everything from the stress of competition, to the sadness of being separated from loved ones, to the daily annoyance of being watched 24 hours a day.

“There were days that I would just sit outside by the pool by myself,” he said. “Just knowing that (loved ones) were supporting me got me through it.”

But as with anything, there was an upside too. Poch used his free time to work out more.

“For a lot of the challenges, you had to be in great physical shape. I had to keep it up to get any little bit of an edge that I could,” he said.

Bring on the Bacon

On the show there were many things that Adam couldn’t say, wear or do, but that didn’t include wearing some of his bacon T-shirts.

“You couldn’t wear band shirts on the show,” he said. He added that when a company saw him wearing one of their bacon shirts, they sent him another to add to his collection. He got the T-shirt when he got out of the house, as he wasn’t allowed packages on the show.

“I’ve loved bacon for as long as I knew what it was. I’d smell bacon and just get happy,” he said.

He recalls the smell from childhood when his father used to cook bacon on the weekends.

“There is nothing like that smell. Being Jewish – it’s kind of like the forbidden fruit,” he laughs.

“I’m not so conceited that I think I created the bacon revolution, but I helped push the ball up the hill,” he said.

Triumph, tragedy, and Tori

Making it to the final three was an enviable position, but sadly for Adam, didn’t result in the win.

“There is no handbook. Sometimes I didn’t like how I was playing, but I did what I did to get further. I thought if I got to the final two, I would make my case to the jury and settle my case,” he said. “At the same time, I didn’t put myself into that position to win. So I didn’t deserve to win.”

Big Brother doesn’t award money for third place, it’s a winner take all game, he said.

“I got to meet Tori Spelling. It’s not worth $500 thousand dollars – but I got to know her,” he said.

“Tori will say she knows Adam Poch,” he added. “It was crazy seeing her walk in. My favorite reality show is Big Brother and my favorite show is 90210. It will go down in Big Brother history. I never thought I would actually meet her.”

Back in Boken

Among the many challenges of the show, Adam wasn’t able to enjoy the food he loves locally like one of the delicious sandwiches from Fiore’s Deli.

“For 14 years, they thought my name was John. Knowing I got on the show was going to blow my cover. The first thing I ordered when I got back was a ham and mozzarella sandwich and they said, ‘Hello, Adam!’ I told them I was honored that they recognized me and I didn’t want to correct them.”

Besides the food and his friends, Adam said the hardest thing for him was being separated from his girlfriend Fara.

“Right after I got out, I lay down in bed with my girlfriend and I just held her,” he said. “When I left, I left my apartment, my girlfriend and a job I didn’t know I was coming back to. I came back and packed up my apartment to move in with her.”

Fara supported Adam through all the stages – from his last audition, to departure, to term on the show. She held screening parties in Hoboken when the show would air.

“Hoboken is such a great city. It has a much bigger hometown feel with city conveniences. I love this town. I’m 40 and I can still act like I’m 21 – that’s what’s so great about this town,” he said.

Doing Good

What the future holds for Adam as possibly taking another turn on Big Brother isn’t clear. Although in recent seasons, producers have asked vets to return for another season, Adam isn’t sure he would do it.

“I’m not going to volunteer, but I will think about it. I lived my dream, I got on TV. Even though I didn’t win – I took my chance,” he said.

He also has advice for would-be-reality show contestants:

“Be yourself. Producers can see right through bullshit.”

Now Adam’s focus has turned toward charity work. He wants to use his newfound celebrity to do some good. He recently hosted an event for Relay for Life, and in December he participated with other Big Brother houseguests at a Toys for Tots drive.

For him, the choice to work with those who are suffering because of a disease comes from personal experience. In the last decade, he lost both his parents. His mom died from kidney cancer and his dad died from Lou Gehrig’s disease. But he maintains that through it all, his parents maintained their hold on life and even their sense of humor.

“When my dad was diagnosed he said, ‘Leave it to a Brooklyn Dodger fan to get a Yankee disease,’” Adam recalls.

His mom also stayed true to herself, treating Adam and his brother the same.

“She wouldn’t let us take her out on Mother’s Day because she couldn’t use a coupon. God forbid we take my mother out and pay full price,” he said.

In the spring, he will travel to California to help at an event for breast cancer. Yet ultimately he hopes to start his own event.

“I want to give back,” he says. “A lot of fans come to these events. They wasted valuable time watching me. The best I can do is give back to charity.”

Comments on this story can be sent to Diana@hmag.com. If you know someone who lives or works in Hoboken who would make a good candidate for hLIFE, please email us your suggestions.