Josh Silberman knew at a young age that he wanted to have a career in film and television in Los Angeles. He was partially inspired by his cousin, the great Gene Wilder, and his brother, who also lived and worked in Hollywood.

However, before making the big leap to California, Silberman graduated from Nicolet High School in Glendale and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

After graduation, Silberman moved to L.A. and, with the help of his brother, lined up work in television. His first job was on "Donny & Marie," a now-defunct talk show hosted by America’s most famous Mormon siblings.

Silberman then went to work for the reality show, "Fear Factor," as a stunt leader and chief cook.

"My job was to cook and test all of the terrible things," says Silberman. "I ate cow eyeballs and cockroaches and spiders. I was also in a tank filled with 400 gallons of blood, a coffin filled with roaches and had to trap, de-bone, cook and eat a New York City rat."

Wait, eat a city rat?

"Yeah, for the 100th episode of ‘Fear Factor,’ I went to New York and took city rats and deboned them – it took three hours – and then blended them up in a blender and drank them," says Silberman. "I definitely had a moment where I thought to myself, ‘this isn't the Hollywood lifestyle I imagined.’"

_{Silberman, left, says 30 cow hearts and 500 gallons of blood was just a normal day's work on "Fear Factor."} 

Amazingly, Silberman never hurled during his time with "Fear Factor" and says he loved being a part of the show because it helped him further realize his passion for reality TV.

Although Silberman did not get sick after eating roaches or cow eyeballs – which he describes as "salty and filmy and filled with a black goo that comes out when you chew them like a giant, terrible Gusher" – he lost his lunch every day while working on Discovery Channel’s "Deadliest Catch." Because he was sick every day, he lost 16 pounds (Silberman was already a thin guy to begin with), but managed to finish the gig.

"When I interviewed for the job, I was asked if I got sea sick and I said I was totally good because when I was growing up my family had a boat on Lake Geneva," says Silberman. "But apparently there’s a big difference between boating on Lake Geneva and the Bering Sea, because all I did was puke."

_{Shooting on the Cornelia Marie while working on "Deadliest Catch."}

Silberman also worked on History Channel’s "Ice Road Truckers," "Bush Pilots," "America's Got Talent," "Dancing With the Stars," "Deal or No Deal" and more. He has done over 75 radio interviews, TV shows, films and magazine articles and is dubbed the "Craziest Kid in Hollywood."

Currently, 35-year-old Silberman is working and living – for seven more weeks – in Fiji where he is the co-executive producer for a new reality survival program on FOX called "Kicking and Screaming."

"The show pairs survivalists with people whose idea of roughing it is a Four Seasons," says Silberman. "I love doing these competition shows. They keep my mind fresh. And I’m excited to be doing almost exactly what I set out to do. I’m pretty much living the dream."

Silberman says living in Fiji has been a great, as well as crazy, experience – especially the weather. "When I first got here, it was cyclone season so lots of strong wind and rain, and now it’s just hot and muggy, kind of like a night at Summerfest," he says. "And yes, I did just compare Summerfest to Fiji."

Although Silberman doesn’t always make it back to Milwaukee for the Big Gig, he returns at least once a year to visit his parents.

"I love Milwaukee, I make it back every year to see my family ... and go to a Packers game," he says. "I also have a tattoo of Wisconsin as a superhero wearing a cheesehead hat and a Packers cape, stepping on Illinois."

Aside from ingesting gross food for a successful FOX reality TV show, Silberman has another claim to fame: he completely crushed it as a contestant on "The Price Is Right."

A couple of years after college, Silberman and his friends – all wearing purple T-shirts embossed with the glittery words "Neuter My Student Loans" – attended a filming of the game show. Silberman was called to contestants’ row, after one bid won a spot on stage, played the Hole-In-One golf game during which he first won a $500 bonus for perfect pricing and then went on to win a Ford Mustang.

After winning the car, Silberman was so stoked he jumped on the vehicle, humped the hood, did an energetic hoe-down-jig dance and kowtowed to host Bob Barker. (While he was gyrating atop the car, Barker said, "He's hugging the car!" Um, no, Bob that's not what he's doing.)

But wait, there’s more.

After winning the Mustang, Silberman spun $1 on the Big Wheel, which scored him another $1,000 (and knocked out the guy before him who had a great spin of 95 cents). And finally, Silberman won his way to the Showcase Showdown, where he came within an impressive $350 of the actual retail price of the items and scored $23,000 worth of prizes for a day’s winnings of $46,732.

Silberman says he sold the Mustang to pay off his college loans, but held onto some of his other winnings, including a vacuum cleaner with headphones, camping trailer and a golf cart.

Jimmy Kimmel later invited Silberman onto his show because of his acrobatic and enthusiastic reaction to his winnings.

Silberman is not sure what's next for him after he returns from Fiji. Because he does not work for a particular network – he compares himself to a "free agent" in sports – he will weigh offers and decide which one looks the most intriguing and fulfilling.

"I’ve seen the world through my work," he says. "I happened to be in a village in Alaska so remote that, when they got their first ATM, it was such a big deal the entire village came out to watch it being installed. I’m having incredible experiences – and I get paid."

_{Working in northern Saskatchewan. "When it reaches 30 degrees, you just feel like chainsawing," says Silberman.}