Wipeout Canada Sisters.
Scarborough natives Jazmine, left, and Mariah Stephen get ready at their parent’s home on Friday before flying to Buenos Aires, Argentina the following day to compete for the $50,000 Wipeout Canada grand prize.
Staff photo/ERIC HEINO
Two Scarborough sisters were selected from more than 64,000 applicants to spend a week in Argentina as contestants in a Canadian version of a popular television gameshow, Wipeout Canada.
Often mistaken for twins, Jazmine Stephen, 24, and Mariah Stephen, 19, were decked out with identical outfits and haircuts a on Oct. 22, a day before their plane left for Buenos Aires, Argentina. They would spend an all expenses paid week there, running obstacle courses against 18 others form across Canada for a top prize of $50,000.
Both were raised in Scarborough, but Jazmine now lives in the Bloor West area. They were fans of Wipeout long before the Canadian spin-off was announced.
"The thing is, you watch it and it's like, I could totally do that. I don't know if that's me being over confident, but I guess we will see," said Jazmine.
Since applying online in July, the sisters had been jumping through hoops to convince producers they were worthy participants. Jazmine has been subjecting herself to a punishing routine of squats and push-ups to prepare herself for victory, but admits it was Mariah who was probably responsible for getting them both through an audition with producers.
"I tried to be quirky and funny, but Mariah at least could be a character," said Jazmine. "Mariah pretty much stole the show with her Mark character."
In order to make an impression, Mariah slapped on a fake moustache and conducted her entire online profile video and live audition as her online alter-ego, Mark. He is a hyper-masculine parody of a frat boy blogger, obsessed with "gettin" the ladies," and one upping his best bro, Greg. It's difficult to describe without checking out their videos under their YouTube.com user name, GregAndMark.
"In my video I did stunts in the forest," said Mariah.
"Pretty lame stunts," added Jazmine.
"They were kind of like parkour type things, but awful parkour things like rolling over benches and doing cartwheels and stuff," said Mariah.
Jazmine was sure her sister would make the cut after having the producers rolling on the floor with laughter, but didn't know for sure if both of them would be travelling together until they received phone calls at the end of August.
"The whole time on the phone, with the producer I was thinking, 'what about my sister?' I wanted her to get in too," said Mariah. "They told me she was coming too and when the conversation ended I screamed and was so happy. My family thought something was wrong because I fell down on the ground."
Contractually sworn to secrecy until October, the girls only recently revealed the news outside of their immediate family.
When it comes down to the adrenaline filled experience of actually running the Wipeout Canada obstacle course, each had a few choice comments about the other's strengths and weaknesses.
Jazmine said Mariah's biggest strength would be her, "long gangly legs, but her weakness is her little arms...I can picture Mariah running over the big red balls like a gazelle."
"Little arms? That makes me sound like a T-rex," said Mariah. "Your biggest weakness is your face."
The insults were double-edged, as both had previous agreed they look very much alike.
Sibling bickering aside, the two claim to get along very well and plan to split the prize money if the both make it to the final round of the show.
"I figure it's a free trip to Buenos Aires, so we both walk away winners anyway," said Jazmine.
The episode they are featured on will not air until Spring 2011 and the Stephen sisters cannot disclose the results until after it runs.