Freeport’s Rodney Rodriguez, retired NYPD detective, competing on ‘Fear Factor: House of Fear’
A retired NYPD detective shouldn’t panic when competing on the harrowing-stunt reality show “Fear Factor,” revived after several years as “Fear Factor: House of Fear,” premiering Sunday at 8 p.m. on Fox/5.
But with Freeport’s Rodney Rodriguez, “PANIC” is his middle name. Almost literally.
That’s because before and after his time on the force, he was and is graffiti artist Rodney “PANIC” Rodriguez, who went from tagging buses and rental vans back to now being a muralist and selling street-inspired art at artpal.com/panicrodriguez. In between, he spent 25 years with the NYPD, doing everything from undercover drug buys to ballistics lab analysis.
“You think you are brave and macho until you get there,” says the buoyant 59-year-old — speaking of the TV show, not of being a cop.
Rodriguez is one of 14 contestants who lived together in an isolated mansion and competed in such stunts as lying in a construction site foundation and being encased from foot to chest in concrete; standing in a Plexiglas box while rats, snakes, lizards or other creatures rain down; and being compressed in a nearly airtight vacuum pack with only an air hose and panic button. After weekly eliminations, the winner gets $200,000. Stunt performer Johnny Knoxville, co-creator of MTV’s “Jackass” franchise, hosts.
“I’ve always been a fan of the original show,” says the Brooklyn-born Rodriguez, referring to the 2001-06 NBC original and revivals by that network from 2011-12 and by MTV from 2017-18. “I’ve been retired nine years, so when the opportunity was presented to me, I thought it was time to get the blood rolling again. You want to test yourself, you always want to stay on point. There’s nothing like actually being placed in a certain situation,” he says, to see firsthand how one will react.
Rodriguez became interested in art through a cousin who “was a big comic-book collector and was always sketching.”
An active graffiti artist from 1980-85, he says, Rodriguez in 1986 graduated from what is now the New York City College of Technology in art and advertising and then freelanced as a graphic designer. After taking the NYPD exam on a dare in 1988, he says, he got accepted onto the force in 1991.
Starting with the Transit Authority police, he later worked as an undercover narcotics officer for 3½ years before advancing to a detective squad in Queens. “I also worked for the Training Bureau,” also in Queens, “where detectives would come to me to get updated investigative techniques. A couple of guys worked in ballistics and they told me about it and it piqued my interest.” Rodriguez worked in the Firearms Analysis Section his last eight years on the NYPD.
The father of two adult children, he had moved to Freeport after his divorce many years ago. He often goes “a hop, skip and a jump” to Rockville Centre, where he bowls in a league.
And no shade on “Fear Factor” but, “I’m a big ‘Survivor’ fan,” he says. “That’s my No. 1 show. If I made it onto ‘Survivor,’ I’d die a happy man.”
