6 Things You Won't See on the New Series 'Yes Man'

Ricky Smith is ready to say “Yes” to nearly any adventure … except for one. Never.

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Meet Ricky Smith
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Most people have at least a basic list of challenges, adventures and experiences they would say “Yes” to in a heartbeat. For Yes Man host Ricky Smith, the items on his list are getting rapidly checked off—water yoga, stuntman school, grasshopper cuisine!—but there is always room for more, however tentative he might feel about it at showtime.

"I always thought of myself as wild, crazy and adventurous, until we started filming Yes Man,” Ricky says.

If Ricky looks familiar, you’ve probably heard of his initiative Random Acts of Kindness Everywhere (R.A.K.E.) that rapidly spread through online word of mouth. Nearly four years ago, Ricky set off on a travel adventure, conspiring with a network of do-gooders to help him execute some random acts of kindness while traveling to cities across the country. Since then, Ricky’s initiative has exploded into a movement, a 50-city tour and a massive following of newly inspired do-gooders.

In this next phase of adventuring for the R.A.K.E. guy, Ricky stars in Yes Man, where he’s presented with various adventures or challenges in a particular city and must say “Yes.” Before you watch him try everything from a seemingly impossible pizza challenge to stuntman training on the show, here are a few behind-the-scenes secrets you won’t see in Yes Man.

He neglected to tell his film crew he couldn’t swim  

Photo by: StefaniaRosini@ , StefaniaRosini@

StefaniaRosini@ , StefaniaRosini@

The first adventure we see Ricky embark on in Yes Man? Water yoga.

“Just bust out the yoga and be good to go,” he says of his thought process behind not sharing this info. “I wouldn’t fall, so there was no need for me to tell the producers that I couldn’t swim.”

Ricky loves water and spends most of his vacations revolve around the beach, but he wasn’t quite expecting the water to be as deep as it was.

“I blame ego for making me fall in,” Ricky says. “I did all the basic moves that everyone in the class was doing. Got one complement, thought I was a pro and BOOM. SPLASH. I fell in.”

Ricky listens to music to get hyped for an adventure

What’s in those headphones, Ricky? Spill your secrets!  

Meat sweats happen

The World's Largest Pizza
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Despite recruiting all of the help he could from passersby, Ricky still fell victim to a pizza challenge, as most of us understandably would.

“I think my body was trying to figure out what to do with all this pizza entering it,” says Ricky. “At first it was happy because pizza is my favorite food, but then it was like, ‘Oh, wait a minute! This is waaaaay too much pizza.’”

A scorpion gets eaten

There's Something in My Drink
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This part of his meal of grasshoppers didn’t make the cut for the Yes Man premiere, but, well, just watch.

There’s one thing he absolutely won’t do  

It’s actually in his contract.

“I hate roller coasters more than wet socks,” says Ricky. “You go up really, really high just to come down really, really fast. Why? What’s the point?”

Ricky even tested his aversion to roller coasters a few years ago after some coersion from his nieces and nephews. He stood in line, made it all the way to the front … and the coaster broke down in front of them. The “Yes” Man quickly became the “No” Man.

“I had to go back down past everyone waiting in line,” he says. “The disappointment on their faces still haunts me to this day … but not enough to make me ever want to ride one.”

Ricky has some pretty enviable style

These custom “Yes Man” kicks are incredible, but they might not be able to top this classic look:

Don’t miss the premiere of Yes Man on Travel Channel tonight at 11p|10c.

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