Jon & Al

Jon Weiss and Al Rios are a team of Best Friends/Clowns on the 4th season of The Amazing Race.

Profile
Jon, 40, is married with three children, and lists his current occupation as "Human Cannonball" for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He has traveled with them for the past 20 years and has over 5,000 notches in his cannonball belt. He graduated from Suffolk Community College and has also studied at the Disney Institute and Clown college. Jon is determined to win. He fears "getting into an accident and not being able to support his family." Jon enjoys golf, cooking and watching sports, and describes himself as "friendly, honest and ambitious." He speaks no foreign languages and has traveled to Mexico and Canada. His teammate, Al, most disappoints him with his "lack of trust before performing together. Al gets so nervous he drives me crazy every time." Jon admits that he procrastinates and is a "go-with-the-flow type," while Al "gets stressed out." Of his clowning skills, Jon says, "If I can pick it up, I can balance it on my nose/chin."

Al, 34, currently works as a substitute teacher and as a cruise ship entertainer. He holds a BA in Special Education. Al is a "people person" and no stranger to traveling. When in the circus, he lived on a train for six years traveling the US, in a trailer for 1 1/2 years in Europe and on a cruise ship for two years in the Caribbean. He has been to the UK, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Estonia, Morocco, France Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Czechoslovakia. He considers himself "friendly, determined, outgoing, compassionate and emotional." He fears heights and eating "yecchy things," getting sick with no help, or "getting stuck in a life-threatening situation with no way out." The only time his teammate, Jon, disappoints him is when he doesn't follow through with things. Jon will be "Mr. Nice Guy," and they'll get "screwed" because he doesn't "bluntly explain what the deal is." They sometimes argue, but if he's upset, Al usually gets quiet first, or he'll go off "alone and just scream out loud or have a good cry." Al's the motivator, while Jon can "waste time."