CHRISTIANSBURG -- Cao Boi's torch may have been snuffed, but you can bet his flame is still burning.

The popular Christiansburg "Survivor: Cook Islands" character, Anh-Tuan "Cao Boi" Bui, got booted off the show Thursday night, but fans got to see him Friday morning on the CBS "Early Show" where his engaging grin once again flashed on screens across America. Bui also will be on "Late Night with David Letterman" on Monday.

The 13th edition of TV's longest-running reality show sparked controversy when the 20 contestants were put into four racially divided tribes -- black, white, Asian and Hispanic. But fire never developed from rubbing viewers the wrong way.

Early on, four tribes merged into two and the expected explosion of ethnic engagement fizzled. The contestants, apparently, didn't give a hoot about color lines or lineal loyalties.

Bui, a refugee of the Vietnam War and the only immigrant on the show, was also the only contestant who dared crack ethnic jokes.

"What do you call a Vietnamese with three dogs?" he quipped in the opening episode. Perhaps because of the groans from his Asian tribe mates, viewers never got to hear the punch line.

It is, of course, "a vegetarian."

Bui said he rescued his own dog, Charlie Woof, from a Vietnamese restaurant when he made his first return trip to his homeland in 2003.

After coming to America as an 11-year-old evacuee from Saigon, Bui became a free spirit, working all kinds of jobs and traveling the country. He ended up in the New River Valley as a Virginia Tech student in 1995.

On "Survivor," he used his somewhat hilarious healing skills to remove the headaches of other tribe members, leaving them with forehead hickeys as he coaxed the "bad wind" from their skulls.

"I want the cure, but don't make me look weird if that's possible," 36-year-old Jenny Guzon-Bae told Bui as he worked his mojo.

Headache gone, the Illinois real estate agent smiled into the camera, Bui's bright red mark positively glowing between her eyes.

Portrayed as a nonstop chatterbox on "Survivor," Bui was often chastised by the other contestants.

"This guy does not shut up!" complained Brad Virata, a 29-year-old fashion director from Los Angeles.

Bui's longtime friends and customers at Super Regal Nail Salon, which he manages with wife Kristol Bond, don't seem to mind his talkativeness.

"He's a great person," Blacksburg's Mary Henderson said of her nail technician. "Cao Boi has been there and done just about everything. He's a fascinating man."

Scott Loring of Boston met Bui 20 years ago when the two sold Toyotas together. He described his friend as "Intense. In a good way."

Loring still tells a story about the time he and Bui were cruising the streets of Boston late at night and met a car load of teenagers.

"They flipped us off," he said. "I flipped them off. They pulled over. Then I pulled over."

"One guy grabbed a crowbar out of his car. I was a scrawny guy and Tuan [Bui] was lean, too."

What happened next made no sense but it worked.

As the crowbar-wielding youths approached, Loring said, Bui removed his jacket and wrapped it around his forearm. The teens, not knowing what was coming next, simply turned and fled.

"That diffused the situation very quickly," Loring said, laughing. "I learned it takes a lot to rattle Tuan. He's earned his nickname, Cao Boi."

Bui's nickname, pronounced "cowboy," goes back to his Vietnamese childhood. He and his friends were big fans of American westerns. To them, "cao boi" translated as "tall man."

Bui will likely go down in "Survivor" history as one of the most endearing characters on the show, unlike "Jonny Fairplay" Dalton. The Danville native and Virginia Tech graduate earned the dubious honor of being the most-hated castaway on "Survivor: Pearl Islands" when he concocted a story about his grandmother's death to gain sympathy.

"Big Tom" Buchanan of Rich Valley -- the Virginian who appeared on "Survivor: Africa" and "Survivor: All Stars" -- said earlier this week that he was rooting for Bui.

But Buchanan predicted the Christiansburg man's demise.

"I'm afraid he'll be riding around without a horse if he ain't careful," Buchanan said. "He's playing reckless."

Indeed, Bui tried to save himself on Thursday's show by scheming to get his team to vote off Candice Woodcock or Jonathan Penner, thinking one of them had the hidden immunity idol. But it was Yul Kwon, a fellow Asian American, who has the idol and voted to eliminate Bui.

In the end, Bui told host Jeff Probst that he might have been misunderstood.

"Typically in life," he said, "I'm either hated or I'm loved."

At the Christiansburg Moose Lodge -- where Bui is a member and serves as prelate -- he's still loved. Throughout the showing of "Survivor: Cook Islands," Moose members have gathered each Thursday to cheer him on.

When the show premiered on Sept. 14, however, some of his supporters didn't expect him to last as long as he did.

"Fourth week, I guarantee you he's out," said bartender Allen Sisler.

But Bob Buchanan of Christiansburg predicted only three weeks. Still, he said he hoped he would be proven wrong.

"I hope he wins the whole thing," he said, "so he can pay me the $3 he owes me."