Skip to main content

Wheel of Fortune Audition

In July, I wrote about attending the Sacramento State Fair, where Wheel of Fortune held auditions for potential contestants. Each day that the Wheel of Fortune crew were present, there were up to three separate auditions (on the day I attended, there were three). At each of these auditions were hundreds of people, dozens of whom were called to take the stage to talk about themselves and play mock rounds of the show. I was lucky enough to be called to the stage while present. At the end of the audition, all mock contestants were told that they might receive an e-mail or letter from the show within three months, prompting him or her to attend a second audition later. Since the event was in July, this meant that I would receive something by the end of October. However, October came and went, and I assumed organizers were uninterested. That changed several weeks ago, when I received an e-mail prompting me to attend a second audition. That audition took place over three weeks ago now, and I had the privilege of attending.

While the hosts attempted to put the group of around 100 people at ease, there was still a noticeable tension at the outset of the hosts' efforts to get to know us. As we grew accustomed to the expectations, we seemed to grow increasingly comfortable with one another and the hosts.

It began with a host inviting the line of people into a small room and another host directing us to our chairs. Waiting for us there were a questionnaire and pencil, which we filled out while a third host created a seating chart. At the front of the room was a small, plastic, and vertical version of the wheel you see on the show; and next to this, a screen, about eight by eight feet, used to display the game board by which we would play an electronic mock version of the game. After an introduction, the hosts displayed the first puzzle, and called each person by name to spin, call letters, and solve. Each person, including me, was called at least once. I performed mediocre at this stage, calling three or four letters from the beginning of the puzzle before calling a letter not in the puzzle.

Thereafter, the hosts handed us one of two quizzes with several puzzles to solve. We had five minutes to solve as many as possible. Again, I performed only mediocre, solving some, but not even half, of the puzzles. With time expired, the hosts collected the quizzes and left the room to grade. During this time, potential contestants got to know one another and talked about the tests.

When the hosts returned, the man who seemed to be lead host regretted that not all participants could compete on the show, and stated that he would call those who would remain for a more intensive test. As a second host read off names, time passed, and I felt my chances diminish. Near the end, she read the name of the man with whom I'd been speaking. He had performed well during the first stage of testing, solving one of the puzzles. I was growing more leery of my chances, however, when the host said, "And finally...," and followed with my name.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Nice Guy Fallacy

I read part of a poem recently by one of my favorite poets. It reads: I envy not in any moods The captive void of noble rage The linnet born within the cage That never knew the summer woods. I envy not the beast that takes His license in the field of time Unfetter'd by the sense of crime To whom a conscience never wakes. Nor what may call itself as bles't The heart that never plighted troth But stagnates in the weeds of sloth Nor any want-begotten rest. I hold it true, whate'er befall I feel it, when I sorrow most 'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. At base, Tennyson contrasted a life of risk, and consequent pain, with one of security. He sides conclusively with the life of risk, and says he fails to envy those who have faced no hardship. I agree with him; and, for good or ill, his words are just as relevant today as they were in the nineteenth century. Like then, there are those today who choose to live their lives with as little risk as...

Experiment

My social studies students and I are studying Islam right now. The other day, we were reading about one of the Five Pillars, zakat (charity in Islam that means "that which purifies"). Muslims believe that giving away money helps to purify it and also "safeguards [them] against miserliness" (1). I asked the class if this was true, that giving money away makes us less greedy. They generally agreed that it does. I wanted to test whether or not they really believed this, so I handed a volunteer a $10 bill. I told the class that I would ask for the bill back the next day. I said that they should pass the bill around among their classmates, and that as a result, there would be no way for me to know who had the bill. For that reason, whoever wanted to keep the money could keep it. Even if I did learn who kept it, I told them, I would not punish that person. I wanted them to be motivated by their own honesty. The next day, I asked for the bill, and a student handed it to me...

Persuasion

At different points in history, governments have devoted men, women, and resources to try to persuade others to their side. One significant example of this occurred in Germany under Adolf Hitler. Hitler knew how important it was to make sure the German people were on his side as leader of the country. One way he did this was by controlling what people heard. Specifically, near the beginning of World War II, Hitler made it a crime for anyone in Germany to listen to foreign radio broadcasts. These were called the “extraordinary radio measures.” He did this to ensure that Germans weren’t being persuaded by enemy countries to question their loyalty to Hitler. He knew that a German listening to a radio broadcast from Britain might persuade that German to believe that Great Britain was the good guy and Hitler the bad guy. This was so important, in fact, that two people in Germany were actually executed because they had either listened to or planned to listen to a foreign radio broadcast (one...