Spoiler
My game was pure adrenaline laced with exhaustion and fear. Like I said at $3K, it’s easy! until it’s not
I had to spend 5 minutes at work explaining the FIRST QUESTION to someone. Yes, it was tricky, and even I was thrown, but without even seeing the question, you pick the answer that’s not like the others: Dale Earnhardt, Jr! (He still doesn’t understand the question). And someone else said, “my husband and I both thought you were out on the first question!”
Wait, what?!?
I watched part two in the office with work people and when it was all over and I had just walked with $30K, someone said, how much did you win? Almost lost my mind. So many stupid questions from the peanut gallery leading up to the airing
Sometimes Chris reads the question in a way that makes it hard to follow, emphasizing the wrong words. I don’t even think I knew what the Marlon Brando quote meant in that moment. My experience standing there, gripping the podium, staring at the 20,000 pt. sans serif letters on the screen, mind racing, was to scan the question for key information and then fill in the rest. On John Bardeen, panic set in before I could very deliberately go answer by answer, has anyone won this award more than once?
What a whirlwind! The celebrity judges pushed my taping til the very end of the day. Anne from Kansas was playing Rock Paper Scissors and the producer came to the Air Stream and said, looks like we’re going to bump you til tomorrow, which really sounded like the best idea at that late hour. Then, Anne bombed out on the Jack Ruby question and they practically shoved me out on stage. With all the bumping, I wonder if any potential contestants found out on the last tape day of the season that they were never getting out on that stage?
I had little time to study for the show, or even settle on a strategy, but I did write down Nobel winners as a study topic. Alas, never got to it
Overall, a great experience but damn, it was 106 in Vegas in the summer
Thanks for all the support. I was really afraid my episode would be boring and I’d come off looking like an idiot! But it all turned out ok!
And $30K is a nice chunk of change! Thank you, North Dakota! You came into my life in Final Jeopardy on that other game show! I’m going to spend every penny on frivolities and extravagances! New home computer, sewing machine and clown theater classes!
And who knows? Maybe I’ll find a way to start a line of cat furniture!