Blog du Wren

Wheel of Fortune Audition(!)

I auditioned for Wheel of Fortune and all I
got was this LO_S_ _ENC_L NUB...for now*

Last week, I got an e-mail inviting me to an invite only audition for Wheel of Fortune (yes, the TV game show). Score! So I RSVPed, downloaded the app for studying purposes, donned my neglected pair of fancy pants, and hopped the bus(es) down to Seattle for my chance at fame!

The audition was held in a conference room at the Edgewater Hotel on the downtown Seattle's waterfront. There were about 50 of us auditioneers with the demographic somewhat skewed towards men in their 30s and 40s. I felt I fit right in*.

The other online recounts* of what to expect at the audition were pretty much on the money. There was a first round with the whole group where we were called on randomly to shout out a letter and try to solve a puzzle presented on a screen. They told us they were looking for loudness, clarity, confidence, and "vibe". Those who solved the puzzles got a t-shirt or tote bag. After a time or two around the room, we took a 5-minute written puzzle test. There were lots of WoF-style puzzles in 4 different themes and I'm sure no one got them all right. Then they took our tests and left the room for 15 minutes or so, leaving us to mingle amongst ourselves. Lots of fun people there trying out. Then they came back and announced 15 names of those who got to continue while everyone else headed back to work.

And that's where I expected my experience to end. But no! When the contestant search crew left to deliberate, the fellow next to me, apropos of nothing, said "You're in" with such confidence that I started to believe it was true. He said I nailed my "shouting a letter" test and that was the most important thing. I chose to believe that he knew what he was talking about. As for the written test, I felt pretty good about it. While I'm no Grandma Schultz, I pulled a few obscure ones out. I'm convinced that the 3 hours of App time on the bus ride down got my mind in the mode for it.

Now that we were just down to 15, we did some more mock games, this time standing in front of the group, mimicking spinning the wheel and with more opportunity to guess letters and solve puzzles. Then there was "tell us about yourself" portion. While I didn't have the requisite words "lovely wife/husband" in my spiel*, I had a few interesting things to say which the "judges" seemed to like, or at least humored me on.

Then we're done and they're getting the room ready for the next back of hopefuls. All in all, it was about 2 hours. From here, the deal is that we'll get a letter in the mail in the next 2 weeks if we get to be on the show. If not, better luck next time. While I can't say I feel confident per se, I will be anxiously checking the mail with my fingers crossed. Needless to say, stay tuned to BdW for any further developments.

Tuesday March 4 2014

File under: wheel

Toggle Comments (9)

comment?

on Tue 04th Mar, 2014 10:58 pm CST Andrew said:
You could have borrowed my wife. Or my shoes.
************************
on Wed 05th Mar, 2014 12:19 am CST Jule said:
Sweet! You're in! They can't resist jugglers.
************************
on Wed 05th Mar, 2014 10:25 am CST Saxtor said:
Wow. You caught Vanna in the process of turning over the letter U in your puzzle above! I wanna solve!
************************
on Thu 06th Mar, 2014 05:31 pm CST Uncle Steve said:
Way to go.We are pretty chuffed about your chances.
************************
on Sat 08th Mar, 2014 03:46 pm CST Horge said:
Nice job. One tip I read recently, concerning Chu over on Jeoparty, is that for WoF, if you get into that speed round thing where you name each just name a letter: if you're first pick an obscure letter, like gamma?, so that the other contestants don't benefit from you choosing a more likely letter and solve it before it gets back to you... If you get on, be sure to take some PBRs for Pat and Vanna!
************************
on Thu 20th Mar, 2014 01:21 am CDT Wren said:
Two weeks have come and gone with not magic letter in the mail. Alas. I guess I'm just not as charismatic as I'd like to think. Oh well, forget Wheel of Fortune. Next conquest: Wipeout!
************************
on Thu 20th Mar, 2014 01:10 pm CDT Wren said:
Hold the phone! I just might have spoken too soon!
************************
on Tue 01st Apr, 2014 11:05 pm CDT Sean said:
And...?
************************
on Sun 06th Apr, 2014 11:31 pm CDT Wren said:
@Sean: It sounds like I'm in. They don't know their taping schedule too far in advance so I won't know until it is my time to shine until they know, which might not be for some time. But once I know, you know that BdW will have full coverage! Yip yip!
************************

<<2014 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament

Standby>>

Name:
URL: (optional)
Comment:
speak yer peace