Post by wheellover65 on Oct 3, 2022 23:16:02 GMT -5
Hey guys, went to the Wheel of Fortune Live show Sunday in Bethlehem, PA and figured I'd write a little report about it. Mark L. Walberg was the host as expected, Dave Styles was the announcer/warmup after being away for a week due to testing COVID positive, and Kalpana Pot had the night off as our "Vanna" was the wonderful Rae Williams.
No audition puzzle at this venue, which seems to be the norm at a majority of the venues so far. Registration promptly opened at 4pm with the lobby opening at 5. Registration was handled in a room far away from the actual event center, due to the venue's weird layout as a combined event center/casino/outlet mall. A venue employee was handing out wristbands correlating to each color seemingly at random. Originally I was given a blue wristband, but I had asked if I could have a yellow one. The security guard seemed confused that I would ask for a different one, started to tell me that it wouldn't matter what color I had, processed that I was wearing full WOF gear, (Hat, Shirt, Fanny Pack, and Socks) and decided an argument wasn't worth it and gave me a yellow one.
Pre-registration was apparently an option at this venue, but due to my tickets being comp'd (long story, I'll get to it) I was unable to do this. Standard information was asked, name, address, birthday, and if you're over 18, which didn't take long to fill out on the specially designed iPad. After registration, a long walk down the outlet mall put us in the event center's lobby, where they were selling mixed drinks and Wheel of Fortune Live merch, as well as having a few backdrops to take pictures in front of. Specialty drinks included the Buy a Vowel, which was Vodka, Black Raspberry, Sour Mix, and Club for $10. The Free Play, a vodka and Sprite for $10. And the Lose a Turn, an $8 Rum and Coke.
The merch store was a busy table with the umbrellas being surprisingly popular. I purchased an umbrella as they've been sold out on shopwheeloffortune.com for quite sometime and I've wanted one. The umbrella was $35 instead of the $25 listed online, but allegedly prices change from venue to venue? I've heard that the umbrella was $40 last week in Baltimore. Unfortunately the socks weren't being offered due to being out of stock, which is a shame because I've been eyeing up more WOF socks for a while.
At 6pm the final VIPs with the Spin the Wheel package were escorted off of the stage and the doors were opened to the masses. Generic hype music was playing with some notable ones being ABBA's Dancing Queen and Mr. Brightside by The Killers. I got moved around a bunch from Row 24 to Row 27 and then finally to Row 14. This is where I should mention that I didn't pay for my (or the rest of my party's) tickets as they ended up being comp'd by the venue due to a mistake in their system. Originally it was supposed to be 2 tickets, which I had waiting for me at Will Call, and then I was sent 4 tickets through Ticketmaster in my email, which brought the total up to six. After checking out our seats, we had decided that the Row 27 seats were better as they were less crowded and we could spread out a little bit. After a few minutes an usher came over and offered us better seats closer to the stage as they had some unsold and wanted to fill in the front sections. Since she handed us paper tickets, I ended up with 9 total tickets for the show, paying for none of them.
As our party was moving down to the seats in Row 14, it was 7pm on the dot. I had expected the show to start promptly on time, give or take a minute or two for technical issues. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The music played for a few more minutes, with the logo being put up on the big screens at 7:10. At 7:15 the music faded out and the lights began to dim. A montage of clips from the last 40 years (going all the way back to Vanna's audition!) began to play then followed by Dave coming out and giving his warmup. Standard procedure, raise your right hand and promise not to shout out the puzzles, clap and cheer, when to aww and ooo, simple stuff.
Small note: I was politely asked by the production staff of the show to not share puzzles or archive them in any way as they might reuse them in the future. I totally understand this request and will be complying with it. I mean it. No puzzles will be spoiled in this report, partially or fully revealed.
After the warmup, five people were called up to do some toss-ups to determine the players for the first game. All five of them hopped up and ran to the backstage area where the game would be explained to them in extraordinary detail as their nametags were printed. They played three toss-ups, all of them rather easy, and the winners of them were quickly escorted behind the wheel to have even more rules explained to them in extreme detail.
Once that was over, five more names were called up for the second "audition round" to be briefed during the first game. A woman sitting one row in front of me and three or four seats across was chosen, and as soon as her name was put on the big screen she leapt to her feet and squealed rather loudly, which woke me up. She ran off to the backstage area as instructednever to be seen again.
When the second round contestants were gathered backstage Dave started a countdown from 10 and the "real show" began. A modified version of the S40 intro played as Mark and Rae were introduced and walked out. This was actually the first time Rae was mentioned to the audience at all, up until this point I thought it would still be Kalpana. Her absence was never mentioned. Mark seemed to have a little trouble with his wardrobe. Whoever stuck his mic pack on had it up a little too high and it caught on the back of his suit jacket giving him the appearance of having a tail. Beyond those minor things the game began with a toss-up which was quickly solved. Wheel for this round was the standard wheel with a gift tag (Dinner and a Movie) on the green 500 next to pink 600. The prize for this round was a trip to New Orleans. Nothing too interesting for this round. Contestant landed on the Wild Card and Mark kinda fumbled the explanation of it. It was bankrupted later that round was promptly yeeted backstage by Mark. The round ended with the red player managing a near sweep by being the only one to truly understand the game. Yellow and Blue were completely lost up there, starting rounds by calling Ms and Ps, and just overall not being the greatest Wheel of Fortune players.
Once the Red player won she got to open her envelope to see which audience member she was playing on behalf of, which was some dude in the way back seats. Once the contestants were escorted off the stage, Mark and Rae went backstage and Dave announced the name of one more player to join the second round of auditions, as an alternate was needed. Once the alternate was briefed, the next round of auditions began with the alternate immediately no-lettering an On The Map puzzle. The crowd went absolutely crazy for that one. Two more toss-ups and we have our three players! The lady from my section of the theater wasn't fast enough on the buzzer to get up, but she won some lovely parting gifts and was ushered back to her seat. Nothing notable about game two other than the trip to New Orleans was swapped out for a trip to Vegas and was won, and we had a Thing puzzle and a Things puzzle in the same game.
After game two Dave comes out into the audience and starts asking questions about the show, the regular trivia facts, Shopper's Bazaar, 2400 pounds, Over 7000 dresses, you know the drill. After a few questions we speed into audition round three with some puzzles that I remember from recent seasons of Wheel. With the New Orleans trip being won, it was swapped out for a trip to Hawaii. Round three started with this one woman who was rather short and just couldn't quite reach the wheel. The first time she went to spin it went about 3 or 4 wedges and she was asked to spin again by Mark. Her second spin went about 6 or 7 wedges and ended up landing on the Bankrupt near LAT. The slide whistle played and the turn indicator moved to the yellow player like normal, but the entire audience began to boo and hiss rather loudly. Had her first spin counted she wouldn't've landed on bankrupt, and the audience felt it wasn't fair to her. Mark seemed taken aback by the response from the audience and actually left the hosting area to stand center stage to interact directly with the audience. Mark says that as long as we promise not to tell Pat Sajak he'll let her spin the wheel one more time, but whatever she lands on is final. The audience agrees with that. I have a slight feeling Mark went center stage to see the producer's table a little clearer to see what their decision was before allowing her to spin again. She spins the wheel again, this time getting it maybe 10 wedges around, and she lands on a point value and the game continues like normal. I found it funny however that when the Red player lost her turn the Yellow player (who was a former Marine) spun the wheel at Mach 1 and got it around 4 or 5 times. The game continues as normal after that with the Hawaii trip being won by the Blue player. The Red player also won the dinner and a movie gift tag which was claimed and banked immediately before a letter was called ala the Prize Box from Wheel 2000.
After the third round, Mark completely forgets where in the show he is, tries to get Dave to call up 5 more people for another toss-up round, and in all the confusion forgets to have the winning player read off their play along audience member. Dave reminds Mark where in the show he is, and Mark just quickly tosses to the 15 minute intermission. At this time the championship match (or "Friday Finals game" as I like to call it) gets set up. Nothing fun happened during intermission this time unlike when I went to Price Live earlier this year. As the 15 minute intermission comes to an end I see the three contestants standing at the wheel having the game explained to them in great detail once again. The generic hype song fades out and in fades the Express bed cue. I think I was the only one to acknowledge that was the signal of the show coming back from intermission as I was the only one prepared for Dave to walk out and start the wedge game. Same as every other venue so far, 12 numbered wedges with either Red, Yellow, or Blue behind it, 3 players with corresponding wristbands, and every person in the audience with the same colored wristband wins a keychain on the way out. Red won this time, but it really came to a close match.
The final match begins with our wheel looking rather snazzy. (Pardon the crappy looking edit, I just wanted to make something while the layout was fresh in my mind) The toss-up to start off the match is themed to something local and garnered some boos from members of the audience. Not going to say what it is, but it was interesting to watch the audience develop a chant because of a puzzle. First puzzle of the main game is a Crossword, and I give the staff credit for keeping the crossword limited to the championship match. We had a Before & After puzzle in the third match and it seemed to have confused the hell out of one of the players. Lord knows someone might try and throw in an AND at some point. The first spin of the first round was the 5000 which triggered a very large woo from exactly one person in the audience. (Yes, me. I was the only one actively participating as an audience member after the third spin or so.) A Mystery Wedge was hit on the second spin, and it was flipped for 5000 points. Points weren't spendable and had to be claimed just like the $10,000 on the normal show. We had a null cycle and a Bankrupt + 2 lost turns in the first round because the crossword wasn't all that easy. Second and third rounds were much easier, big money getting landed on a few times, and the final spin landing on 2500 (for a total of 3500 per letter)
The bonus round was at around the same level of difficulty as the show. I RSTLNE'd it and the contestant seemingly did so as well. $1,250 win for her and a lucky play-along audience member. After the show was over Mark was chilling out in front of the stage taking pictures with fans and autographing items.
Overall the show was fun and I had a great time chilling out with some friends playing Wheel. Plus I got to show off a bit. Having the full outfit was a bit of a conversation piece, met some people who were on the show, had a real good time. If the show comes to your area I highly recommend getting tickets! Everyone on the staff and crew are so amazingly talented with what they do and I wish them all the greatest success in the world.
No audition puzzle at this venue, which seems to be the norm at a majority of the venues so far. Registration promptly opened at 4pm with the lobby opening at 5. Registration was handled in a room far away from the actual event center, due to the venue's weird layout as a combined event center/casino/outlet mall. A venue employee was handing out wristbands correlating to each color seemingly at random. Originally I was given a blue wristband, but I had asked if I could have a yellow one. The security guard seemed confused that I would ask for a different one, started to tell me that it wouldn't matter what color I had, processed that I was wearing full WOF gear, (Hat, Shirt, Fanny Pack, and Socks) and decided an argument wasn't worth it and gave me a yellow one.
Pre-registration was apparently an option at this venue, but due to my tickets being comp'd (long story, I'll get to it) I was unable to do this. Standard information was asked, name, address, birthday, and if you're over 18, which didn't take long to fill out on the specially designed iPad. After registration, a long walk down the outlet mall put us in the event center's lobby, where they were selling mixed drinks and Wheel of Fortune Live merch, as well as having a few backdrops to take pictures in front of. Specialty drinks included the Buy a Vowel, which was Vodka, Black Raspberry, Sour Mix, and Club for $10. The Free Play, a vodka and Sprite for $10. And the Lose a Turn, an $8 Rum and Coke.
The merch store was a busy table with the umbrellas being surprisingly popular. I purchased an umbrella as they've been sold out on shopwheeloffortune.com for quite sometime and I've wanted one. The umbrella was $35 instead of the $25 listed online, but allegedly prices change from venue to venue? I've heard that the umbrella was $40 last week in Baltimore. Unfortunately the socks weren't being offered due to being out of stock, which is a shame because I've been eyeing up more WOF socks for a while.
At 6pm the final VIPs with the Spin the Wheel package were escorted off of the stage and the doors were opened to the masses. Generic hype music was playing with some notable ones being ABBA's Dancing Queen and Mr. Brightside by The Killers. I got moved around a bunch from Row 24 to Row 27 and then finally to Row 14. This is where I should mention that I didn't pay for my (or the rest of my party's) tickets as they ended up being comp'd by the venue due to a mistake in their system. Originally it was supposed to be 2 tickets, which I had waiting for me at Will Call, and then I was sent 4 tickets through Ticketmaster in my email, which brought the total up to six. After checking out our seats, we had decided that the Row 27 seats were better as they were less crowded and we could spread out a little bit. After a few minutes an usher came over and offered us better seats closer to the stage as they had some unsold and wanted to fill in the front sections. Since she handed us paper tickets, I ended up with 9 total tickets for the show, paying for none of them.
As our party was moving down to the seats in Row 14, it was 7pm on the dot. I had expected the show to start promptly on time, give or take a minute or two for technical issues. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The music played for a few more minutes, with the logo being put up on the big screens at 7:10. At 7:15 the music faded out and the lights began to dim. A montage of clips from the last 40 years (going all the way back to Vanna's audition!) began to play then followed by Dave coming out and giving his warmup. Standard procedure, raise your right hand and promise not to shout out the puzzles, clap and cheer, when to aww and ooo, simple stuff.
Small note: I was politely asked by the production staff of the show to not share puzzles or archive them in any way as they might reuse them in the future. I totally understand this request and will be complying with it. I mean it. No puzzles will be spoiled in this report, partially or fully revealed.
After the warmup, five people were called up to do some toss-ups to determine the players for the first game. All five of them hopped up and ran to the backstage area where the game would be explained to them in extraordinary detail as their nametags were printed. They played three toss-ups, all of them rather easy, and the winners of them were quickly escorted behind the wheel to have even more rules explained to them in extreme detail.
Once that was over, five more names were called up for the second "audition round" to be briefed during the first game. A woman sitting one row in front of me and three or four seats across was chosen, and as soon as her name was put on the big screen she leapt to her feet and squealed rather loudly, which woke me up. She ran off to the backstage area as instructed
When the second round contestants were gathered backstage Dave started a countdown from 10 and the "real show" began. A modified version of the S40 intro played as Mark and Rae were introduced and walked out. This was actually the first time Rae was mentioned to the audience at all, up until this point I thought it would still be Kalpana. Her absence was never mentioned. Mark seemed to have a little trouble with his wardrobe. Whoever stuck his mic pack on had it up a little too high and it caught on the back of his suit jacket giving him the appearance of having a tail. Beyond those minor things the game began with a toss-up which was quickly solved. Wheel for this round was the standard wheel with a gift tag (Dinner and a Movie) on the green 500 next to pink 600. The prize for this round was a trip to New Orleans. Nothing too interesting for this round. Contestant landed on the Wild Card and Mark kinda fumbled the explanation of it. It was bankrupted later that round was promptly yeeted backstage by Mark. The round ended with the red player managing a near sweep by being the only one to truly understand the game. Yellow and Blue were completely lost up there, starting rounds by calling Ms and Ps, and just overall not being the greatest Wheel of Fortune players.
Once the Red player won she got to open her envelope to see which audience member she was playing on behalf of, which was some dude in the way back seats. Once the contestants were escorted off the stage, Mark and Rae went backstage and Dave announced the name of one more player to join the second round of auditions, as an alternate was needed. Once the alternate was briefed, the next round of auditions began with the alternate immediately no-lettering an On The Map puzzle. The crowd went absolutely crazy for that one. Two more toss-ups and we have our three players! The lady from my section of the theater wasn't fast enough on the buzzer to get up, but she won some lovely parting gifts and was ushered back to her seat. Nothing notable about game two other than the trip to New Orleans was swapped out for a trip to Vegas and was won, and we had a Thing puzzle and a Things puzzle in the same game.
After game two Dave comes out into the audience and starts asking questions about the show, the regular trivia facts, Shopper's Bazaar, 2400 pounds, Over 7000 dresses, you know the drill. After a few questions we speed into audition round three with some puzzles that I remember from recent seasons of Wheel. With the New Orleans trip being won, it was swapped out for a trip to Hawaii. Round three started with this one woman who was rather short and just couldn't quite reach the wheel. The first time she went to spin it went about 3 or 4 wedges and she was asked to spin again by Mark. Her second spin went about 6 or 7 wedges and ended up landing on the Bankrupt near LAT. The slide whistle played and the turn indicator moved to the yellow player like normal, but the entire audience began to boo and hiss rather loudly. Had her first spin counted she wouldn't've landed on bankrupt, and the audience felt it wasn't fair to her. Mark seemed taken aback by the response from the audience and actually left the hosting area to stand center stage to interact directly with the audience. Mark says that as long as we promise not to tell Pat Sajak he'll let her spin the wheel one more time, but whatever she lands on is final. The audience agrees with that. I have a slight feeling Mark went center stage to see the producer's table a little clearer to see what their decision was before allowing her to spin again. She spins the wheel again, this time getting it maybe 10 wedges around, and she lands on a point value and the game continues like normal. I found it funny however that when the Red player lost her turn the Yellow player (who was a former Marine) spun the wheel at Mach 1 and got it around 4 or 5 times. The game continues as normal after that with the Hawaii trip being won by the Blue player. The Red player also won the dinner and a movie gift tag which was claimed and banked immediately before a letter was called ala the Prize Box from Wheel 2000.
After the third round, Mark completely forgets where in the show he is, tries to get Dave to call up 5 more people for another toss-up round, and in all the confusion forgets to have the winning player read off their play along audience member. Dave reminds Mark where in the show he is, and Mark just quickly tosses to the 15 minute intermission. At this time the championship match (or "Friday Finals game" as I like to call it) gets set up. Nothing fun happened during intermission this time unlike when I went to Price Live earlier this year. As the 15 minute intermission comes to an end I see the three contestants standing at the wheel having the game explained to them in great detail once again. The generic hype song fades out and in fades the Express bed cue. I think I was the only one to acknowledge that was the signal of the show coming back from intermission as I was the only one prepared for Dave to walk out and start the wedge game. Same as every other venue so far, 12 numbered wedges with either Red, Yellow, or Blue behind it, 3 players with corresponding wristbands, and every person in the audience with the same colored wristband wins a keychain on the way out. Red won this time, but it really came to a close match.
The final match begins with our wheel looking rather snazzy. (Pardon the crappy looking edit, I just wanted to make something while the layout was fresh in my mind) The toss-up to start off the match is themed to something local and garnered some boos from members of the audience. Not going to say what it is, but it was interesting to watch the audience develop a chant because of a puzzle. First puzzle of the main game is a Crossword, and I give the staff credit for keeping the crossword limited to the championship match. We had a Before & After puzzle in the third match and it seemed to have confused the hell out of one of the players. Lord knows someone might try and throw in an AND at some point. The first spin of the first round was the 5000 which triggered a very large woo from exactly one person in the audience. (Yes, me. I was the only one actively participating as an audience member after the third spin or so.) A Mystery Wedge was hit on the second spin, and it was flipped for 5000 points. Points weren't spendable and had to be claimed just like the $10,000 on the normal show. We had a null cycle and a Bankrupt + 2 lost turns in the first round because the crossword wasn't all that easy. Second and third rounds were much easier, big money getting landed on a few times, and the final spin landing on 2500 (for a total of 3500 per letter)
The bonus round was at around the same level of difficulty as the show. I RSTLNE'd it and the contestant seemingly did so as well. $1,250 win for her and a lucky play-along audience member. After the show was over Mark was chilling out in front of the stage taking pictures with fans and autographing items.
Overall the show was fun and I had a great time chilling out with some friends playing Wheel. Plus I got to show off a bit. Having the full outfit was a bit of a conversation piece, met some people who were on the show, had a real good time. If the show comes to your area I highly recommend getting tickets! Everyone on the staff and crew are so amazingly talented with what they do and I wish them all the greatest success in the world.
:eek: Z
