Tips Before My Taping?

jmdarrall,

I'm almost brought to tears by the kind people on Buy a Vowel!! holy crap, how did I not know you guys existed before? Jonathan, can i ask how you got to be a contestant blogger? I will totally take your advice on the Green Room seating. If Vanna touches me I swear I will melt. I wish my grandma could come with me. She is 91 and has almost never missed a day of watching Wheel. We're not even allowed to call her at 7 pm.

Hi, Gretchen.

I only found out about this site just days before my taping last year. I wish I'd known about them, too! I was chosen to be a contestant blogger about a month before my show aired. If you are a particularly memorable contestant (not necessarily a big winner), can tell a good story, and can get on the contestant coordinators' good side, there's a good chance that you'll be chosen as the contestant blogger for your week of shows.

As for being selected to blog, I got a call from the show's publicity department, who told me that I was recommended to do the blog by the CC's themselves. After all, they will spend the entire day with you and will get to know you and your personality. Just think of it this way, you get to be as loud and as crazy and as excited as you want this Friday! That alone is going to make it sooooo much fun.

It sounds to me like you're going into this with the right attitude. You're already a winner, and if you screw up, the worst that happens is that you appear on Youtube and get a good laugh. Pat and the CC's will genuinely cheer you on or cheer you up, whatever the case may be.

BTW: The time limit for making a decision (spin, buy, solve, which letter, starting to solve, etc.) is FIVE seconds. There will be a red digital timer under the Used Letter Board. The only three-second time limit is during the Speed Round. Also, don't do what I did on Toss-Ups: don't have a brain fart - make sure you have the exact answer when you buzz in, and check ALL the words.

Just curious, what are the themes of the week you'll be on, calcetina (unless 6th)?

I don't know how this board found out about my air date, but yep, I made it and played it! Had the TIME OF MY LIFE and still can't believe it was real. The weeks leading up to the taping (and especially the day before) were the absolute worst!! I don't think anyone wants to hear about how my nerves got me so twisted up that I got sick on the plane... yuck! But once I was there with other contestants, I was so much better! I'll post more about the day (hopefully you won't be bored to tears) but it was truly the best day of my last 7 years. My mom and friend Amy were in the audience and they just had the best experiences up there talking to Tony and cheering for everyone else. Calcetina, you are going to have so much fun. I still want to be pinched! It was a dream come true.

Oops!! LOL. MarioGS I have to tell ya, the last couple of weeks "post-dreamland" have been a blur and I forgot about Twitter... I thought maybe you were some kind of well-connected mystic or something and you had seen my airdate in the crystal ball.

Anyway, Tony is not another contestant or anything, he is an employee who has worked at the studios for years and years and knows everything and everyone! He keeps the contestant audience quiet when needed and also pumps them up whenever the APPLAUSE sign comes on. He was apparently having a great time with my mom and friend. Nothing secret-- just a really sweet employee who was working hard to promote the love of Wheel and also keep people in line! When I was done with my episode I went over to the contestant family section and Tony told me that my mom was the loudest cheerleader for everyone! They also have people up in the audience asking trivia questions and handing out prizes. Tony apparently asked the audience, "WOF is loosely based on a game from childhood. Does anyone know which game?" And my mom, not thinking of Hangman (the correct answer) yelled out, "Spin the bottle!!!" ghahaha... She really is that sweet and naive. Tony was also telling me about some of the Munchkinland scenes filmed on Stage 11 and the reunions they have had over the years. We were kindred spirits and I'm just sad that I couldn't have spoken to him longer.

I have to say that what the CCs tell you is true- the time you're up playing the Wheel is the absolute fastest 22 minutes of your life. And to be totally honest without any spoilers...YES-- there were puzzles all week that referenced V8-related words and ideas... LMAO. Some of the in-between banter between Pat and Vanna involved the ingredients found in V8. Seriously! I could NOT believe how witty and wonderful Pat and Vanna were. If they can talk about freakin' vegetable juice and make it funny, I am sure that there has to be some witty colostomy conversations going on 20 years from now when Wheel celebrates 51 years. Everyone in the audience got a bottle of V8 and they sponsored a ($7500? i don't remember exactly) cash prize wedge.

My biggest source of fear was the "Pat Chat" contestant interview, but I hopefully pulled that off without too much embarrassment. I really don't like talking about my hobbies or interests (my brother told me i would never get a date again if i was honest) but Pat is such a damn natural that he made me feel at ease and happy with our little introduction. I am even more of an Ed Gremley about Pat than I was before. He is so smart and QUICK! One of the other contestants in my game was very sweet and extremely quirky but Pat didn't miss a beat and he made it fun!

During the week's episodes (I don't remember which show or what the puzzle exactly was) but I am pretty sure I remember a bonus round that had a ridiculous adjective like you had talked about earlier. I can't wait to watch the week of Jan. 13 so that I can see the friends I made backstage and all the puzzles I watched from the audience.

I think the saddest thing of all is that none of us contestants were able to exchange information. I'm not sure why we all didn't pass around a piece of paper with our email addresses on it, but alas, we did not.

Still, it was an amazing day and I took jmdarrall's suggestion of sitting up front and center in the contestant room. As it turns out, I was the one who did get to be touched (on the shoulder!) by Vanna but it was not during makeup, she stopped by when we were doing some publicity photos in the studio! I totally lucked out and I saw her out of the corner of my eye walk right behind me (I was standing in the red player spot) and she walked in and stood in Pat's spot with no makeup on and a gym bag over her shoulder. She was STUNNING... omg. And so tiny!! Just a beautiful woman.

I need to organize my thoughts better but one thing i can tell any of you who have the letter and are just waiting for the call is something that has been echoed on this board: The CCs know what they are doing and they will help you. It will all be OK! You'll be in a room with 19 other people who are going through the same thing!!

If this is the same Tony I'm thinking of, then he also works/worked for Jeopardy!. I remember talking with him in the Jeopardy! green room when I was on back in '03. He was wearing a "Wheel" lanyard when I asked him if he also worked at Wheel, then he said something like, "How'd you know I worked for Wheel?" I pointed to the lanyard and he laughed, sorta like "Oh duh, how could I forget I had that on?"

Even better, I asked him if he was the guy who changed the wedges on the wheel. I don't remember what he said he actually did, but changing the wedges on the wheel was definitely not part of his job description.

Good to hear he's still with Jeopardy!.

They say I have a pretty selective memory, though--I still remember most of my experience on Jeopardy! as clear as day, but if you asked me to remember a lot of the finer points from when I was on The Price is Right (other than the fact that I won), I couldn't tell you.

Ahh, yes, it's coming back to me now...I seem to recall a Porsche was involved in the other guy's Showcase.

Yeah, he's the one! Couldn't remember his last name.

Now you're both making me anxious to get the call to get on. It's been about 7 months since I got the letter now, and I'm still waiting...(whistles Jeopardy! theme)