Chicagoland Auditions!

Best of luck, Andy. You'll love it, I got some personal tips, too. This is the best game show experience I've ever had, at least in person. You might know what to expect, but some things are not said, besides, personal experience can beat mass-produced info, IMO. Even if you know all this stuff, it's useful for anyone who doesn't know it.

I can say I've seen the Wheelmobile once, 4 years ago. It was in a local mall in Rhode Island, PACKED to the brim with people. Security everywhere, so don't do anything suspicious (I doubt you would, but it appeared security was higher than that mall would usually have). Two, I suggest you get there REALLY early, if at all possible, so you're in a good spot to see the show, not to mention, to make a good impression. Ask to get a small slip (might be a ticket) to put your name on, some page will likely hand them out to asking people. It will go in a giant spinning raffle box, much like this:



That's another reason to get there super early, less people have put their names in by that point. What is this used for, you might ask? Well, it's used to pick the 3 contestants that will be playing upon a smallish stage. If you are not picked from that "raffle" from the literally thousands of people to play, you will not move on to the next round of auditioning, no matter how good of a player you may be. I hate this, it's not skill based. However, don't get the wrong idea, because they play at least 15 games, likely more because it went on for so long that I needed lunch. Because of this, I'd guess probably anywhere from 45-60 players are picked per event.

You'll notice I haven't mentioned the stage you could potentially play on. It is exetremely small, bordering on homemade sizes. The letterboard works through flippable white boards, as does the used letter list. If a letter is guessed correctly, the Vanna wannabe flips over the white board, and uses a dry erase marker to write the letter in. Can she make mistakes? Yes, but she and the crew (hidden, to her left) are very good about it, it is fixed quickly. As for the categories cards, they are simply sliding cardboard. Between rounds, wannabe Pat interacts with the crowd, while picking names, and everything is replaced behind him (categories, appropriate number of whiteboard "letter spaces", etc.)

As for game play itself? Wannabe Pat spins a medium-sized wheel (similar to promotional wheels advertising for a company or elsewhere). Whatever the wheel lands on, that's what the winner of the round (game, since the whole game is one round) is playing for. This ranges from T-shirts, to key chains, to tote bags, to the rarely spun cold, hard cash. Sometimes, an element of of PYL is landed on: Choice, which works the same way as Pick-A-Prize. You can't pick the cash, but you pick the prize, any of them. I'm not sure, but I think there's also a Surprise wedge, too; the Surprise prize is generally nicer than typical prizes.

The game itself is played the exactly same way as the speed-up round, however, given no money for non-vowels, I'd think about guessing vowels first, this strategy was underused (if at all) because it's not like the actual show. Letter guessing goes left to right, or red to blue. This order is determined by the order you were picked out of that giant raffle thing-a-ma-jig. If you do solve the puzzle correctly, not only a congrats on the prize, but after your two fellow contestants walk off the stage, you are escorted by somebody, asking for your personal info, because you've passed the first round of auditions. Way to go! If you don't get picked, at all, don't be surprised. Just enjoy the moment and better luck next time, I sure did!

FYI, I found a good picture of what the stage looks like, which I guess is a travelling one, because it looks like the one I saw:



Hmm... I've got an idea. Mark, do you mind copying this post, except for this last paragraph? Make it it's own stickied topic called, "So, You're Going to a Wheelmobile Event?" All credit to me, as of now, of course. I think this is a really good account of what happens at a Wheelmobile event, very similar in nature to GR.net's "So You're Going to Visit The Price is Right?"

Well, I am back from my auditions. Was I called on stage? Read on to find out...

Me and my family stayed through the first two sessions. There were like 500-700 people at The Venue at Horseshoe Casino! Of course, they come from all over the Chicagoland area and also northwest Indiana! The energy was very high and everybody was in for a thrill! We BARELY MADE IT (5 minutes to spare) for the first session after writing on the yellow applications. There were some singing and dancing (one guy doing “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley and a girl doing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”)

1st session:

I have to say, Marty Lublin is a very energetic and enthusiastic Pat wannabe! I always love it when he jumps up in the air after he spins the Wheel and the pointer lands on a nice prize. Tracey Wilson (not Heidi Jackson) is his co-host. She was wearing a black strap dress and a poppy flower. And I saw Mr. David Strathearn, the senior marketing and promotions manager, standing by with those prizes along with a couple of members of the ABC7 team. And I think I saw Suzy Rosenberg (Publicity & Promotions producer) wearing a white hat. Now for the name-calling (usually groups of five or sometimes six)… The first five were all-male (but I was NOT one of them). The first puzzle of the night was an OCCUPATION. I knew it quickly with just the C’s and the N revealed (of course I wasn’t allowed to shout out the answers; I was whispering them to my mom). The answer was AUTO MECHANIC. There were more puzzles I solved quickly later in this session including:

-METER MAID OF HONOR (B&A)
-SKY DIVERS (PEOPLE)
-LINCOLN PARK ZOO (LANDMARK)
-THE IVORY COAST (ON THE MAP)
-PARALEGAL (OCCUPATION; it was at the same time as one of the ladies on stage)

A few others I solved with a good portion of letters filled in include:

-FITNESS GURU (PERSON)
-PUZZLE SOLVER (PERSON)
-AN EAR OF CORN SYRUP (BEFORE AND AFTER)

Now, just before the puzzles of LINCOLN PARK ZOO and FITNESS GURU were revealed, I was irked by what I heard from two ladies on stage. They said their hobbies included SMOKING AND DRINKING!!! Ugh. I shook my head in despair as soon as they said that. To me, I DON’T think those will make a good impression on the judges. And you’re NOT gonna believe what happened during gameplay. For the puzzle FITNESS GURU, the people on the stage were so slow, they can’t even spell either of those two words!!! They also made the mistake of NOT watching the used-letter board. All of the letters had to be filled in for that puzzle! That's pretty embarrassing.

With the last game approaching for this session (the B&A puzzle of AN EAR OF CORN SYRUP), I was hoping that I would be one of the last six names called…SADLY, I WASN’T.

Session #2:

Let’s hope this session was for me. This one started late due to a long Session #1. These were the puzzles used:

-THE HEAD HONCHO (PERSON)
-CONCERT PIANIST (OCCUPATION)
-WILLIS TOWER (LANDMARK)
-CAPTIVE AUDIENCE (PEOPLE)
-BUNGEE JUMPING (EVENT)

For the Landmark puzzle, it took a LOOOONGGGGG time for the contestant wannabes to solve this one. I got the impression that they think the tower is still named SEARS TOWER.

And did I make it on stage??? UNFORTUNATELY, NO.

So, even though I was enthusiastic but not being called up on stage, I had a great time and I hope to get an invite via e-mail or letter in my mailbox to the final round of auditions after they do the random picking in Los Angeles.