Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Jeopardy Game Show

I've been a fan of Jeopardy for as long as I can remember.  In fact I started watching during the Art Fleming years.  When this upstart Alex Trebek took over, I was among those who wondered if he could fill Fleming's shoes.
 
I've tried several times to get onto Jeopardy.  I went to one of the contestant auditions when it was held here.  It was a crowd of professionally dressed people milling around and waiting for their appointment time.  We filed into a large room crowded with folding chairs, with no chair arms.  Seating was shoulder to shoulder.  Clipboards and answer sheets were handed out to everyone. 

There was a short video presentation of the Jeopardy audition process, then the test began. I had to balance the clipboard on my knee to write my 'question' to the answers which were displayed on a screen for 15 seconds.  It wasn't required that the 'questions' were actually in question form. It was important to show you knew what the answer was about. 

Afterward, there was no indication what the correct answers were, or how many, questions anyone got right.  I tried to memorize the answers so I could look up the questions, but my memory wasn't good enough.

My other attempts have been on-line auditions.  Same15 seconds per answer, same brief 'question' responses.  And the same lack of how well or poorly I did.  But at least the 'questions' could be typed instead of written on a poorly balanced piece of paper.

My downfall has been the preponderance of audition answers based on the classical arts - paintings, music, literature.  When I watch the show, I can run entire categories,  but the classics are my weakness. 

I take particular glee in answering questions that none of the contestants answer, or answer incorrectly.  But that doesn't get me any closer to actually competing.

Actually, my biggest fear is that any appearance I made would be like the Weird Al song, "I Lost on Jeopardy". 

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