Contestant Blogs
This Week's Contestant
Paul T.
| Theme: | Happy Holidays |
|---|---|
| Hometown: | Los Angeles, CA |
| Week of: | 12-24-2012 |
POSTED on Monday, December 24th, 2012
Wheel of Fortune has definitely been one of those shows that I've watched since I was a kid, but kind of lost touch with once I went to college and went into the "real world." When I was younger, my family actually made me watch Wheel and Jeopardy every night since they thought it was educational and would help me school. At first I didn't like these educational game shows, but after watching them for a while, I grew to love them and looked forwarding to watching Wheel every night. It helped that I grew to be quite good at it, at least in my living room!
Years later, after college was done and I started working, I grew back into the habit of trying to watch Wheel at least fairly often, and a few years later, I decided to apply online on a whim. I had completely forgotten I had even applied until months later when I got an email asking me to come to an audition. I thought it was just spam mail at first, since it seemed so official and unlike emails I normally receive at my personal address, but once I went through it and confirmed my attendance, it suddenly became very real!
I was unbelievably nervous for the audition, but I did know that I was supposed to be as energetic and excited as possible, to show the contestant coordinators that I would make for decent TV at least, so I downed a Red Bull right before the audition and probably was the most bouncing-off-the-wall I have ever been on a normal weekday afternoon. There were far more people at the audition that I thought there would be, and the written part of the audition was definitely much harder than I would have ever imagined, but I also knew that I had been pretty decent at the energetic and fun part of it, so I really couldn't tell at the end whether or not I had gotten in. That plus the fact that the invitation to actually attend the show was sent by snail mail made the next two weeks seem tortuous as I checked my mail every day.
Lo and behold, I did end up getting invited of course, and posting the news on my Facebook page sparked the most commentary and likes that I had ever gotten before. I was pleasantly surprised, since I work in the music industry and most people I know would be too "cool" to care about things like this or TV shows as popular as Wheel - who knew that becoming a contest on Wheel of Fortune would be so popular among 20-something year olds in LA? I guess it goes to show that no matter how "cool" you try to be, you can't beat a good old fashioned game show to drum up excitement.
A while later, after an initial run-through as an alternate, the day to appear finally came. Whether or not I was able to put my years of Wheel watching to good use is something you'll have to find out when you watch me on TV!
Watch me spin on Monday, December 24th!