When you’re in the green room before rehearsals and taping begin, one of the contestant coordinators comes around with a card on which they’ve listed what they feel are three of the most interesting topics that you’ve submitted (and they’ve asked for at least ten by that time). You get a chance to rehearse what you would say for each of them, and the card will be marked as to your preference, but Alex decides which topic on the card he will ask about.
You do write a bunch of “interesting facts” about yourself, which is why contestants have stories they’re prepared to launch into at a moment’s notice. However, sometimes Alex goes “off the card” and asks you his own question (which leads sometimes to momentarily befuddled contestants). I would venture that the most frequent off-the-card topic is the player’s line of work. Alex used card stories for my first three games, then made up his own interview topics in my other three. Because I was introduced with two jobs, my work took up two days of interviews. And when I came back for the next season, he asked me about the money I’d won (talking on that subject was easily the worst part of my audition). All in all, I think I came up with over ten tidbits about myself, and only three were ever used. Hopefully I’ll get my interview topics overlooked a few more times.
Once there was a veterinary technician contestant who apparently did acupuncture on pets. Alex decided to tell her he was skeptical of the good that it did and he basically had her defend her position. And she did, adequately and admirably, and it made for an interesting interview. Although it may have come off rude, I thought it was kind of cool that Alex would be so direct about his skepticism, and it brought out a good response. I don’t imagine it could have happened on any other game show.
I’m waiting, too, but haven’t been called. I think I’m okay on the five interesting factoids, but I shot myself in the foot on the “what would you do with the money” question.
I think there were three of us in the audition group who said they had bathrooms that desperately needed to be remodeled. But I also said I wanted to go to Prague, so I hope that was a little more memorable. Bathroom . . . Prague . . . bathroom . . . Prague. Hmmmm.
For those folks with general questions about how “Jeopardy!” works, I’m gonna jump in here and recommend Bob Harris’ excellent book “Prisoner of Trebekistan”, which has some good inside info about “Jeopardy!” as well as being a ridiculously fun read.
Have any of you who’ve been on or auditioned for the show seen Alex or anyone else comment on the SNL celebrity jeopardy skits? I’d love to know what Alex thinks of them. I remember one FJ clue that started “This Scotsman…” and before going to the contestants for their questions Alex said something like “And no, the answer is not Sean Connery.”
During a commercial break someone asked this question. I remember he hemmed and hawed a bit but the general vibe was that he thought it was funny on some level.
I had some great stories, and the contestant coordinator even suggested that Alex would ask a certain one. But he asked me one of my weaker ones. That Trebek is a wild card, I tell ya…
I’ve talked to a number of people who consider Trebek to be a douche, but he actually engaged with the audience, and fielded questions during breaks. Ben Stein, on the other hand, retreated to his trailer and had no interaction with the crowd. So I think Trebek’s an alright guy, and probably a little smarter than most people think he is.