Getting on a Gameshow

One of the best things about staying home sick as a kid was sitting in your living room under a blanket, light-headed from all that cough syrup you just took, and watching The Price is Right (the Bob Barker one — none of this Drew Carey nonsense). You’d guess the prices of grocery items, vacations, a new car, and think, “I’d totally win if I were on this show.” Deadspin has a really wonderful story about a group of friends who decided to try their luck at getting on the game show, and prepped by approaching veteran contestants for tips:

The veterans briefed us on the procedures: You show up early (though not as early as you had to in the Bob Barker days), you sit around, and you get interviewed in a group of about 15 or 20. That interview is the lone means producers have of selecting the nine contestants who’ll be called out of the audience of 300. The goal is to toe the line between enthusiasm and transparent, annoying fakeness. Nobody knew if I should shave my beard or not.

The hot-tub showcase winner, the last one I consult, has the most compelling advice. She offers hugely valuable trip-pricing info — domestic or Caribbean trips run $6–7K, Euro ones more like $11K — and she wildly contradicts the others on the question of enthusiasm. Go completely bonkers, she tells us, and as long as we’re as young and good-looking as I’ve claimed, one person from our group of four will get on.

They make it on the show. They came on down. It’s great.

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