Way back to I can bear in mind, I needed to be on Jeopardy! Once I was 6 years outdated, I impressed my Jeopardy!-watching mother and father by discovering out that “this chook of prey often known as the fish hawk” is the osprey; I have been an everyday viewer ever since. I’ve obtained an excellent reminiscence, and my information base is ideal for Jeopardy!: broad however shallow. (That is additionally how I can write Collider articles on every little thing from silent movie to Odor-O-Imaginative and prescient.) I am not an knowledgeable on many subjects, however there is a good probability I am going to know at the least 4 of the 5 issues which are certain to come back up in any given class. I even have a fairly good base of sports activities information, which means I am going to be capable to keep away from a “Talkin’ Soccer” second.

I would held off on really making use of for the present principally for sensible causes; I dwell in Canada, and many of the in-person auditions weren’t held wherever close to me. However after I heard in the summertime of 2017 that they had been going to be holding auditions in Toronto, a number of hours away, I raced to finish the web entry take a look at. It consists of fifty Jeopardy!-style questions in a wide range of classes; you have obtained 15 seconds to reply every one, however you do not have to place it within the type of a query.

I felt fairly assured about most of my solutions, and positive sufficient, a number of months later, I obtained an e-mail letting me know that I would been invited to an in-person audition in Toronto in November. I wasn’t so apprehensive in regards to the skill-testing portion of the audition, however there was additionally a “character interview,” which I feared would reveal that I did not have one. Admittedly, the bar for being telegenic is just not excessive: my father dubbed the contestant interview section “Boring Anecdote Time” for a purpose.

Please Welcome Immediately’s Contestants

The auditions had been at Toronto’s Royal York Resort, which is fancy sufficient that the one means I will be staying there’s if I win on Jeopardy! After going by way of two lodge employees members, considered one of whom was fully unaware of the auditions going down there, I lastly discovered a member of the janitorial employees who pointed me in the correct course. There, I discovered my fellow would-be contestants and Maggie Converse, the present’s veteran contestant wrangler. I knew her from status as a result of I learn Ken Jennings‘ guide Brainiac: Adventures within the Curious, Aggressive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs. She was brassy and energetic and stored every little thing operating easily.

There was additionally just a little mingling with the opposite candidates. Most individuals had been fairly regular, however a few them needed to be on TV within the worst means. A couple of individuals volunteered that this was solely their newest audition, and so they’d been right here a number of occasions. No one appeared to be an apparent Ken Jennings, which gave me some hope; in the event you go searching a room filled with Jeopardy! hopefuls and do not see the Ken Jennings, perhaps you are the Ken Jennings. We ran by way of one other fifty-question take a look at — with pen and paper, which means I had to ensure my handwriting was legible, for as soon as — after which we obtained a shock.

And Now, Right here Is the Host of ‘Jeopardy!’…

After Converse and her assistant collected the checks, they left the room. Moments later, the door in the back of the room opened, and a few man poked his head in, asking if it was too late to take the take a look at. All of us turned to see who this poor sap was, and it was Alex Trebek. He did not usually drop into the in-person auditions, however he was on the town en path to Ottawa, the place he would obtain the Order of Canada (the best civilian honor for a Canadian) in a number of days. He was precisely the way you imagined him to be – nice and pleasant, in a position to work a crowd with one of the best of them, however with a contact of imperiousness that units him other than the remainder of his friends.

He talked about his pleasure in being Canadian, hockey (he grew up a Detroit Purple Wings fan, however he has some sort phrases for the native Toronto Maple Leafs), and his favourite Alex Trebek impression; for the document, he most popular Eugene Levy‘s rendition to Will Ferrell‘s more-famous Saturday Night time Stay impersonation. I used to be in a position to impress him after I recalled the identify of the SCTV sketch that featured Levy as exasperated host “Alex Trebel”: “Half Wits,” which might encourage Ferrell’s Superstar Jeopardy! sketches. He had us within the palm of his hand in the course of his transient go to, and everybody was sorry to see him go when he excused himself to his room to get “again to ingesting,” as he mentioned.

This…Is…’Jeopardy!’

ith Trebek departing, Converse re-entered, and it was time for the ultimate part of the audition; a mock spherical of Jeopardy!, full with the precise buzzers from the present, or at the least cheap facsimiles of them. Mastery of the buzzer is essential to Jeopardy! success — everytime you see a participant who can not seem to get it collectively, there is a good probability they know the solutions, however their timing with the buzzer is off. When contestants are on the present, there are lights on their podiums that point out once they can buzz in — in the event that they ring in earlier than the lights are set, they’re locked out for 1 / 4 of a second, which is usually sufficient time for another person to ring in as an alternative. Everyone obtained a flip to play a number of rounds, and I did fairly nicely.

Subsequent, we got here to the dreaded private anecdote portion of the afternoon, the place we pretended to do the post-commercial break contestant interviews. I used to be in a position to deploy my greatest (and perhaps solely) anecdotal weapon; I’ve written character profiles and carried out analysis tasks for Marvel Comics, a job that sounds a lot cooler than it’s. Converse, who has a razor-sharp reminiscence, immediately recalled earlier five-game winner Christine Valada, whose late husband, comics author Len Wein, co-created Wolverine and Swamp Factor. I took this as an excellent signal.

All of us obtained just a little swag bag, that includes a clicky pen — excellent for buzzer testing — and a set of earphones, which one would-be contestant dubbed “Beats by Trebek.” There was a drawing for a replica of the house recreation, which I didn’t win. A 20-volume set of the Encyclopedia Worldwide, a case of Turtle Wax, and a lifetime provide of Rice-A-Roni (The San Francisco Deal with) weren’t within the offing. Maggie wished us nicely, and we cleared out into the grim Toronto November.

I Misplaced Out on ‘Jeopardy!’, Child

I watched my inbox and mailbox like a fish hawk for a number of months, however no reply got here and 18 months later, my eligibility interval expired. I wasn’t going to be on Jeopardy! — that point, at the least. The present has modified since I auditioned. Converse retired, Trebek died in 2020, and was ultimately changed as host by Jeopardy! GOAT Jennings. Publish-COVID, auditions are now not held in-person, however through the magic of Zoom. I nonetheless dutifully strive the web take a look at yearly however have but to listen to again to make it to a different audition. Nonetheless, hope springs everlasting, and I really feel that at some point, I will be on that stage, testing my mind on nationwide TV. The excellent news is that I am going to be capable to use “I wrote an article for Collider about my final audition” as considered one of my anecdotes this time.

Verify native listings