The Price Is Right

Okay, so I'm late posting this. Sorry. Obviously it wasn't a life changing event for me. What am I talking about? Attending a taping of the Price Is Right. It was a surreal experience and fun it it's own odd way, but not something I would do again unless one of you are just dying to try it. If my memory serves me it was show 24sr and will be airing prime time as it was their million dollar spectacular. You can look up at cbs.com to find out when it will air. If I have the time I'll get around to looking and post it later.

I couldn't sleep the night before so I finally got up at 3:30 to get ready to go. I had heard that you needed to get there by 4:00am to get a good place in line and a guaranteed ticket. I had also heard that you could get there at 6:00 and still be okay. Not sure, I opted for the earlier time. Thankfully it was not as cold as it had been the week before. I arrived around 4:30 and got in line. I ended up being 56th in line. The people in the front of the line arrived at 7:00pm the night before and slept on the ground at the gate. Talk about insane. Talking with people in line was interesting. Many had done the show before, several quite a few times, but had never been "called down". Considering that out of a crowd of 340 people only 10 names get chosen I'd say the odds are against us. I really thought I'd have a better chance as my name is so unusual. However, the reason you see unusual names or full names on the tags is because you have to put down your legal name that appears on your ID that you have to take, along with your SSN#. Well, after lining up so early, a worker comes out at 6:00am (of course they were a bit late) and gives out order of arrival passes. Then at 8:00 the gates open (again late) and you line up in your order of arrival to get a priority number. There are two taping a day and I was there for the earlier one. Usually you get your priority # and can leave to eat or whatever, but they wanted to start taping early so they told us not to leave. I had grabbed a bag of fruit gummies and dehydrated pears on my way out the door, but was starving by 12:00. Argghhh. Then you again line up in order and wait and wait and wait some more. They come around and give you your name tag and instructions, then interview you in groups of 12. Hi, what's your name, where are you from, what do you do? type thing. The whole time you are sitting and waiting they keep announcing that your number doesn't guarantee you a seat in the taping and to not leave your seat, but stay in order. They did have a snack bar that was so expensive you could eat at a 5 star restaurant for the same price (okay, exaggerating a little) and the bathroom only had 3 stalls for all of the hundred of people. So, needless to say, it made one a little nervous to leave their seats. They were supposed to start taping at 12:00 but didn't manage to get us into the studio until after 1:00. Again, I was starving, thristy, and tired. So by the time we entered the studio I felt like I had taken a hit of ecstasy or shrooms or some other mind altering drug. The studio is sooo much smaller than it appears on TV. The decorations are so 70's it made me laugh. They seat you, play loud fun music, and watch how crazy you can be. I think this is when they make final decisions about who to call down. I must not have been crazy enough, or maybe it was that I wasn't wearing a PIR teeshirt. Or maybe it was that I didn't do squats, lunges, and push-ups while waiting in line like the guy who was #1 did.

He did get called down. He was the BIGGEST flake ever!!! He made crazy faces, spun around on the floor like Homer Simpson when he won $20K, did cartwheels and made all sorts of crazy comments in the mic whenever he got the chance. Wow. (Found out after the show that he has a life partner, go figure the fruitiness of his behaviour) So, he wins his spin off, and wins the double showcase by bidding closer than $2,00 without going over. His showcase alone was worth over $83K, the other one $64K and since it was their Million Dollar Spectacular he also won a cool $1 million in cash. It was the largest prize ever given away there. So, that is my Price Is Right experience in a nut shell.

Fatigue, hunger, and thirst leaves you feeling like you just took some sort of drug that gave you a surreal experience that was more dreamlike than anything reality could produce. Now you know the real reason the contestants are so spastic and a little on edge.