mikemcguff.com: What Wheel of Fortune tryouts are really like

Murdock, who sometimes writes for the Dwight Schultz Blog (please comment on there and tell him to start posting!), went to the Wheel of Fortune tryouts in Fort Worth last weekend. He graciously found the time to answer some of my questions about this puzzling event. Murdock, I'd like to buy a vowel.

> What was the room like?

The tryouts were held in two of the bigger rooms at the Fort Worth Convention Center. It was quite exciting to be huddled in there with strangers who smelled like the rest of us. Perhaps the community soap never got passed around! The rooms were comfortable if you didn't mind standing on your feet. Mrs. Murdock and I stood from 2:15pm to around 6:15pm. We were in the 3rd group of 1000 people. After watching 30 people get called up and make buffoons out of themselves, we were excused and went to dinner at Cabo Grande in Fort Worth's Sundance Square. Mexican food never tasted so great!

> What was the process?

The process was to begin with popping some Tylenol for the future pain to come from standing on our feet. I think I may have accidentally taken one Viagra though since people kept asking, "Who brought the tripod in?" Anywho, after taking the medicine and of course parking 10 blocks away from the Convention Center, you stand in line to hopefully get called up to the stage. When Mrs. Murdock and I got up there to first stand in line, we were probably numbers 3150 and 3151. Who knew? We were able to get a bite to eat since there were concessions available, but no Bud Light! Cedric the Entertainer would have been upset! After we ate, we waited about another 2.5 hours to sit. By this time Mrs. Murdock had blisters the size of a small invasion fleet that is about to take over a fictional place in Florida (ala ABC's TV show Invasion). We finally got to sit and Mrs. Murdock and I looked at each other and thought, "What in the Hell are we doing?" This is fun and a great experience, but we would rather have been shopping away in Fort Worth. I think I saw a picture of David Hasselhoff in one store after we left the convention center. Oh, well.

> What did they make you do?

They made us do stupid human tricks. No wait that is David Letterman. We stood in line unmercifully and waited to receive an application. We finally received an application about 5:45 pm and promptly filled it out. I used the back of my Bob Schieffer book to write on as did Mrs. Murdock. There wasn't any one particular thing we had to do except sweat, toil, and think about drinking beer!

> Was it fun?
It was very exciting, but not an experience I would want to repeat anytime soon. I of course just wanted to be with Mrs. Murdock. Yummy!