Scott Redman is a partner at Crowley, Barrett, and Karaba, Ltd., Attorneys at Law. Before embarking on his legal career, he was also the general manager of WPGU radio in 1985, my last year in Champaign-Urbana. He lives in Chicago with his wife Cindi and his daughter Lauren.
"Deal or No Deal"By Scott Redman
As many of you may know, Deal or No Deal came to Chicago for an open casting call. I am sure that the idea of possibly winning $1 Million (or more) crossed many people's minds and then fluttered away like so many other crazy ideas.
Well, not so for my mother-in-law, Pat, who went to Navy Pier last weekend to "try out" for Deal or No Deal. My father-in-law, Earl, went along for the ride. They left their house in Rolling Meadows at about 5:30AM and when they arrived at Navy Pier, they found themselves about one zillionth in line.
After about 7 hours of inching their way to the front of the line, they both decided to try out. They had to fill out a questionnaire and then each had a very short, maybe 2 minute, interview with an assistant producer. They played up the fact that they were going to be great grandparents (that's another story) and rode touring motorcycles in a local club. That apparently piqued the interviewer's interest as it was "something different."
That was Saturday. On Sunday, Earl got a call from the production staff inviting him to a "call back" on Tuesday. Earl, who was just along for support, got through to the next round - Pat was left in the dust.
Earl was instructed to arrive at the Congress Hotel at a specified time on Tuesday evening with 4 to 6 "supporters," dressed as if they were going to be on the show. Based on availability, Earl selected his wife (Pat), Cindi (my wife, his daughter), his son Jeff, my 7 year old daughter Lauren (a big fan of the show), me and his friend Harry (a pilot for American). Pat inserted my mom, Barb, into the group as well.
When we got the hotel we were provided with a two page instruction sheet. As it turns out, not only is Earl auditioning for the show, but so are we - as his supporters (we would later find out that there have been plenty of great contestants that have not been picked for the show because their supporters were too lame). This information sheet encouraged all of us to be very enthusiastic, but not to act. It also gave us advice such as "Answer questions in complete sentences" and so on.
The fact sheet also explained that Earl would go for a one on one interview with a producer. We would then be called into the room and would play a simulated round of Deal or No Deal. We were to act as if it was the real thing and give it all we had. That was more than I bargained for as I am not good at faking excitement (certainly not as good as my wife is).
Most importantly, the fact sheet explained that if Earl was selected for the show he and his supporters would be flown in for the show. Interestingly, it is the producers that pick the supporters from those that came with him to the interview, not Earl, and there was no mention of who was paying for lodging.
So while we waited in the bullpen, the staff took a number of digital pictures of Earl holding up a sign with his name and applicant number - very similar to a mug shot. They then gathered all of us and took a group picture. As we waited in the holding area, there were many other groups waiting for their interview. It was interesting to note the stereotypical (or at least what I perceived as stereotypical game show contestants).
There was the "Howdy Pard" cowboy guy and his hootin' and hoolerin' gang. There was the large black man and his "junk in the trunk" team. The "Yo, how you doing" Italian guy (with his cool sunglasses hanging from the back of his shirt collar) and his tightly-panted female accomplice were there. And then there was the tall blonde MILF (who had previously been on Wheel of Fortune (wonder why!)) with her tall brunette sister-in-law MILF (in all fairness, my wife is a MILF too). There were a fair number of kids in tow as there seems to be a lot of kids on the show as supporters - I guess we were not the only ones to think of that angle.
After a while in the bullpen, Earl's name was called. The producers had 5 meeting rooms set up and we were assigned to room B. We had to wait in the hall while the group ahead of us finished. We could hear them yelling and screaming as if they were on the show. The pressure started to build. Then Earl was called into the room. His interview went fine- as far as we know - and now it was our turn to play the game.
In the room there was a video camera and an easel with a dry-erase board. The amounts $0.01, $10.00, $750.00, $100,000.00 and $1,000,000.00 were drawn on the board and five paper "briefcases" (numbers 1, 7, 13, 18, and 25) were sitting on the board's easer ledge. The producer acted as the show's host, introduced Earl and asked him to introduce each of us. Earl was clearly nervous as he forgot both his daughter's name and forgot to even introduce Barb. Then he was asked to pick his case and we encouraged him to pick #7 as that is Lauren's age.
Earl then picked the "Black Cat" (#13). The dollar amount was written on the back and the producer showed it to the camera first, and then to us. $1,000,000.00!. Much to my surprise I had an honest reaction. No acting. I dropped to the ground in anguish. I had already forgotten that this was not for real. Earl then picked #1 which had $0.01. We screamed and jumped up and down like idiots. High fives for everybody.
The "banker" then offered $32,000.00. Like all the fools before us on TV, we gave the contestant our opinion. No Deal!! Earl's next pick was #25 and it had something other than the $100,000.00 - I was so excited I cannot even remember what it was - just that it was not $100,000.00. The game was then over and Earl was given an opportunity to switch his case with the last remaining case. We implored him not to. He kept #7 and it is a good thing because it had the $100,000! We jumped and screamed and hugged each other. Earl's interview was over.
It was very interesting to say the least. I have always wondered what it took to get picked to be on a game show. It clearly takes an interesting story, a bunch of unbridled enthusiasm, and it probably doesn't hurt to be a MILF (or have one in your group!).
Don't bother to ask me for Earl's number because you want to borrow some of his soon to be gotten winnings. We were told that we should forget that we ever interviewed for Deal or No Deal as they may call us in 2 weeks, 2 years, or never. We were admonished to not call them. Typical Hollywood "don't call us - we'll call you."
I bet you $50 the blonde MILF gets a call next week.
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