Who Is.... Mark Lee
I had been wanting to try out for Jeopardy! since I first started watching
the show in the early 80s. I had sent in postcards but never been called
and, when I saw that they were coming to Chicago and you could register
online, I was all over it. I registered both myself and my wife, and we both
got called. I passed, she didn't but she took a different test than I did.
Afterwards, I figured I wouldn't get called but I heard from them the week
after September 11th inviting me to come out for the tapings on October 23,
2001.
The first time I went, I flew out the night before, and that morning was
when I found out the amounts had been doubled. The doubled amounts is a very cool thing and it was good to me, but I think it makes the games more volatile (you can go down faster in the same way that you can go up faster!).
The defending champ that morning was the director of a think tank in the DCarea and I just hoped like hell I wouldn't lose too badly. But he lost the
first game, and I got called for the second. I was winning just into the
first round when they stopped the game because the gal in the middle's
buzzer wasn't working properly. They said the only fair thing to do was to start over, and it was. They said they'd need a couple minutes to set up again, and although we'd just come out of the Green Room, the defending champ says "Do I have time to go to the bathroom again?"
That's when I realized that everyone else there was just as freaked out and nervous as I was! We were all flesh and blood and anybody was beatable. I was in last place at the end of the first round, but I went into FJ leading and we all got the question right. I'd bet enough to cover and had a good payday. I was happy to win my first game, and I almost had a runaway with the second.
At lunch I could hardly eat because I was excited/happy/nervous/anxious --- you name it.
I wanted to make it through the day without losing. The third game I wound up tied for the lead going into Final Jeopardy and we all bet everything. I was the only one that got it right, and I moved on again.
The fourth game was a runaway so I flew home that night, stopping to call my wife and my folks to tell them what had happened. For my fifth game I had to come back the following week, so I had an entire week to think about it. I think that wound up hurting my game. I was more nervous for that one than all the others and it showed in my performance. But I got both Daily Doubles in the DJ round (betting big both times) and was able to go from last place goinginto the DJ round to first going into FJ. But we all got the question wrong and I'd bet to cover.
The guy that won had just seen me bet big on the 2 DDs in the DJ round and must have known he wouldn't be able catch me if I got the question right. The positive was I did get a trip to Cabo for finishing second, and my wife and I had a wonderful time there. It's my favorite part of Mexico so far.
To celebrate I taped all the games and had a crowd over to watch them.
We have an annual birthday party for Elvis and it doubled as my victory party. I was a little disappointed that my games were pre-empted by the Bowl games in a lot of markets (just after the New Year), but still got calls from a couple people I knew in different parts of the country.
I didn't know if I'd get invited to the ToC. I kept track of who had done what for a while, but as I had to rely on my wife taping the show for me in the afternoons, and she was taking care of our two little girls (1 and 3 at this writing), it didn't get done a lot of the time. I quickly lost track. I thought that, as I'd still not heard from the show, I was out of it.
When I got the Fed Ex, I was home sick with the stomach flu (the whole
family was sick!), and it really brightened my day. I went to the library
and actually got some books to study this time, but I didn't get much done
on that front and it would probably not have helped much (for me anyway).
So much of the experience is chance, and if the categories and questions
happen to be consistent with your own interests and experiences. If it's your categories that come up, if the clues contain the right sub-clues, etc.
I wondered what the other people would be like; if they'd be a bunch of Cliff
Clavens's, or Poindexters, or Rainmen or something. But they weren't at
all. They were a lot of fun. Varied interests and types, and just a really
good group of people --- very cool to be a part of. The party the last night
was tremendous. I'd never been at a party where if some one was telling a
story and they came to a part where they said "What was the name of that guy that ... " and you'd have half the crowd chime in.
I was of course nervous as hell before the tournament. I spent Sunday and Monday jogging and hanging out with a buddy and his family that live in the area, trying to take my mind off of being nervous. When I came downstairs.
Tuesday morning there were several people that I recognized and a few that I didn't (again, the show's on at 3:30 in the afternoon in Chicago and I don't get to watch it much thesedays.) Most of them I had seen play at least once or twice.
The sequester thing is a pressure cooker --- I remember sitting next to Mark Dawson before he went out and he turned to me and said "Look at my hands! I look like I have Parkinson's or something." It was one of those things like my first trip in that it reminded me that everyone else there was nervous, too.
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