Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:23):
Got any partners. You're listening to Conversations with Jacob, hosted
by my good friend Jacob Waller. Make sure to check
out the podcast where podcasts are available, and check out
the video version on YouTube. You can follow us on
social media Facebook is Conversations with Jacob, Twitter is at
(00:49):
CWJ podcast, and you can visit our website Conversations with
Jacob podcast dot weebley dot com. Hey you got a
show idea, maybe a guest suggestion, email I s at
Conversations with Jacob at gmail dot com. Now here's your host,
(01:12):
Jacob Waller.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
And to welcome back to another episode of Conversations with Jacob.
Today's episode number ninety three ninety four. At this point,
I've lost count at this point anyways, And welcome back
for those who are just tuning into this podcast that
does not know what the podcast is about. It it's
about me interviewing people around the world about things they've
(01:38):
done or we don't put it. Just the best way
I put it is that I interview the most interesting
people in the world about different things and that they've
done in their life or what they're doing now. Anyways,
And welcome back. If you want to follow us on
(01:59):
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Jake interviewing each other. That's on our YouTube channel. Go
(02:21):
check it out. It was kind of awkward for me
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check out the podcast every Monday at one o'clock. Check
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because I filmed these months and events, so it's good
(02:41):
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Just type in convers Sations with Jacob. Make sure the
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like podcasts, check out Two Chairs No Waiting an Andy
is an Andy Griffith Show fan podcast hosted by my
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(03:03):
in Newsom to tell you more about his podcasts.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Andy Barney, Opie Goober, Floyd the Barber. That's some of
the names from the Andy griff Show, drop by Two
Chairs No Waiting, the Andy Grifver Show Fan Podcast, and
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at two Chairsnowaiting dot com or on iTunes.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
And also you can check out our podcast store with
t shirt mugs and more that journal website. Just click
on the podcast shop link and go from there. And
also before we bring our guests on odes, I'm on
cameo So you got a birthday, get well soon, or
a retirement, a wedding or whatever you want me to do.
(03:55):
I'm on cameo for fifteen dollars, so not bad and
so that right there kind of took about four minutes
to say. So if no further ado, please welcome my
guest this week. His name is Ted Slawson. He appeared
on the documentary called The Perfect Bid The Contestant Who
Knew Too Much and so Ted and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
Thank you very much, appreciate you having me.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Oh absolutely what I seen on Facebook, and that you
have what I've seen on Facebook and that you had
a bit of a hacker tonight.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Yes, and it's not this one right here. It's one
of the two younger ones, the two litter mats that
we adopted about a little over a year ago. Yeah,
he's just standing on my laptop trying to guess my password.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
I guess I.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Don't know now for people who don't know anything about
you or have not seen the documentary, And how would
you describe yourself to people?
Speaker 5 (04:55):
Well, I this isn't true anymore so much, but I was,
I guess some people would say obsessed with the Prices
right as a child and into adulthood, and really enjoyed
the show and learned ways to make sure that when
I went to a taping that I was very well
(05:16):
prepared in case I was chosen to be a contestant.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Now, would you say that you was a price A
Price is Right kind of expert because you can't blog
if every single thing.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
Yeah, yes, I wouldn't say every single thing. It It
kind of evolved over the course of several years. Certainly
toward the season thirty thirty five, probably was keeping track
of just about everything yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
And you even made it a computer game as well.
Speaker 5 (05:54):
I actually made several my old Texas instruments computer which
is sitting right here to my left. I learned how
to program in basic and I started programming some of
the games from the show, and later on actually used
(06:16):
real prizes from the show and real prices from the show,
and that kind of helped me prepare a little bit.
And then I got my first personal computer, and around
nineteen ninety I think it was, I programmed all the
games that were on the show. It would basically run
through an entire episode of the show. It would pick
(06:36):
the games kind of at random, following the format that
the show would normally follow. And again with the actual
prizes and prices, it was all texts that it was
no pictures, and that.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Also helped me prepare.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
And then toward the early two thousands is when I
came up with the program that would do what I
would normally do with my pronounce and it would quiz
me with almost like flash cards, and it would give
me the description and a picture of the prize, and
(07:11):
I'd guess the price. If I was right, it would
take it out of the mix. And then if I
got it wrong. It would keep it in the mix
until I got the price right, and that was super
effective in learning prices.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Now and when did you become a fan of The
Price Is Right? Tita happened at a young age or
did it kind of happened kind of later in life.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
It was I think it was the early spring of
nineteen seventy three, so they would have been in their
first season of the New Prices Right. It may have
been the next year, but I'm fairly certain it was
that spring, and my brothers and sisters and I were
home from school and they wanted to watch The Prices Right.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
And I wasn't. I hadn't.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
I had seen commercials, but it didn't look interesting to me,
and so because I was the youngest, I kind of
had to sit there and watch it. And by the
end of the show it was like, well, this is
kind of an eat show. And then when you see
the next episode and you realize there's different pricing games
on each show and it's always you know, they do
that to keep it interesting, and it certainly was interesting
(08:18):
to me.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Now do you still watch The Price Is Right?
Speaker 5 (08:23):
I very very rarely see it. I you know, I
worked during the day. I used to tape it and
watch it in the evenings. But I just I'm not
even sure how I had time to do that, quite frankly,
because I think about trying to do that now and
I just don't know how I would have the time.
But yeah, I haven't really watched much since probably spring
(08:48):
of two thousand and nine.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Now, Kenny tell us about the first time, and that
you attend at the Price Is right.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
I can.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
I was eighteen and a half finished my freshman year
of college, and my good friend ye who I grew
up with, was a couple of years She's a couple
of years older than I am. We had planned our
first vacation as adults, and we went to Los Angeles,
and you know, we wanted to go to Disneyland and
(09:18):
not Sperry Farm and Universal Studios. And I had told her,
you know, I've been waiting all these years, I want
to go to the Prices, right.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
So she agreed to do that with me.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
And you know, the first time, you learn all the
ins and outs, and you know, you really kind of
have to get there super early if you want to
get a good seat in the studio. And so we
actually showed up on Monday morning, and we parked the
car in the lot and it seemed like there wasn't
a line, which was strange, and we checked in with
(09:50):
a security guard, I think, or we asked a security guard,
and he said they had canceled the tapings for that
day and we needed to come back the next day.
And it's kind of funny because of all the times
I went, that's the only time they ever cancel the
taping that I went to. So we kind of re
we shuffled all of our activities for the rest of
the week.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
We came back the next day, we got in line.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
We sat there and waited and they did all the
processing and you know, you get a break at some
point during the day, but our hotel was you know,
probably good twenty thirty minutes, so we just stayed around
that area and finally got to the point where it's
time for the interviews and Phil Wayne was going through
(10:35):
the line, you know, interviewing people. Actually the line goes
by him that he doesn't really go through the line,
and I was thinking about what I was going to say,
and when he's when he said, tell me about yourself,
I started and I don't normally stutter, but I could
not get out what I wanted to say. And I
(10:55):
was just like, i'm a, I'm a, I'm a. And
I finally got college freshman. I forget how I said it.
College student. And my shirt I had a shirt made,
my sister had it made for me that said I'm
here to kiss Holly and on the back it said sorry, Bob.
And he looked at my shirt as I was stammering
(11:15):
my way through my interview, and he goes, and you've
got lips for Holly. And he went on to my
friend D. And I'm like, okay, well that wasn't very impressive,
but we I don't know how far you want me
to go in we were. We were seated way in
the back of the studio, literally the back row in
the middle, and first item up for bids was a
(11:36):
swimming pool that I knew was fourteen ninety nine. You
can hear me yell out fourteen ninety nine. Bob reads
the price, it's fourteen ninety nine. My friend D snaps
her head over to me. A couple other people in
the row ahead of us kind of turned around looked
at me like, how did you know that? And the
sad part was nobody who was playing the game hurt me.
(11:57):
It was just the people around me who kind of
knew what I was talking about, and none of them
got picked. And that would be a theme for several tapings.
But it was a fun experience.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Now I thank him the documentary and you've hoddered out
the bit a few times and then eventually Pob Barker
kind of ignored you.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
He didn't really, he didn't really.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
I don't think he ever really noticed me because I
wasn't that close to the front of the studio and
it's so loud with all the people yelling. But there
was a taping where I had been getting frustrated that
people weren't listening, and you know, you do all that
prep work and if I can't be picked, at least
I can help someone who was picked. And so rod
(12:47):
Roddy had described the first item and it was a
home gym, and I knew it was twelve fifty. So
as soon as he ended the description, before Bob had
a chance to say anything, I yelled out twelve fifty.
And that's when Bob said, well, there's the first bit
of the price is right, and he made a big
deal about how I yelled out this price, and the
(13:09):
whole time I'm sitting there thinking if I'm on the nose,
which I was pretty sure I was, it's like he
might regret that he said anything. And so, you know,
the people all bid. Bob pulls the price dag out
and his eyebrows shot up on his forehead and he
goes stand up out there and he had me stand up.
And so that was the first time that they were
(13:30):
really kind of aware that I knew prices. And if
you watch I mean, this was nineteen ninety at this point,
and if you watch some of the episodes that are
on like Pluto TV and all the other services, they're
from like the early to mid eighties right now, there's
at least a couple people if you watch that, and
(13:51):
they've even admitted on the you know, they get on stage,
they tell him, I memorize three hundred prices, and he's
encouraging about that, like he's like, that's really great. It's
great that you watch and and you know you'll be
able to win if you know the prices, and you know,
there was a day I wish I knew the episode,
but I've seen it a couple times where there's like
(14:11):
three or four perfect bids and contestants row and they're
not all like seven hundred. They're like weird numbers that
you know those people are getting from someone in the
audience who knows the bid.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
You have to knows the prices.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Now, when you first attended, the price was right. If
I remember from the documentary, how was the person you
went with? I was testing you on the prices.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
Yes, my friend d.
Speaker 5 (14:39):
The entire drive down to Los Angeles, not the entire drive,
but that would be something we would do to pass
the time. And she'd read me my description and I'd
try to tell her the price, and I think she
was checking them off. And as time went on and
I started going by myself, I had to do that
by myself, and which wasn't a problem obviously, not while
I'm driving, but I'd get down there and i'd go
(15:01):
through my list and kind of cover the price and
check them off. And then of course when I got
the computer program written, that was way easier and way
more efficient.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Like I said, now, and do you know how many
prices rights shows on that you've attended?
Speaker 5 (15:20):
The official total, I believe is well, the unofficial total
thirty seven. I'm pretty sure it's thirty seven unless there's
one in there that I missed. But starting in nineteen
eighty four, I was going about once a year, and
then when I realized I could go by myself and
(15:41):
nobody cared, I started going a little more regularly because
it was about a six hour drive from where I lived.
So from like nineteen ninety to nineteen ninety two I
went to I think it was sixteen ish tapings until
I got picked in ninety two.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
What is the process of a ten and of Price
Is Right? Episode? What's the process like? And what does
people get to do to be able to get into
the building?
Speaker 5 (16:13):
So I have no idea what it's like. Now I
can tell you what it was like. You would get it.
You would sit on some benches. There's a big, big
long benches. The pages would be there. They'd try to
keep you in order by the way, you know, the
order that you arrive. They would try to keep the
energy of the audience up during all this time, because
(16:36):
it's hours and hours and hours. The earliest I ever
got in line was with my sister and we got
in line. Actually, no, this is a lie. The earliest
before I got picked was eleven the night before, but
for one of the million Dollar spectaculars, we actually got
in line twenty five hours before it taped. So at
(17:00):
some point the pages come through the line, they'll check
your ID, they'll hand out the contestant eligibility paperwork. You
read through that, you get a contestant card that has
a big number on it and a little stub that
you fill out with your name and you sign it
to say that you understand that or that you are
(17:22):
eligible to be a contestant. You get your name tag,
and all of that happens, and every taping seemed to
be a little bit different. I don't know if they
were trying to streamline the process, but it always seemed
like they were trying to improve it. And then once
everyone's got their name tags and their contestant numbers and
(17:42):
everyone's seated in order, then that's when they would take
you through in order by the producer. The producer would
do it a little quick five to ten second interview.
There'd be an assistant taking notes in shorthand. Because I
tried looking to see what she was writing one time
and it was not English. I know that I'm assuming
it was in shorthand and then so there there was
(18:07):
always a secret signal. And my suspicion is there were
several that they used, and each day it was a
specific one that the assistant was supposed to look for.
The day I was picked, when I made when I
said my little spiel, and the producer laughed, which he
(18:29):
had never done, and it threw me for a second,
and I finished what I was saying, and he goes, okay,
and he pointed at me and then went on to
the next person. And I'm assuming on that day the
point meant I'm interested in him. And then you know,
they picked more than nine people, and then they narrow
(18:49):
it down before the show starts as to which nine,
because they want to get a good cross section of
you know, age and gender and body type and all
that stuff and race.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Once you have.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
Gone through that interview, sometimes you would have to wait
until the studio was open because they might be finishing
a rehearsal. Sometimes you went right in and the story
that did not make the documentary, I don't think, but
I've told it in other interviews. On the day I
got picked, we got to go right into the studio,
So you're in there and they're playing music and you're waiting,
(19:26):
and I was in about the fifth row and I'm
about five or six seats in and I'm sitting there
and we're clapping along the music and just you know,
talking to the people around you. And all of a sudden,
I was like, I have to go to the bathroom.
Like I've got plenty of time. Should I just go
or should I just wait? And I was like, now
(19:46):
I'm going to go. I have the chance to go.
So I got up and I'm going by all the
people between me and the aisle, and I said, I'm sorry,
excuse me, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I excuse me, pardon me,
excuse me, pardon me. Go up the aisle, like go
back outside, I do my business. I come back and
as I'm going back to my seat and I'm going,
I'm you know, getting in front of all these people again.
(20:10):
I jokingly said, I promised that I won't do this
again until they call my name, having no idea that
that was the day they were gonna call my name.
And I still wonder if those people were like, wait
a minute, how did he know they were going to
call his men? I have no idea it's the it's
the basic smartass in me. But and then after they
(20:33):
get everybody seated and there, you know it's time. I
think it's maybe five ten minutes before the taping is
when the announcer would come out and do the warm
up again to keep the audience up, and you know,
they make jokes and make people laugh and and then
they go right into the taping. They do the you know,
the opening slate and the drum roll and they countdown
(20:54):
and then you know they to start the show.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
So now, and what was your reaction when you get
cowed down to contestant roade?
Speaker 5 (21:06):
So that was my twenty fourth visit. Uh So that's
twenty three times getting out of the studio after a taping,
happy to see people win, but also that that feeling
of Wow, I went to another taping and they still
didn't call my name. So twenty four I had a
couple inklings. I wasn't I wouldn't say it was a
(21:30):
one hundred percent surprise. Like I said, Phil had laughed
at me during the interview and pointed and said, okay, the.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
What was the Oh Rod, yes, Rod, Roddy, he knew me.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
From the you know me yelling out prices at so
many tapings when he did his interview or his warm up.
One of the part one of the parts of the
warm up to keep the audience engaged and excited is
and then it gets really excited, I start calling out
your names and everyone cheers. Well, when he said names,
(22:06):
he locked eyes on me, and I was like, why
is he looking at me? So they were like a
couple of little hints. The assistant who helps the producer
pick the contestants, she would come out on stage and
she has like a little diagram of the audience and
she would look around and find the contestants and mark
them off so the cameramen know generally where to point
(22:28):
the cameras.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
When people are going to be called.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
And I that day I couldn't look because there had
already been a day where I swore she was looking
right at me and marking them down and looking up
and marking down and looking up, and I was like,
oh my god, they're going to call me. It was
the guy behind me, So I was like, I can't
watch her today. So I didn't watch that part. But sorry,
(22:52):
there was oh so not completely surprised, but still shocked
that shocked I was first. One of the things I
tell people is the big reason why I memorized Prices
was I always felt like I have Charlie Brown luck
(23:13):
and if they call me, I'm going to be the
last of the nine contestants. I'm going to be the
first bidder, and that's going to be my only chance
to get on stage. And the only way to make
sure you can get on stage is if you know
the price of what you're bidding on. Now doesn't mean
I knew the price of everything they bid on on
every show because nowhere near, but at least it increased
(23:34):
my chances. And so the fact that I was called
first was just a total shock, Like I would have
expected to be maybe later in the show, but for
whatever reason, they thought I would be the best one
to call first that day.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Do you think and where you appear t think the
reason they picked you? I don't know if they kind
of pick people in event or not, but do you
think the reason they pick you is because you attended
on a lot of shows?
Speaker 5 (24:01):
Certainly they knew they knew I had been to many.
I had worn that Holly shirt again, I had now
not worn it to any other tapings, but I decided
that day to wear it again, and I had made
a reference to it in my interview, and I think
that was part of it. I was probably a little
more genuine, maybe less stilted, because I had kind of
(24:25):
prepped this little speech, and I think that was part
of it, and they and they realized it would make
a good bit for the show that if I, you know,
I did get on stage and Holly was there, that
we could have our little kiss. That may have been
part of it. I think they also. I don't think
it's because I was helping too many people win and
they just wanted me to be ineligible. I don't think
(24:46):
that was it at all. I think it's just a timing,
a timing thing, and you know, they look for people
who are in a good mood that day, and I
mean that's what they used to do.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Now I have my own opinions. Zip uh uh oh.
When you get caught up and do you remember the
first game that you played when you get up on stage.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
Yes, I played the punchboard Punch a Bunch, which I
knew well, I didn't know for sure, but I knew
enough about the way the games are staged and in
the studio. They would have a cue card to help
Bob so he would remember what game they were playing
and where he needed to go. And part of the
(25:36):
Q card was covered. And I was on that end
of contestants road, right next to where that person stands
with a QUE card, and I had looked over and
I could see the p and it looked like a
U and I thought, well, it can only be punchboard.
And they had the curtain set up on the stage,
which usually is what they would use to hide the punchboards.
I thought, well, this would be a good time to
(25:57):
get up there, because punchboard is money, and you know
you can buy anything you want with money.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
If I play a game.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
For a prize that I don't necessarily like or need
or want, you know, that's not that I wouldn't be appreciated,
but you know, given the choice, if I had waited
one more game, I could have played Lucky seven and
maybe aced it with all four numbers in the car
on the nose. But I don't remember for sure.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Now do you remember what prizes you won?
Speaker 5 (26:30):
Yes, so I want a recliner to get up on stage.
That was five ninety nine I won for the four
prizes in the punchboard. I won a this may or
may not be in the right order, a coffee teammaker
that was one hundred and sixty dollars. There was a
set of children's clothing that I believe was eighteen dollars,
(26:53):
a photo laminator that was thirty five dollars no fifty dollars,
and a dumbbell set that was thirty five dollars. And
then I won one hundred dollars for the perfect bit
on the recliner. And then I won a thousand with
my first punch and decided again with my Charlie Brown luck.
I felt like, whatever decision I make is going to
be wrong. So would I rather have the thousand and
(27:17):
know that I have it? Or do I risk it
and end up with fifty and then be mad that
I didn't keep the thousand, like I would have rather
kept the thousand and found out, oh, you could have
had ten thousand. Then the other way around, I guess
was my on the spot logic, And of course the
audience wanted me to go and I it turned out
that I did exactly the right thing, because they just
(27:38):
all the numbers went down all the way down to
the fifty at the end.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
So and I got to ask the question people might
be about their want to know a tease to get
those items.
Speaker 5 (27:49):
Yes, I still have part of the Dumbell set. I
still have the photo laminator. It's only been used a
couple times. It didn't do with the grade of a job.
The coffeemaker died years ago. The recliner, it had gotten
(28:10):
to the point where I would have needed to recover it.
It was like a like almost a vinyl covering on it,
and it started cracking. And the children's clothing I had
given to a couple, uh, some friends of mine that
were expecting a baby.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
So now, and what was your thought your opinions on
Bob Barker.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
First of all, I told this in the documentary. The
his ability to take something and turn it into something
fun was unbelievable. And the way I experienced that was
on that show where I was the first time he
called me out for yelling out a price when we
(28:59):
went to they went to commercial.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
He always would. They would.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
The production assistant would have the contestants sit down in
those chairs that say the price is right. She would
have them sit during the commercial because they don't want
them you know, stand them the whole time, and as
they come out of commercial, Bob would always say, okay,
the three of you can stand up, make another bad
bit and sit down again, and that would make everyone laugh.
(29:27):
And so he had just said that, they stood up
and Susan turned around and looked at me and said
help me. And I looked at her and I'm like absolutely,
just you know whatever, and the stage managers counting down
like three to one. Camera comes on and Bob had.
(29:51):
Bob had looked and he saw what happened, and it
had been like two seconds, and he went, I want
you folks to know that during that commercial, Theodore or
Susan was overtly flirting with Theodore out here and everyone.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
And I'm just like, wow, he is quick. So he'd
I mean, when you see old episodes, it's that's how
he was.
Speaker 5 (30:18):
He was able to just pick stuff out and he
knew exactly what was going to get a laugh.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
And he was just amazing at that. I mean he
really now.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Once now wasn't an item that the thing, It was
a TV how when appeared on the stage which had
a life shot of your face on it.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
Yes, So when Susan got her perfect bit on her
item and she went up on stage. She played for
Big Screen TV, and during that era, they would usually
have the contestants picture on the TV so they could
get the reaction and the prize in the same shot.
And because of the weird odd thing that was happening
(31:01):
that day, they instead put my face on the on
the TV.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
So that's kind of funny, now, didn't she uh said?
Was it her that said that she was going to
buy you dinner?
Speaker 4 (31:13):
On me? So yeah, that was more Bob saying.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
Joking that with her one hundred dollars, she should buy
me dinner or whatever. And it became this little running joke.
And you know, then when she didn't win her game,
he was like, well, maybe Theodore will leave the tip,
and I'm just like, I'm not and I after all
these years, I think I figured out there was just
(31:41):
some misunderstanding between what I was trying to tell her
what she thought I was trying to tell her. So,
you know, no harm, no foul, except she could have
had twenty What was the twenty one dollars in a
big screen TV?
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Now and now? And how did they approach you for
the documentary?
Speaker 4 (32:01):
Good question?
Speaker 5 (32:03):
Back, So the perfect showcase bid that I was involved
in happened in two thousand and eight, which I don't
know if you're going to get to that or not.
But in two thousand and ten, I think it was
a reporter from Esquire magazine reached out to me about
(32:25):
doing an interview because he wanted to do an article
on this big event, and so I said sure, and
we talked on the phone for I think the better
part of three hours. It was a long interview, and
I mean I had fun. I think he had fun.
So when the article came out, a filmmaker his parents
(32:52):
got him that magazine. I don't know if it was
specifically because of that article, but he reached out to
me shortly after that and said, Hey, I'm a document
or I'm a filmmaker. I'm really interested in doing a
story on loosely based on this event.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
And you know, you would have a paid credit position
or whatever. You know.
Speaker 5 (33:15):
I was like okay, And I was thinking, well, this
may or may not happen, and you know, if it does, great,
and if it doesn't, you know, I'm still have my
day job. It's fine. And didn't hear anything. Didn't hear anything.
A couple of years went by, he reached out again.
He said, hey, I haven't forgotten about you. I'm you know,
(33:35):
working on getting.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
Funding and blah blah blah.
Speaker 5 (33:41):
Okay, great, and a couple more years went by still
you know, hadn't heard anything, and then he touched base again,
and finally in twenty seventeen, it may have been the
end of sixteen. I can't remember the exact dates, but
he said, We've got I've got funding. I'm an to
fly you up to Vancouver. We're going to do the interviews,
(34:03):
bring you know, stuff that you think might be worth
having in the documentary. And so I went up over
Memorial Day weekend. We shot a couple hours at a
time over three days, and almost exactly a year later,
because it was my parents' anniversary in two thousand and
(34:24):
eighteen is when it was released now, and I'm sorry
I forgot the part about He wanted me to send
him a basic storyline of everything that had happened, and
so when I sent that to him, he responded to
me and said, I'm just going to make a documentary
because you've written the movie. I don't want to have
(34:45):
I don't have to write anything. This is probably going
to be a better story anyway, And that's how it
went from being loosely based movie to a documentary about
what actually happened.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Now, can you take it? Can't you talk about what
you did in two thousand and eight with the perfect showcase?
Speaker 4 (35:04):
Sure? So.
Speaker 5 (35:07):
In Bob's last season was two thousand and six, two
thousand and seven, and I was tracking prices and prizes.
I was not eligible to be a contestant, but my
sister liked going to the show. She had kind of
rediscovered it as something fun to do. I had nephews
(35:27):
and nieces who were becoming adults and they wanted to go.
I would have friends who would want to go, So
I was trying to keep that up just in case
anyone in my family or friends got picked. And Bob
retired and then they hired Drew to take over, and
that first season I watched. I kept track of everything
(35:52):
like I'd been doing, and at the end of the season,
around maybe June, they changed the eligibility requirement, which now
stated if it's been ten years or more since you've
been a contestant, you are once again eligible. Well, now
I'm in it to win it for myself because I
(36:16):
can win again. So have everything tracked for all of
season thirty six. I'm using my program. My nephew at
the time was had a wedding scheduled for September twenty eighth.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
I think it was Matthew. I'm sorry if I just
got your anniversary date wrong.
Speaker 5 (36:39):
And so I thought, well, if I go out to
California for the wedding, I can maybe go to La
go to a taping, and then go up and spend
time with family go to the wedding. So on September
twenty second, I got in line for the show and
I was there were three people in line when I
(37:01):
got there. There was a couple who are one and two.
There was a guy who was number three. He said, oh,
go ahead and go ahead of me, and I said, well,
you were already here, and he said no, it's okay.
I want to I want to be a certain number
in line. Okay, So I got ahead of him. About
an hour later, another guy comes and this other guy says, oh,
(37:23):
go ahead and get in front of me. And about
maybe another hour or so, the line's starting to grow exponentially,
Like you know, it's just a few people, a few people.
Then all of a sudden, it's quite a few people.
It's around the corner, and the gentleman next to me
(37:44):
calls his wife, who's over at their hotel, and he says, yeah,
you bet you better come over. It's starting to there's
a lot of people in line. And he hangs up
and I said, I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to eavesdrop,
but was that your wife you were talking to? And
he said, yeah, she's going to come over. I said,
(38:05):
this isn't the greatest neighborhood you. I'm happy to hold
your place. You really should go get her and come
with her.
Speaker 4 (38:11):
Oh you really?
Speaker 5 (38:13):
I said, yeah, just it's fine, don't worry about it.
I'll hold your place. So he went.
Speaker 4 (38:17):
They were back super fast.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
And his wife was very animated and very into the show,
and that she and I and the couple ahead of
me were all fans of the show, and we were
all talking about prizes and prices, and when you hear
Terry talk about that thousand dollars a foot rule for trailers,
(38:42):
that didn't come from me. I believe that was Norbert,
who was Norbert and Francis who were one and two.
I think he's the one who said that, and I
responded with, well, that might have been the case before,
but it's not so much the case now. There was
a trailer on there at one point that was not
even all that big, and it was almost thirty thousand
(39:02):
dollars like.
Speaker 4 (39:03):
It was it was.
Speaker 5 (39:05):
You couldn't use that rule and be close. So anyway,
we spend the day together. We go through the whole
processing and all that stuff, and Terry, who's the gentleman
next to me, he got called down. He was number
three out of the first four, and so we're all
excited he's been called And the first item up for
(39:27):
bids was a sailboat that had been thirty five ninety five.
Terry wasn't listening to me. I was yelling thirty five
ninety five. There was thirty six ninety five. And this
is one of the problems with memorizing prices is things
go up, things go down. You can't always be one
hundred percent sure. So they sit down. Linda tells Terry,
(39:50):
because she's sitting like right next to contestants row, she says,
you should listen to Ted. He knows his you know,
I'm paraphrasing, but she's telling him he almost got that
on the you should listen to him. So next item,
of course, is something I have no clue. It was
like a barbary coat or something, or a camera outfit.
(40:11):
I don't remember, and so we didn't get that one.
Next item is the big green egg barbecue, which had
been nine hundred dollars for seasons and seasons and seasons,
and had just gone up to eleven seventy five a
few months prior, and was just on that one time
(40:31):
at that price, early in the spring.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
I think it was April.
Speaker 5 (40:37):
So we're telling Terry eleven seventy five, eleven seventy five,
eleven seventy five. He bids eleven seventy five. The bells
go off. I'm not Italian, by the way, I don't
know why I'm talking with my hands. The bell goes off.
He's on the nose. He goes up on stage. He's
going to play switch. They opened the doors. There's two
(41:00):
exercise bikes and a home computer. I don't know why,
but from where I was sitting, I could only see
one exercise bike, and I swear the tag set exercise bike.
It clearly says bikes. So I don't know where my
head was, but I was sure the prices should be
switched because the nine on the computer price seemed to
(41:22):
me like it was a forty nine, I think at
the end, and if that makes sense for this, and
the weird price belongs on the computer because the computers
were always weird prices. So Lynda and I are the
only two in the audience say and switch. He switches,
and he loses, Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
Yet again.
Speaker 5 (41:42):
So anyone who thinks I was perfect on that show
nowhere near it.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
So then they spin the wheel.
Speaker 5 (41:51):
He I think was first to spin and he hit
ninety cents, and we were super excited, thinking that is
a very hard score to beat. If he gets in
the showcases, that'd be great. He didn't get beat, so
now we wait through the second half of the show.
I helped another contestant win a car in one away
on the first try, getting all five numbers right.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
They go into the showcase.
Speaker 5 (42:15):
She ends up in the showcase with Terry, and the
first showcase has three prizes, which is always the easiest
way to get him on the nose. We haven't talked
about how I backwards engineered prices of trailers and boats
and stuff that you would only see in showcases, but
I learned how to do that over the course of
the years. First prize was a karaoke machine, which was
(42:38):
one thousand dollars, second prize was a pool table, which
was twenty eight hundred dollars, and the third prize was
the smaller version of the high low travel trailer they
always had, like a seventeen foot a twenty two foot.
I knew that was nineteen ninety three, so I added
it up in my head and I told Linda it's
(42:59):
that show twenty three thousand and seven forty three, And
then I said, let me add it up again because
I didn't want with this much writing on it, I
didn't want to be wrong. So I added it up
again and I said, did I just say twenty three
thousand and seven forty three and she said yes, and
I was like, great, well, now Sharon has passed the
showcase to Terry.
Speaker 4 (43:19):
Terry's looking at us. We're signaling this bid.
Speaker 5 (43:22):
And then I was like then I had this weird
feeling of wait, did we want to be on the nose.
Speaker 4 (43:27):
Or is that going to raise too much suspicion?
Speaker 5 (43:30):
So I started to do twenty three thousand, five hundred
but he already got the number from either me or Linda.
He says it into his microphone. They lighted up and
Drew says, it's a very exact bid.
Speaker 4 (43:45):
I'm just like, yeah, it is.
Speaker 5 (43:51):
And the producer, Kathy Grico, who had been on the
show forever, she had just been promoted to producer. She's
got a clipboard with all the information on it, and
as soon as they lit up the bid, she just
like walked over kind of casually to this little area
where the production staff is sitting, and she's just staring
(44:13):
into this screen. And I was like, yeah, he got
it on the nose, because she wouldn't have done that
if he didn't get it on the nose. And so
they do the second showcase and it's every trip in
the house, and that went on for what seemed like
twenty minutes. I know it wasn't, but they're describing all
the trips and I could never price trips. The only
trips I could ever get were I think they had
(44:35):
some Southwest Airline vacation trips for a couple seasons, and
those tended to be very consistently priced. But other than that,
you could get a ballpark, but that was about it.
Sharon makes her bid. They go to commercial, the lights
go down, and it was like, now what.
Speaker 4 (44:57):
It was U.
Speaker 5 (45:00):
Depending on who you listen to, anywhere from ten minutes
to forty five. I believe it was twenty ish. I
think that's even what Drew has said was it was
about a fifteen to twenty minute stop down.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
And that's very unusual. They would that show is run,
or it used to be run.
Speaker 5 (45:17):
I don't know if it still is, but it used
to be run so seamlessly because you don't want your
audience to get tired or lose interest, or you know,
you want them boom boom boom. They would have the
next game ready to go so fast, and we're just
sitting there waiting and waiting and waiting. They turned the
music back on to keep the audience up, and people
(45:40):
are all over the stage talking excitedly with each other.
And I'm the only one in the audience who knows
why think everyone else is clueless.
Speaker 4 (45:48):
And I'm just like, Okay, let's see how this goes.
Speaker 5 (45:52):
And we're sitting there clapping to the music and I
looked up and I can't remember who they had on
camera first, but there was a camera right on the
stage in front of us, and it was either on
me or on Linda.
Speaker 4 (46:06):
I don't remember which one first, and then they switched
it to the other one. But I do remember turning
to her and going, you're on camera. I don't know
if you know that. She's like what she didn't even realize. Yeah,
they're pointing the camera right at you.
Speaker 5 (46:22):
So they finally Drew had gone backstage, I think, and
he finally came back out. They had the contestants stand
back up, and they light the bids back up and
camera lights all come up, and Drew starts off with
Sharon's showcase and she's only just under five hundred dollars away,
so any other day she would have had it, probably
(46:44):
hands down. And then he goes to Terry and with
a complete lack of enthusiasm, he announces that actual retail
price is twenty and forty three dollars. You got it,
right on the nose, and they display goes to zero
and the audience goes nuts. Andrew's just like, hasn't happened
(47:06):
since seventy two or seventy three, right on the nose,
totally no excitement at all, But you know, he explains that, well,
they thought it would never air, and you know, I
thought I was losing my job, and blah blah blah.
Speaker 4 (47:18):
It's like it's called the Price is right right, It's
in the title. So that was that.
Speaker 5 (47:28):
They Linda went up on stage. You couldn't have paid
me ten million dollars to go up on that stage.
At that point, I was like, I am not going
anywhere near those people. I just had a bad feeling.
Speaker 4 (47:44):
Linda. They went and looked at the prizes. Show went off.
Speaker 5 (47:47):
Linda comes back down to her seat and Kathy Greco,
the producer, walks over and she says Linda, Linda, and like, Linda,
they want you, and she motions her to come back
up on stage. I was like, and going to take
us to interrogation rooms now, and this is going to
be fun. And Linda goes back up on stage. Well,
(48:08):
she wanted Drew to autograph her shirt, and that's so
Drew had a Sharpennie autographed shirt. And that was that,
and then we all they did the door prize drawing.
We all left and they had tickets for the second taping,
so I went back to the second taping, which would
have been the last the thirty seventh one, and they
(48:30):
Originally I ended I was in a seat almost exactly
where I was at that first taping, like in the
very back row, but someone official looking came out. They
were they, I guess, paged my contestant number and I
didn't hear it, but the people around me were like,
aren't you number two eighty nine or two seventy nine,
(48:51):
And some official looking woman comes over. She motions me
to stand up. She walks me over to the other
side of the audience, had some guy stand up as
me sit down, moves him over where I was, and
I was like, okay, I thought they were going to
have me leave, like I thought they were escorting me out.
I didn't know what was going on. And the whole show,
I kept thinking, why did they move me over here? Well,
(49:16):
I don't know if you know this, but that home
base part with the turntable, that whole part of the
set pivots. I watched for years and didn't know until
I saw them do it the first time. When they
play Lucky seven. When they used to play Super Bowl,
it pivots out so that there's a room for the car.
During the regular part of the show, it's kind of
(49:37):
like halfway and then during the showcase they pivoted all
the way so you can see door number one. It
covers part of door number one, And once they do
that pivot, people on that side of the audience can't
see the showcase contestants. I was like, that's why they
moved me over, and people were like peeking out behind
curtains the whole show, like does he know the price
(49:59):
of this?
Speaker 4 (50:00):
It's just the funniest thing anyway.
Speaker 2 (50:03):
So now, now do you think the Bob Barker area
is kind of bad than the kind of Drew Carey era?
Speaker 4 (50:14):
Do I prefer?
Speaker 2 (50:15):
Was that the question, uh, do he prefer the Bob
the Bob Barker era or the current era? That the
price is right?
Speaker 5 (50:23):
You can probably infer the answer from the fact that
I don't watch the Drew episodes almost at all, but
on a weekend, if I have nothing better to do,
I'll turn on the Barker era episodes and watch. And
it's a little frightening that I still know some of
the prices from the eighties.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
So do you sit on your couch and watch the
Bob Barker era, you know, shout out prices?
Speaker 5 (50:52):
I do I did a maybe you saw it. I
did a post on Facebook one day because I had
a hun show. It was like, okay, I think I
know the showcase on the nose, and so I hit
record while they were in commercial, and I said, the
price of the runner up showcase is and I rattled
off the number, and then there was still time, so
(51:14):
I rattled off the prices of the individual prizes in
the showcase, and right as I finished, Bob read the
price and I was right on the nose. And it's
funny that I can do it from the eighties.
Speaker 4 (51:25):
Still, yeah wow.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
Now now has that been seeing in the background, It's
been cats walking back and forth. So I get it
that you're a cat lover and not a dog lover.
Speaker 4 (51:42):
I actually I like both.
Speaker 5 (51:45):
I never thought of myself as a cat person, but
when I moved to Texas, I had been here about
three and a half three months and I had a
cat show up on my patio and she kind of
adopted me, and she was a super sweet cat. My
friend Die actually came to help me move to my
house and she stuck the cat in a carrier and
(52:11):
brought it with me to the house. It actually was
somebody else's cat, but they didn't care. And then the
karma for that was that. About six weeks or so later,
I was like, why does she look like she swallowed
a football?
Speaker 4 (52:26):
So then I had five cats, all females. Because she
had four kittens.
Speaker 5 (52:32):
I kept one, adopted out the other three, and then
they both very close together, we had to put them down.
They both had kidney disease. We have the white one.
We adopted him in two thousand and sixteen, and then
the two I don't know if you've seen either or
the other two. The hacker obviously, those two we adopted
(52:53):
last June, and they're so they're a little over a
year old, and they're still full of energy. They were
chasing each other earlier today. But I've had dogs. I
had dogs growing up. I had dogs a couple of
times earlier as an adult. But cats are a lot
easier to take care of them.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
Oh yeah, now what you also get married?
Speaker 4 (53:17):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (53:19):
Yes, so up. Most people don't know about you is
that you're a gay.
Speaker 5 (53:27):
Correct Now? If you read people's stuff online, they're like,
I think he might be gay because he talked about
his partner. No, I think he's talking about a business partner.
Speaker 4 (53:36):
It's like really, because I was at the age when
we filmed the documentary where I was just like, you
know what, I'm going to call a spade a spade.
Speaker 5 (53:46):
I'm going to use terms that are correct, and if
people don't like me because of that, that's their problem.
You get to a point where it's just like, you
know what, I don't care. Who knows anymore what's going
to happen. So yeah, So Carlos and I we've been
together eight years. In January and just decided it was time.
(54:08):
So we had a big shindig, invited our family. I
didn't think most of my family would come because most
of them are in California, and they all came, which
shocked me. But yeah, so and I you know, I've
I've known, and I talked about this a little bit
at the wedding that I mean, I came to terms
(54:31):
with who I was in high school.
Speaker 4 (54:32):
I was probably a junior.
Speaker 5 (54:35):
And you hear because this was the early eighties, so
it was still the era of you know, you don't
talk about.
Speaker 6 (54:42):
It, and those people are sick and blah blah blah,
and you hear the stories about oh, well, yeah, all
guys experiment with other guys, but it's just a phase
and it passes and.
Speaker 4 (54:54):
Blah blah blah.
Speaker 5 (54:55):
And I'm like, I'm sixteen and this phase hasn't passed yet,
So I don't think it's a phase. And I had
the good fortune that a couple of friends of mine
were also you know, not heterosexual, let's just put it
that way. And so I had already, you know, experienced
(55:16):
that from other people that they had the same kinds
of feelings. And I thought, well, then you know it's
going to be okay. I have people I can at
least use the sounding board and who will understand.
Speaker 2 (55:28):
So now, now, when you tell people that you was gay,
did they support you or did they have their own
opinions about it?
Speaker 5 (55:40):
I don't really think I've had anyone who's not supportive,
which is surprising. I intentionally kept it from my parents
for a variety of reasons. My dad, bless his heart. Sorry,
i'm going to say something that about your dad. Don't
don't strike me with lightning. He was more closed minded.
(56:07):
Around the time I was in high school, he had
disowned my brother, then he they were welcome back in
the family, and then he disowned my sister and my brother,
and I was just like, and they this was because
they chose to live with their significant other before they
got married. That was the reason he disowned them. So
(56:27):
I'm like, well, there's no way he's going to understand this.
And you know, they put me through college, so I
was like, I can, I can keep myself low on
the radar for a while. I never officially told my dad,
but I know he knew the joke that it's not
a joke. But we were having breakfast one morning or
(56:49):
just drinking coffee, and he asked if I had my
will and my final arrangements all taken care of, and
I said yeah, and he goes, well, I was just thinking,
and you know, with you living so far away and
your situation being.
Speaker 4 (57:09):
What it is, what does that mean?
Speaker 5 (57:14):
My mother knew she figured it out because one of
my brothers is also okay, so you know, and that's
super helpful because then it's like there's two of you,
and you know, it's harder for people to get be
closed minded.
Speaker 4 (57:30):
I guess when there's more than one of you.
Speaker 2 (57:33):
So no, now now, and now, what was your reaction
when you heard that Bob Barker passed away?
Speaker 4 (57:45):
So I guess sadness.
Speaker 5 (57:47):
Obviously, I knew I had heard through the grape vine
that he hadn't been doing well. You know, there was
a bit of I don't know if it was dementia
or just you know, and at ninety nine, the fact
that your art is still beating is awesome. But yeah,
I can tell you exactly where I was. We were
driving down to Edinburgh, down in South Texas. We were
(58:11):
on I thirty seven. So my story there was season
thirty seven is when the perfect did happened. I'm on
I thirty seven when I find out he passed away.
There's got to be a connection there. But yeah, super sad,
But you know, he had a great life. He did
a wonderful job for thirty five years, like he said,
(58:31):
and he did truth or Consequences. I don't think the
man ever felt like he worked when he did those jobs.
He made great money. I heard a quote about how
much he was making towards the end, and I was like, wow,
that would be nice money, Like he was making more
per show than I make in a year.
Speaker 4 (58:51):
That kind of money.
Speaker 5 (58:54):
Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but he was making really
good money.
Speaker 2 (58:59):
Now, can you tell us about the time, I'm you
get kissed by Holly on the price is right?
Speaker 4 (59:06):
Yes.
Speaker 5 (59:07):
So she was always my favorite growing up. I always
enjoyed because she always had the problems with the prizes,
you know, the the dishwasher would flop open, or the
refrigerator would keep opening, and and.
Speaker 4 (59:21):
She would you know, it was just amusing to watch her.
Speaker 5 (59:24):
And I always felt like she was of the three,
like Janis was very glamorous the three original models. Janie
was very glamorous. Diane kind of came off as how
do I say this nicely? Just too sexy, like too
much focus on the sexy, I guess, is what I
(59:45):
want to say. And Holly was just kind of like
the girl next door. And so when I got up
on stage, I knew, you know, figured I was playing
the punchboard, I hadn't put two inch together that Holly
models the prizes that you have to price in that game.
Speaker 4 (01:00:04):
And so.
Speaker 5 (01:00:06):
You know, Rod announces that I have a chance to
win up to ten thousand dollars, and Channis has the
big ten thousand dollars bill, and Bob's walking me back
to the punchboard and they're opening the doors where those
prizes are and Holly sees my shirt and started laughing,
and I was like, oh, that's right, she's in this
(01:00:27):
game too. And Bob was like, well, well, Holly, you
have to give him his kiss. And so she came
over and he's pushing me over and so we kind
of met in the middle, and she did like a
little peck on the cheek and gave me a hug.
And I used to show this on like the last
day of school when I was a teacher, and the
kids always just went nuts over this part. We're separating
(01:00:49):
and I was saying something to her, and she grabbed
my face and just planted a kiss right on my lips,
and it was so funny. And then Bob of course,
is making a big thing about it and get back
over here. I have a show to do, blah blah blah.
But then after that show, when she personally came back
(01:01:11):
to where they processed the contestants, it gave me that
autograph picture that to me was the icing on the cake.
It's like, see, she is awesome. I've known it all
these years. She just without me asking, gave me an
autograph personally autograph picture. It's not even just her autograph,
it has my name and that it was a great
television kiss.
Speaker 4 (01:01:31):
And I mean, you can't. I don't know how you
make it any better than that.
Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
Now if I remember correctly. Oh and Bob pulled you back,
and you said that there was a good grip.
Speaker 4 (01:01:43):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (01:01:45):
He because he's got he's got to keep not only
he's got to know where to go, he's got to
make sure the contestants in the shot with him. So
he had this habit of grabbing you. And I'll try
to demonstrate it, like right here on your elbow and
enough pressure where it's like, you know, you better do
(01:02:05):
what he's doing. So he's pulling you this way, you
better know that way because it's hurting.
Speaker 4 (01:02:11):
But yeah he did, he did.
Speaker 5 (01:02:12):
He grabbed my left elbow and he pulled me back,
and I mean I turned around and walked back.
Speaker 4 (01:02:16):
But that was just like ow do.
Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
Before I wrap up the podcast today, which I used
to ask my guests for a closing thought for the
people listening, well, I don't know a much to ask you, no,
but do you get a closing thought for the people listening.
I'm trying to keep me.
Speaker 4 (01:02:42):
Vote for Kamala. That's my closing thoughts.
Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
All right, I don't know how well that in the comment.
Speaker 5 (01:02:55):
All right, we'll make my closing thought. I'm voting for Kamala,
you vote for whoever you want.
Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
Well, that's more like boy would Ted, I would. I
don't thank you for coming on the podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:03:07):
Thank you appreciate it very much.
Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
Oh, absolutely all right, and that wraps it up for
this week for conversations with Jacob until next week. Uh,
may God bless you and we work to you guys
in the next episode.
Got any partners. You're listening to Conversations with Jacob, hosted
by my good friend Jacob Waller. Make sure to check
out the podcast where podcasts are available, and check out
the video version on YouTube. You can follow us on
social media Facebook is Conversations with Jacob, Twitter is at
(00:49):
CWJ podcast, and you can visit our website Conversations with
Jacob podcast dot weebley dot com. Hey you got a
show idea, maybe a guest suggestion, email I s at
Conversations with Jacob at gmail dot com. Now here's your host,
(01:12):
Jacob Waller.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
And to welcome back to another episode of Conversations with Jacob.
Today's episode number ninety three ninety four. At this point,
I've lost count at this point anyways, And welcome back
for those who are just tuning into this podcast that
does not know what the podcast is about. It it's
about me interviewing people around the world about things they've
(01:38):
done or we don't put it. Just the best way
I put it is that I interview the most interesting
people in the world about different things and that they've
done in their life or what they're doing now. Anyways,
And welcome back. If you want to follow us on
(01:59):
Facebook and Twitter, which you've heard it in the intro
by Jake Thorn. Just type in converce Seations with Jacob
on Facebook and Twitter. Speaking of Jake Thorn, who does
our podcast intro, you can go to our YouTube channel
and catch the interview that we've done with me and
Jake interviewing each other. That's on our YouTube channel. Go
(02:21):
check it out. It was kind of awkward for me
because I'm the one that's used to asking questions. Anyways,
check out the podcast every Monday at one o'clock. Check
out the website. You can find a past guest, upcoming
guests all the way to the end of the year
because I filmed these months and events, so it's good
(02:41):
to have that schedule out. Also check out the YouTube channel.
Just type in convers Sations with Jacob. Make sure the
like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Any If you
like podcasts, check out Two Chairs No Waiting an Andy
is an Andy Griffith Show fan podcast hosted by my
good friend miss out in Newsome and hear us out
(03:03):
in Newsom to tell you more about his podcasts.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Andy Barney, Opie Goober, Floyd the Barber. That's some of
the names from the Andy griff Show, drop by Two
Chairs No Waiting, the Andy Grifver Show Fan Podcast, and
we'll visit with some of those folks, along with tribute
artists and fans and just all kinds of things related
to the Andy Griffith Show. I'm your host, Alan youwsem
and you can find the show Two Chairs No Waiting
(03:27):
at two Chairsnowaiting dot com or on iTunes.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
And also you can check out our podcast store with
t shirt mugs and more that journal website. Just click
on the podcast shop link and go from there. And
also before we bring our guests on odes, I'm on
cameo So you got a birthday, get well soon, or
a retirement, a wedding or whatever you want me to do.
(03:55):
I'm on cameo for fifteen dollars, so not bad and
so that right there kind of took about four minutes
to say. So if no further ado, please welcome my
guest this week. His name is Ted Slawson. He appeared
on the documentary called The Perfect Bid The Contestant Who
Knew Too Much and so Ted and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
Thank you very much, appreciate you having me.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Oh absolutely what I seen on Facebook, and that you
have what I've seen on Facebook and that you had
a bit of a hacker tonight.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Yes, and it's not this one right here. It's one
of the two younger ones, the two litter mats that
we adopted about a little over a year ago. Yeah,
he's just standing on my laptop trying to guess my password.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
I guess I.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Don't know now for people who don't know anything about
you or have not seen the documentary, And how would
you describe yourself to people?
Speaker 5 (04:55):
Well, I this isn't true anymore so much, but I was,
I guess some people would say obsessed with the Prices
right as a child and into adulthood, and really enjoyed
the show and learned ways to make sure that when
I went to a taping that I was very well
(05:16):
prepared in case I was chosen to be a contestant.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Now, would you say that you was a price A
Price is Right kind of expert because you can't blog
if every single thing.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
Yeah, yes, I wouldn't say every single thing. It It
kind of evolved over the course of several years. Certainly
toward the season thirty thirty five, probably was keeping track
of just about everything yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
And you even made it a computer game as well.
Speaker 5 (05:54):
I actually made several my old Texas instruments computer which
is sitting right here to my left. I learned how
to program in basic and I started programming some of
the games from the show, and later on actually used
(06:16):
real prizes from the show and real prices from the show,
and that kind of helped me prepare a little bit.
And then I got my first personal computer, and around
nineteen ninety I think it was, I programmed all the
games that were on the show. It would basically run
through an entire episode of the show. It would pick
(06:36):
the games kind of at random, following the format that
the show would normally follow. And again with the actual
prizes and prices, it was all texts that it was
no pictures, and that.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Also helped me prepare.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
And then toward the early two thousands is when I
came up with the program that would do what I
would normally do with my pronounce and it would quiz
me with almost like flash cards, and it would give
me the description and a picture of the prize, and
(07:11):
I'd guess the price. If I was right, it would
take it out of the mix. And then if I
got it wrong. It would keep it in the mix
until I got the price right, and that was super
effective in learning prices.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Now and when did you become a fan of The
Price Is Right? Tita happened at a young age or
did it kind of happened kind of later in life.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
It was I think it was the early spring of
nineteen seventy three, so they would have been in their
first season of the New Prices Right. It may have
been the next year, but I'm fairly certain it was
that spring, and my brothers and sisters and I were
home from school and they wanted to watch The Prices Right.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
And I wasn't. I hadn't.
Speaker 5 (07:57):
I had seen commercials, but it didn't look interesting to me,
and so because I was the youngest, I kind of
had to sit there and watch it. And by the
end of the show it was like, well, this is
kind of an eat show. And then when you see
the next episode and you realize there's different pricing games
on each show and it's always you know, they do
that to keep it interesting, and it certainly was interesting
(08:18):
to me.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Now do you still watch The Price Is Right?
Speaker 5 (08:23):
I very very rarely see it. I you know, I
worked during the day. I used to tape it and
watch it in the evenings. But I just I'm not
even sure how I had time to do that, quite frankly,
because I think about trying to do that now and
I just don't know how I would have the time.
But yeah, I haven't really watched much since probably spring
(08:48):
of two thousand and nine.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Now, Kenny tell us about the first time, and that
you attend at the Price Is right.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
I can.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
I was eighteen and a half finished my freshman year
of college, and my good friend ye who I grew
up with, was a couple of years She's a couple
of years older than I am. We had planned our
first vacation as adults, and we went to Los Angeles,
and you know, we wanted to go to Disneyland and
(09:18):
not Sperry Farm and Universal Studios. And I had told her,
you know, I've been waiting all these years, I want
to go to the Prices, right.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
So she agreed to do that with me.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
And you know, the first time, you learn all the
ins and outs, and you know, you really kind of
have to get there super early if you want to
get a good seat in the studio. And so we
actually showed up on Monday morning, and we parked the
car in the lot and it seemed like there wasn't
a line, which was strange, and we checked in with
(09:50):
a security guard, I think, or we asked a security guard,
and he said they had canceled the tapings for that
day and we needed to come back the next day.
And it's kind of funny because of all the times
I went, that's the only time they ever cancel the
taping that I went to. So we kind of re
we shuffled all of our activities for the rest of
the week.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
We came back the next day, we got in line.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
We sat there and waited and they did all the
processing and you know, you get a break at some
point during the day, but our hotel was you know,
probably good twenty thirty minutes, so we just stayed around
that area and finally got to the point where it's
time for the interviews and Phil Wayne was going through
(10:35):
the line, you know, interviewing people. Actually the line goes
by him that he doesn't really go through the line,
and I was thinking about what I was going to say,
and when he's when he said, tell me about yourself,
I started and I don't normally stutter, but I could
not get out what I wanted to say. And I
(10:55):
was just like, i'm a, I'm a, I'm a. And
I finally got college freshman. I forget how I said it.
College student. And my shirt I had a shirt made,
my sister had it made for me that said I'm
here to kiss Holly and on the back it said sorry, Bob.
And he looked at my shirt as I was stammering
(11:15):
my way through my interview, and he goes, and you've
got lips for Holly. And he went on to my
friend D. And I'm like, okay, well that wasn't very impressive,
but we I don't know how far you want me
to go in we were. We were seated way in
the back of the studio, literally the back row in
the middle, and first item up for bids was a
(11:36):
swimming pool that I knew was fourteen ninety nine. You
can hear me yell out fourteen ninety nine. Bob reads
the price, it's fourteen ninety nine. My friend D snaps
her head over to me. A couple other people in
the row ahead of us kind of turned around looked
at me like, how did you know that? And the
sad part was nobody who was playing the game hurt me.
(11:57):
It was just the people around me who kind of
knew what I was talking about, and none of them
got picked. And that would be a theme for several tapings.
But it was a fun experience.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Now I thank him the documentary and you've hoddered out
the bit a few times and then eventually Pob Barker
kind of ignored you.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
He didn't really, he didn't really.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
I don't think he ever really noticed me because I
wasn't that close to the front of the studio and
it's so loud with all the people yelling. But there
was a taping where I had been getting frustrated that
people weren't listening, and you know, you do all that
prep work and if I can't be picked, at least
I can help someone who was picked. And so rod
(12:47):
Roddy had described the first item and it was a
home gym, and I knew it was twelve fifty. So
as soon as he ended the description, before Bob had
a chance to say anything, I yelled out twelve fifty.
And that's when Bob said, well, there's the first bit
of the price is right, and he made a big
deal about how I yelled out this price, and the
(13:09):
whole time I'm sitting there thinking if I'm on the nose,
which I was pretty sure I was, it's like he
might regret that he said anything. And so, you know,
the people all bid. Bob pulls the price dag out
and his eyebrows shot up on his forehead and he
goes stand up out there and he had me stand up.
And so that was the first time that they were
(13:30):
really kind of aware that I knew prices. And if
you watch I mean, this was nineteen ninety at this point,
and if you watch some of the episodes that are
on like Pluto TV and all the other services, they're
from like the early to mid eighties right now, there's
at least a couple people if you watch that, and
(13:51):
they've even admitted on the you know, they get on stage,
they tell him, I memorize three hundred prices, and he's
encouraging about that, like he's like, that's really great. It's
great that you watch and and you know you'll be
able to win if you know the prices, and you know,
there was a day I wish I knew the episode,
but I've seen it a couple times where there's like
(14:11):
three or four perfect bids and contestants row and they're
not all like seven hundred. They're like weird numbers that
you know those people are getting from someone in the
audience who knows the bid.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
You have to knows the prices.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Now, when you first attended, the price was right. If
I remember from the documentary, how was the person you
went with? I was testing you on the prices.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
Yes, my friend d.
Speaker 5 (14:39):
The entire drive down to Los Angeles, not the entire drive,
but that would be something we would do to pass
the time. And she'd read me my description and I'd
try to tell her the price, and I think she
was checking them off. And as time went on and
I started going by myself, I had to do that
by myself, and which wasn't a problem obviously, not while
I'm driving, but I'd get down there and i'd go
(15:01):
through my list and kind of cover the price and
check them off. And then of course when I got
the computer program written, that was way easier and way
more efficient.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Like I said, now, and do you know how many
prices rights shows on that you've attended?
Speaker 5 (15:20):
The official total, I believe is well, the unofficial total
thirty seven. I'm pretty sure it's thirty seven unless there's
one in there that I missed. But starting in nineteen
eighty four, I was going about once a year, and
then when I realized I could go by myself and
(15:41):
nobody cared, I started going a little more regularly because
it was about a six hour drive from where I lived.
So from like nineteen ninety to nineteen ninety two I
went to I think it was sixteen ish tapings until
I got picked in ninety two.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
What is the process of a ten and of Price
Is Right? Episode? What's the process like? And what does
people get to do to be able to get into
the building?
Speaker 5 (16:13):
So I have no idea what it's like. Now I
can tell you what it was like. You would get it.
You would sit on some benches. There's a big, big
long benches. The pages would be there. They'd try to
keep you in order by the way, you know, the
order that you arrive. They would try to keep the
energy of the audience up during all this time, because
(16:36):
it's hours and hours and hours. The earliest I ever
got in line was with my sister and we got
in line. Actually, no, this is a lie. The earliest
before I got picked was eleven the night before, but
for one of the million Dollar spectaculars, we actually got
in line twenty five hours before it taped. So at
(17:00):
some point the pages come through the line, they'll check
your ID, they'll hand out the contestant eligibility paperwork. You
read through that, you get a contestant card that has
a big number on it and a little stub that
you fill out with your name and you sign it
to say that you understand that or that you are
(17:22):
eligible to be a contestant. You get your name tag,
and all of that happens, and every taping seemed to
be a little bit different. I don't know if they
were trying to streamline the process, but it always seemed
like they were trying to improve it. And then once
everyone's got their name tags and their contestant numbers and
(17:42):
everyone's seated in order, then that's when they would take
you through in order by the producer. The producer would
do it a little quick five to ten second interview.
There'd be an assistant taking notes in shorthand. Because I
tried looking to see what she was writing one time
and it was not English. I know that I'm assuming
it was in shorthand and then so there there was
(18:07):
always a secret signal. And my suspicion is there were
several that they used, and each day it was a
specific one that the assistant was supposed to look for.
The day I was picked, when I made when I
said my little spiel, and the producer laughed, which he
(18:29):
had never done, and it threw me for a second,
and I finished what I was saying, and he goes, okay,
and he pointed at me and then went on to
the next person. And I'm assuming on that day the
point meant I'm interested in him. And then you know,
they picked more than nine people, and then they narrow
(18:49):
it down before the show starts as to which nine,
because they want to get a good cross section of
you know, age and gender and body type and all
that stuff and race.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Once you have.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
Gone through that interview, sometimes you would have to wait
until the studio was open because they might be finishing
a rehearsal. Sometimes you went right in and the story
that did not make the documentary, I don't think, but
I've told it in other interviews. On the day I
got picked, we got to go right into the studio,
So you're in there and they're playing music and you're waiting,
(19:26):
and I was in about the fifth row and I'm
about five or six seats in and I'm sitting there
and we're clapping along the music and just you know,
talking to the people around you. And all of a sudden,
I was like, I have to go to the bathroom.
Like I've got plenty of time. Should I just go
or should I just wait? And I was like, now
(19:46):
I'm going to go. I have the chance to go.
So I got up and I'm going by all the
people between me and the aisle, and I said, I'm sorry,
excuse me, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I excuse me, pardon me,
excuse me, pardon me. Go up the aisle, like go
back outside, I do my business. I come back and
as I'm going back to my seat and I'm going,
I'm you know, getting in front of all these people again.
(20:10):
I jokingly said, I promised that I won't do this
again until they call my name, having no idea that
that was the day they were gonna call my name.
And I still wonder if those people were like, wait
a minute, how did he know they were going to
call his men? I have no idea it's the it's
the basic smartass in me. But and then after they
(20:33):
get everybody seated and there, you know it's time. I
think it's maybe five ten minutes before the taping is
when the announcer would come out and do the warm
up again to keep the audience up, and you know,
they make jokes and make people laugh and and then
they go right into the taping. They do the you know,
the opening slate and the drum roll and they countdown
(20:54):
and then you know they to start the show.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
So now, and what was your reaction when you get
cowed down to contestant roade?
Speaker 5 (21:06):
So that was my twenty fourth visit. Uh So that's
twenty three times getting out of the studio after a taping,
happy to see people win, but also that that feeling
of Wow, I went to another taping and they still
didn't call my name. So twenty four I had a
couple inklings. I wasn't I wouldn't say it was a
(21:30):
one hundred percent surprise. Like I said, Phil had laughed
at me during the interview and pointed and said, okay, the.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
What was the Oh Rod, yes, Rod, Roddy, he knew me.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
From the you know me yelling out prices at so
many tapings when he did his interview or his warm up.
One of the part one of the parts of the
warm up to keep the audience engaged and excited is
and then it gets really excited, I start calling out
your names and everyone cheers. Well, when he said names,
(22:06):
he locked eyes on me, and I was like, why
is he looking at me? So they were like a
couple of little hints. The assistant who helps the producer
pick the contestants, she would come out on stage and
she has like a little diagram of the audience and
she would look around and find the contestants and mark
them off so the cameramen know generally where to point
(22:28):
the cameras.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
When people are going to be called.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
And I that day I couldn't look because there had
already been a day where I swore she was looking
right at me and marking them down and looking up
and marking down and looking up, and I was like,
oh my god, they're going to call me. It was
the guy behind me, So I was like, I can't
watch her today. So I didn't watch that part. But sorry,
(22:52):
there was oh so not completely surprised, but still shocked
that shocked I was first. One of the things I
tell people is the big reason why I memorized Prices
was I always felt like I have Charlie Brown luck
(23:13):
and if they call me, I'm going to be the
last of the nine contestants. I'm going to be the
first bidder, and that's going to be my only chance
to get on stage. And the only way to make
sure you can get on stage is if you know
the price of what you're bidding on. Now doesn't mean
I knew the price of everything they bid on on
every show because nowhere near, but at least it increased
(23:34):
my chances. And so the fact that I was called
first was just a total shock, Like I would have
expected to be maybe later in the show, but for
whatever reason, they thought I would be the best one
to call first that day.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Do you think and where you appear t think the
reason they picked you? I don't know if they kind
of pick people in event or not, but do you
think the reason they pick you is because you attended
on a lot of shows?
Speaker 5 (24:01):
Certainly they knew they knew I had been to many.
I had worn that Holly shirt again, I had now
not worn it to any other tapings, but I decided
that day to wear it again, and I had made
a reference to it in my interview, and I think
that was part of it. I was probably a little
more genuine, maybe less stilted, because I had kind of
(24:25):
prepped this little speech, and I think that was part
of it, and they and they realized it would make
a good bit for the show that if I, you know,
I did get on stage and Holly was there, that
we could have our little kiss. That may have been
part of it. I think they also. I don't think
it's because I was helping too many people win and
they just wanted me to be ineligible. I don't think
(24:46):
that was it at all. I think it's just a timing,
a timing thing, and you know, they look for people
who are in a good mood that day, and I
mean that's what they used to do.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Now I have my own opinions. Zip uh uh oh.
When you get caught up and do you remember the
first game that you played when you get up on stage.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
Yes, I played the punchboard Punch a Bunch, which I
knew well, I didn't know for sure, but I knew
enough about the way the games are staged and in
the studio. They would have a cue card to help
Bob so he would remember what game they were playing
and where he needed to go. And part of the
(25:36):
Q card was covered. And I was on that end
of contestants road, right next to where that person stands
with a QUE card, and I had looked over and
I could see the p and it looked like a
U and I thought, well, it can only be punchboard.
And they had the curtain set up on the stage,
which usually is what they would use to hide the punchboards.
I thought, well, this would be a good time to
(25:57):
get up there, because punchboard is money, and you know
you can buy anything you want with money.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
If I play a game.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
For a prize that I don't necessarily like or need
or want, you know, that's not that I wouldn't be appreciated,
but you know, given the choice, if I had waited
one more game, I could have played Lucky seven and
maybe aced it with all four numbers in the car
on the nose. But I don't remember for sure.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Now do you remember what prizes you won?
Speaker 5 (26:30):
Yes, so I want a recliner to get up on stage.
That was five ninety nine I won for the four
prizes in the punchboard. I won a this may or
may not be in the right order, a coffee teammaker
that was one hundred and sixty dollars. There was a
set of children's clothing that I believe was eighteen dollars,
(26:53):
a photo laminator that was thirty five dollars no fifty dollars,
and a dumbbell set that was thirty five dollars. And
then I won one hundred dollars for the perfect bit
on the recliner. And then I won a thousand with
my first punch and decided again with my Charlie Brown luck.
I felt like, whatever decision I make is going to
be wrong. So would I rather have the thousand and
(27:17):
know that I have it? Or do I risk it
and end up with fifty and then be mad that
I didn't keep the thousand, like I would have rather
kept the thousand and found out, oh, you could have
had ten thousand. Then the other way around, I guess
was my on the spot logic, And of course the
audience wanted me to go and I it turned out
that I did exactly the right thing, because they just
(27:38):
all the numbers went down all the way down to
the fifty at the end.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
So and I got to ask the question people might
be about their want to know a tease to get
those items.
Speaker 5 (27:49):
Yes, I still have part of the Dumbell set. I
still have the photo laminator. It's only been used a
couple times. It didn't do with the grade of a job.
The coffeemaker died years ago. The recliner, it had gotten
(28:10):
to the point where I would have needed to recover it.
It was like a like almost a vinyl covering on it,
and it started cracking. And the children's clothing I had
given to a couple, uh, some friends of mine that
were expecting a baby.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
So now, and what was your thought your opinions on
Bob Barker.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
First of all, I told this in the documentary. The
his ability to take something and turn it into something
fun was unbelievable. And the way I experienced that was
on that show where I was the first time he
called me out for yelling out a price when we
(28:59):
went to they went to commercial.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
He always would. They would.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
The production assistant would have the contestants sit down in
those chairs that say the price is right. She would
have them sit during the commercial because they don't want
them you know, stand them the whole time, and as
they come out of commercial, Bob would always say, okay,
the three of you can stand up, make another bad
bit and sit down again, and that would make everyone laugh.
(29:27):
And so he had just said that, they stood up
and Susan turned around and looked at me and said
help me. And I looked at her and I'm like absolutely,
just you know whatever, and the stage managers counting down
like three to one. Camera comes on and Bob had.
(29:51):
Bob had looked and he saw what happened, and it
had been like two seconds, and he went, I want
you folks to know that during that commercial, Theodore or
Susan was overtly flirting with Theodore out here and everyone.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
And I'm just like, wow, he is quick. So he'd
I mean, when you see old episodes, it's that's how
he was.
Speaker 5 (30:18):
He was able to just pick stuff out and he
knew exactly what was going to get a laugh.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
And he was just amazing at that. I mean he
really now.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Once now wasn't an item that the thing, It was
a TV how when appeared on the stage which had
a life shot of your face on it.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
Yes, So when Susan got her perfect bit on her
item and she went up on stage. She played for
Big Screen TV, and during that era, they would usually
have the contestants picture on the TV so they could
get the reaction and the prize in the same shot.
And because of the weird odd thing that was happening
(31:01):
that day, they instead put my face on the on
the TV.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
So that's kind of funny, now, didn't she uh said?
Was it her that said that she was going to
buy you dinner?
Speaker 4 (31:13):
On me? So yeah, that was more Bob saying.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
Joking that with her one hundred dollars, she should buy
me dinner or whatever. And it became this little running joke.
And you know, then when she didn't win her game,
he was like, well, maybe Theodore will leave the tip,
and I'm just like, I'm not and I after all
these years, I think I figured out there was just
(31:41):
some misunderstanding between what I was trying to tell her
what she thought I was trying to tell her. So,
you know, no harm, no foul, except she could have
had twenty What was the twenty one dollars in a
big screen TV?
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Now and now? And how did they approach you for
the documentary?
Speaker 4 (32:01):
Good question?
Speaker 5 (32:03):
Back, So the perfect showcase bid that I was involved
in happened in two thousand and eight, which I don't
know if you're going to get to that or not.
But in two thousand and ten, I think it was
a reporter from Esquire magazine reached out to me about
(32:25):
doing an interview because he wanted to do an article
on this big event, and so I said sure, and
we talked on the phone for I think the better
part of three hours. It was a long interview, and
I mean I had fun. I think he had fun.
So when the article came out, a filmmaker his parents
(32:52):
got him that magazine. I don't know if it was
specifically because of that article, but he reached out to
me shortly after that and said, Hey, I'm a document
or I'm a filmmaker. I'm really interested in doing a
story on loosely based on this event.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
And you know, you would have a paid credit position
or whatever. You know.
Speaker 5 (33:15):
I was like okay, And I was thinking, well, this
may or may not happen, and you know, if it does, great,
and if it doesn't, you know, I'm still have my
day job. It's fine. And didn't hear anything. Didn't hear anything.
A couple of years went by, he reached out again.
He said, hey, I haven't forgotten about you. I'm you know,
(33:35):
working on getting.
Speaker 4 (33:39):
Funding and blah blah blah.
Speaker 5 (33:41):
Okay, great, and a couple more years went by still
you know, hadn't heard anything, and then he touched base again,
and finally in twenty seventeen, it may have been the
end of sixteen. I can't remember the exact dates, but
he said, We've got I've got funding. I'm an to
fly you up to Vancouver. We're going to do the interviews,
(34:03):
bring you know, stuff that you think might be worth
having in the documentary. And so I went up over
Memorial Day weekend. We shot a couple hours at a
time over three days, and almost exactly a year later,
because it was my parents' anniversary in two thousand and
(34:24):
eighteen is when it was released now, and I'm sorry
I forgot the part about He wanted me to send
him a basic storyline of everything that had happened, and
so when I sent that to him, he responded to
me and said, I'm just going to make a documentary
because you've written the movie. I don't want to have
(34:45):
I don't have to write anything. This is probably going
to be a better story anyway, And that's how it
went from being loosely based movie to a documentary about
what actually happened.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Now, can you take it? Can't you talk about what
you did in two thousand and eight with the perfect showcase?
Speaker 4 (35:04):
Sure? So.
Speaker 5 (35:07):
In Bob's last season was two thousand and six, two
thousand and seven, and I was tracking prices and prizes.
I was not eligible to be a contestant, but my
sister liked going to the show. She had kind of
rediscovered it as something fun to do. I had nephews
(35:27):
and nieces who were becoming adults and they wanted to go.
I would have friends who would want to go, So
I was trying to keep that up just in case
anyone in my family or friends got picked. And Bob
retired and then they hired Drew to take over, and
that first season I watched. I kept track of everything
(35:52):
like I'd been doing, and at the end of the season,
around maybe June, they changed the eligibility requirement, which now
stated if it's been ten years or more since you've
been a contestant, you are once again eligible. Well, now
I'm in it to win it for myself because I
(36:16):
can win again. So have everything tracked for all of
season thirty six. I'm using my program. My nephew at
the time was had a wedding scheduled for September twenty eighth.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
I think it was Matthew. I'm sorry if I just
got your anniversary date wrong.
Speaker 5 (36:39):
And so I thought, well, if I go out to
California for the wedding, I can maybe go to La
go to a taping, and then go up and spend
time with family go to the wedding. So on September
twenty second, I got in line for the show and
I was there were three people in line when I
(37:01):
got there. There was a couple who are one and two.
There was a guy who was number three. He said, oh,
go ahead and go ahead of me, and I said, well,
you were already here, and he said no, it's okay.
I want to I want to be a certain number
in line. Okay, So I got ahead of him. About
an hour later, another guy comes and this other guy says, oh,
(37:23):
go ahead and get in front of me. And about
maybe another hour or so, the line's starting to grow exponentially,
Like you know, it's just a few people, a few people.
Then all of a sudden, it's quite a few people.
It's around the corner, and the gentleman next to me
(37:44):
calls his wife, who's over at their hotel, and he says, yeah,
you bet you better come over. It's starting to there's
a lot of people in line. And he hangs up
and I said, I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to eavesdrop,
but was that your wife you were talking to? And
he said, yeah, she's going to come over. I said,
(38:05):
this isn't the greatest neighborhood you. I'm happy to hold
your place. You really should go get her and come
with her.
Speaker 4 (38:11):
Oh you really?
Speaker 5 (38:13):
I said, yeah, just it's fine, don't worry about it.
I'll hold your place. So he went.
Speaker 4 (38:17):
They were back super fast.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
And his wife was very animated and very into the show,
and that she and I and the couple ahead of
me were all fans of the show, and we were
all talking about prizes and prices, and when you hear
Terry talk about that thousand dollars a foot rule for trailers,
(38:42):
that didn't come from me. I believe that was Norbert,
who was Norbert and Francis who were one and two.
I think he's the one who said that, and I
responded with, well, that might have been the case before,
but it's not so much the case now. There was
a trailer on there at one point that was not
even all that big, and it was almost thirty thousand
(39:02):
dollars like.
Speaker 4 (39:03):
It was it was.
Speaker 5 (39:05):
You couldn't use that rule and be close. So anyway,
we spend the day together. We go through the whole
processing and all that stuff, and Terry, who's the gentleman
next to me, he got called down. He was number
three out of the first four, and so we're all
excited he's been called And the first item up for
(39:27):
bids was a sailboat that had been thirty five ninety five.
Terry wasn't listening to me. I was yelling thirty five
ninety five. There was thirty six ninety five. And this
is one of the problems with memorizing prices is things
go up, things go down. You can't always be one
hundred percent sure. So they sit down. Linda tells Terry,
(39:50):
because she's sitting like right next to contestants row, she says,
you should listen to Ted. He knows his you know,
I'm paraphrasing, but she's telling him he almost got that
on the you should listen to him. So next item,
of course, is something I have no clue. It was
like a barbary coat or something, or a camera outfit.
(40:11):
I don't remember, and so we didn't get that one.
Next item is the big green egg barbecue, which had
been nine hundred dollars for seasons and seasons and seasons,
and had just gone up to eleven seventy five a
few months prior, and was just on that one time
(40:31):
at that price, early in the spring.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
I think it was April.
Speaker 5 (40:37):
So we're telling Terry eleven seventy five, eleven seventy five,
eleven seventy five. He bids eleven seventy five. The bells
go off. I'm not Italian, by the way, I don't
know why I'm talking with my hands. The bell goes off.
He's on the nose. He goes up on stage. He's
going to play switch. They opened the doors. There's two
(41:00):
exercise bikes and a home computer. I don't know why,
but from where I was sitting, I could only see
one exercise bike, and I swear the tag set exercise bike.
It clearly says bikes. So I don't know where my
head was, but I was sure the prices should be
switched because the nine on the computer price seemed to
(41:22):
me like it was a forty nine, I think at
the end, and if that makes sense for this, and
the weird price belongs on the computer because the computers
were always weird prices. So Lynda and I are the
only two in the audience say and switch. He switches,
and he loses, Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
Yet again.
Speaker 5 (41:42):
So anyone who thinks I was perfect on that show
nowhere near it.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
So then they spin the wheel.
Speaker 5 (41:51):
He I think was first to spin and he hit
ninety cents, and we were super excited, thinking that is
a very hard score to beat. If he gets in
the showcases, that'd be great. He didn't get beat, so
now we wait through the second half of the show.
I helped another contestant win a car in one away
on the first try, getting all five numbers right.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
They go into the showcase.
Speaker 5 (42:15):
She ends up in the showcase with Terry, and the
first showcase has three prizes, which is always the easiest
way to get him on the nose. We haven't talked
about how I backwards engineered prices of trailers and boats
and stuff that you would only see in showcases, but
I learned how to do that over the course of
the years. First prize was a karaoke machine, which was
(42:38):
one thousand dollars, second prize was a pool table, which
was twenty eight hundred dollars, and the third prize was
the smaller version of the high low travel trailer they
always had, like a seventeen foot a twenty two foot.
I knew that was nineteen ninety three, so I added
it up in my head and I told Linda it's
(42:59):
that show twenty three thousand and seven forty three, And
then I said, let me add it up again because
I didn't want with this much writing on it, I
didn't want to be wrong. So I added it up
again and I said, did I just say twenty three
thousand and seven forty three and she said yes, and
I was like, great, well, now Sharon has passed the
showcase to Terry.
Speaker 4 (43:19):
Terry's looking at us. We're signaling this bid.
Speaker 5 (43:22):
And then I was like then I had this weird
feeling of wait, did we want to be on the nose.
Speaker 4 (43:27):
Or is that going to raise too much suspicion?
Speaker 5 (43:30):
So I started to do twenty three thousand, five hundred
but he already got the number from either me or Linda.
He says it into his microphone. They lighted up and
Drew says, it's a very exact bid.
Speaker 4 (43:45):
I'm just like, yeah, it is.
Speaker 5 (43:51):
And the producer, Kathy Grico, who had been on the
show forever, she had just been promoted to producer. She's
got a clipboard with all the information on it, and
as soon as they lit up the bid, she just
like walked over kind of casually to this little area
where the production staff is sitting, and she's just staring
(44:13):
into this screen. And I was like, yeah, he got
it on the nose, because she wouldn't have done that
if he didn't get it on the nose. And so
they do the second showcase and it's every trip in
the house, and that went on for what seemed like
twenty minutes. I know it wasn't, but they're describing all
the trips and I could never price trips. The only
trips I could ever get were I think they had
(44:35):
some Southwest Airline vacation trips for a couple seasons, and
those tended to be very consistently priced. But other than that,
you could get a ballpark, but that was about it.
Sharon makes her bid. They go to commercial, the lights
go down, and it was like, now what.
Speaker 4 (44:57):
It was U.
Speaker 5 (45:00):
Depending on who you listen to, anywhere from ten minutes
to forty five. I believe it was twenty ish. I
think that's even what Drew has said was it was
about a fifteen to twenty minute stop down.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
And that's very unusual. They would that show is run,
or it used to be run.
Speaker 5 (45:17):
I don't know if it still is, but it used
to be run so seamlessly because you don't want your
audience to get tired or lose interest, or you know,
you want them boom boom boom. They would have the
next game ready to go so fast, and we're just
sitting there waiting and waiting and waiting. They turned the
music back on to keep the audience up, and people
(45:40):
are all over the stage talking excitedly with each other.
And I'm the only one in the audience who knows
why think everyone else is clueless.
Speaker 4 (45:48):
And I'm just like, Okay, let's see how this goes.
Speaker 5 (45:52):
And we're sitting there clapping to the music and I
looked up and I can't remember who they had on
camera first, but there was a camera right on the
stage in front of us, and it was either on
me or on Linda.
Speaker 4 (46:06):
I don't remember which one first, and then they switched
it to the other one. But I do remember turning
to her and going, you're on camera. I don't know
if you know that. She's like what she didn't even realize. Yeah,
they're pointing the camera right at you.
Speaker 5 (46:22):
So they finally Drew had gone backstage, I think, and
he finally came back out. They had the contestants stand
back up, and they light the bids back up and
camera lights all come up, and Drew starts off with
Sharon's showcase and she's only just under five hundred dollars away,
so any other day she would have had it, probably
(46:44):
hands down. And then he goes to Terry and with
a complete lack of enthusiasm, he announces that actual retail
price is twenty and forty three dollars. You got it,
right on the nose, and they display goes to zero
and the audience goes nuts. Andrew's just like, hasn't happened
(47:06):
since seventy two or seventy three, right on the nose,
totally no excitement at all, But you know, he explains that, well,
they thought it would never air, and you know, I
thought I was losing my job, and blah blah blah.
Speaker 4 (47:18):
It's like it's called the Price is right right, It's
in the title. So that was that.
Speaker 5 (47:28):
They Linda went up on stage. You couldn't have paid
me ten million dollars to go up on that stage.
At that point, I was like, I am not going
anywhere near those people. I just had a bad feeling.
Speaker 4 (47:44):
Linda. They went and looked at the prizes. Show went off.
Speaker 5 (47:47):
Linda comes back down to her seat and Kathy Greco,
the producer, walks over and she says Linda, Linda, and like, Linda,
they want you, and she motions her to come back
up on stage. I was like, and going to take
us to interrogation rooms now, and this is going to
be fun. And Linda goes back up on stage. Well,
(48:08):
she wanted Drew to autograph her shirt, and that's so
Drew had a Sharpennie autographed shirt. And that was that,
and then we all they did the door prize drawing.
We all left and they had tickets for the second taping,
so I went back to the second taping, which would
have been the last the thirty seventh one, and they
(48:30):
Originally I ended I was in a seat almost exactly
where I was at that first taping, like in the
very back row, but someone official looking came out. They
were they, I guess, paged my contestant number and I
didn't hear it, but the people around me were like,
aren't you number two eighty nine or two seventy nine,
(48:51):
And some official looking woman comes over. She motions me
to stand up. She walks me over to the other
side of the audience, had some guy stand up as
me sit down, moves him over where I was, and
I was like, okay, I thought they were going to
have me leave, like I thought they were escorting me out.
I didn't know what was going on. And the whole show,
I kept thinking, why did they move me over here? Well,
(49:16):
I don't know if you know this, but that home
base part with the turntable, that whole part of the
set pivots. I watched for years and didn't know until
I saw them do it the first time. When they
play Lucky seven. When they used to play Super Bowl,
it pivots out so that there's a room for the car.
During the regular part of the show, it's kind of
(49:37):
like halfway and then during the showcase they pivoted all
the way so you can see door number one. It
covers part of door number one, And once they do
that pivot, people on that side of the audience can't
see the showcase contestants. I was like, that's why they
moved me over, and people were like peeking out behind
curtains the whole show, like does he know the price
(49:59):
of this?
Speaker 4 (50:00):
It's just the funniest thing anyway.
Speaker 2 (50:03):
So now, now do you think the Bob Barker area
is kind of bad than the kind of Drew Carey era?
Speaker 4 (50:14):
Do I prefer?
Speaker 2 (50:15):
Was that the question, uh, do he prefer the Bob
the Bob Barker era or the current era? That the
price is right?
Speaker 5 (50:23):
You can probably infer the answer from the fact that
I don't watch the Drew episodes almost at all, but
on a weekend, if I have nothing better to do,
I'll turn on the Barker era episodes and watch. And
it's a little frightening that I still know some of
the prices from the eighties.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
So do you sit on your couch and watch the
Bob Barker era, you know, shout out prices?
Speaker 5 (50:52):
I do I did a maybe you saw it. I
did a post on Facebook one day because I had
a hun show. It was like, okay, I think I
know the showcase on the nose, and so I hit
record while they were in commercial, and I said, the
price of the runner up showcase is and I rattled
off the number, and then there was still time, so
(51:14):
I rattled off the prices of the individual prizes in
the showcase, and right as I finished, Bob read the
price and I was right on the nose. And it's
funny that I can do it from the eighties.
Speaker 4 (51:25):
Still, yeah wow.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
Now now has that been seeing in the background, It's
been cats walking back and forth. So I get it
that you're a cat lover and not a dog lover.
Speaker 4 (51:42):
I actually I like both.
Speaker 5 (51:45):
I never thought of myself as a cat person, but
when I moved to Texas, I had been here about
three and a half three months and I had a
cat show up on my patio and she kind of
adopted me, and she was a super sweet cat. My
friend Die actually came to help me move to my
house and she stuck the cat in a carrier and
(52:11):
brought it with me to the house. It actually was
somebody else's cat, but they didn't care. And then the
karma for that was that. About six weeks or so later,
I was like, why does she look like she swallowed
a football?
Speaker 4 (52:26):
So then I had five cats, all females. Because she
had four kittens.
Speaker 5 (52:32):
I kept one, adopted out the other three, and then
they both very close together, we had to put them down.
They both had kidney disease. We have the white one.
We adopted him in two thousand and sixteen, and then
the two I don't know if you've seen either or
the other two. The hacker obviously, those two we adopted
(52:53):
last June, and they're so they're a little over a
year old, and they're still full of energy. They were
chasing each other earlier today. But I've had dogs. I
had dogs growing up. I had dogs a couple of
times earlier as an adult. But cats are a lot
easier to take care of them.
Speaker 2 (53:13):
Oh yeah, now what you also get married?
Speaker 4 (53:17):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (53:19):
Yes, so up. Most people don't know about you is
that you're a gay.
Speaker 5 (53:27):
Correct Now? If you read people's stuff online, they're like,
I think he might be gay because he talked about
his partner. No, I think he's talking about a business partner.
Speaker 4 (53:36):
It's like really, because I was at the age when
we filmed the documentary where I was just like, you
know what, I'm going to call a spade a spade.
Speaker 5 (53:46):
I'm going to use terms that are correct, and if
people don't like me because of that, that's their problem.
You get to a point where it's just like, you
know what, I don't care. Who knows anymore what's going
to happen. So yeah, So Carlos and I we've been
together eight years. In January and just decided it was time.
(54:08):
So we had a big shindig, invited our family. I
didn't think most of my family would come because most
of them are in California, and they all came, which
shocked me. But yeah, so and I you know, I've
I've known, and I talked about this a little bit
at the wedding that I mean, I came to terms
(54:31):
with who I was in high school.
Speaker 4 (54:32):
I was probably a junior.
Speaker 5 (54:35):
And you hear because this was the early eighties, so
it was still the era of you know, you don't
talk about.
Speaker 6 (54:42):
It, and those people are sick and blah blah blah,
and you hear the stories about oh, well, yeah, all
guys experiment with other guys, but it's just a phase
and it passes and.
Speaker 4 (54:54):
Blah blah blah.
Speaker 5 (54:55):
And I'm like, I'm sixteen and this phase hasn't passed yet,
So I don't think it's a phase. And I had
the good fortune that a couple of friends of mine
were also you know, not heterosexual, let's just put it
that way. And so I had already, you know, experienced
(55:16):
that from other people that they had the same kinds
of feelings. And I thought, well, then you know it's
going to be okay. I have people I can at
least use the sounding board and who will understand.
Speaker 2 (55:28):
So now, now, when you tell people that you was gay,
did they support you or did they have their own
opinions about it?
Speaker 5 (55:40):
I don't really think I've had anyone who's not supportive,
which is surprising. I intentionally kept it from my parents
for a variety of reasons. My dad, bless his heart. Sorry,
i'm going to say something that about your dad. Don't
don't strike me with lightning. He was more closed minded.
(56:07):
Around the time I was in high school, he had
disowned my brother, then he they were welcome back in
the family, and then he disowned my sister and my brother,
and I was just like, and they this was because
they chose to live with their significant other before they
got married. That was the reason he disowned them. So
(56:27):
I'm like, well, there's no way he's going to understand this.
And you know, they put me through college, so I
was like, I can, I can keep myself low on
the radar for a while. I never officially told my dad,
but I know he knew the joke that it's not
a joke. But we were having breakfast one morning or
(56:49):
just drinking coffee, and he asked if I had my
will and my final arrangements all taken care of, and
I said yeah, and he goes, well, I was just thinking,
and you know, with you living so far away and
your situation being.
Speaker 4 (57:09):
What it is, what does that mean?
Speaker 5 (57:14):
My mother knew she figured it out because one of
my brothers is also okay, so you know, and that's
super helpful because then it's like there's two of you,
and you know, it's harder for people to get be
closed minded.
Speaker 4 (57:30):
I guess when there's more than one of you.
Speaker 2 (57:33):
So no, now now, and now, what was your reaction
when you heard that Bob Barker passed away?
Speaker 4 (57:45):
So I guess sadness.
Speaker 5 (57:47):
Obviously, I knew I had heard through the grape vine
that he hadn't been doing well. You know, there was
a bit of I don't know if it was dementia
or just you know, and at ninety nine, the fact
that your art is still beating is awesome. But yeah,
I can tell you exactly where I was. We were
driving down to Edinburgh, down in South Texas. We were
(58:11):
on I thirty seven. So my story there was season
thirty seven is when the perfect did happened. I'm on
I thirty seven when I find out he passed away.
There's got to be a connection there. But yeah, super sad,
But you know, he had a great life. He did
a wonderful job for thirty five years, like he said,
(58:31):
and he did truth or Consequences. I don't think the
man ever felt like he worked when he did those jobs.
He made great money. I heard a quote about how
much he was making towards the end, and I was like, wow,
that would be nice money, Like he was making more
per show than I make in a year.
Speaker 4 (58:51):
That kind of money.
Speaker 5 (58:54):
Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but he was making really
good money.
Speaker 2 (58:59):
Now, can you tell us about the time, I'm you
get kissed by Holly on the price is right?
Speaker 4 (59:06):
Yes.
Speaker 5 (59:07):
So she was always my favorite growing up. I always
enjoyed because she always had the problems with the prizes,
you know, the the dishwasher would flop open, or the
refrigerator would keep opening, and and.
Speaker 4 (59:21):
She would you know, it was just amusing to watch her.
Speaker 5 (59:24):
And I always felt like she was of the three,
like Janis was very glamorous the three original models. Janie
was very glamorous. Diane kind of came off as how
do I say this nicely? Just too sexy, like too
much focus on the sexy, I guess, is what I
(59:45):
want to say. And Holly was just kind of like
the girl next door. And so when I got up
on stage, I knew, you know, figured I was playing
the punchboard, I hadn't put two inch together that Holly
models the prizes that you have to price in that game.
Speaker 4 (01:00:04):
And so.
Speaker 5 (01:00:06):
You know, Rod announces that I have a chance to
win up to ten thousand dollars, and Channis has the
big ten thousand dollars bill, and Bob's walking me back
to the punchboard and they're opening the doors where those
prizes are and Holly sees my shirt and started laughing,
and I was like, oh, that's right, she's in this
(01:00:27):
game too. And Bob was like, well, well, Holly, you
have to give him his kiss. And so she came
over and he's pushing me over and so we kind
of met in the middle, and she did like a
little peck on the cheek and gave me a hug.
And I used to show this on like the last
day of school when I was a teacher, and the
kids always just went nuts over this part. We're separating
(01:00:49):
and I was saying something to her, and she grabbed
my face and just planted a kiss right on my lips,
and it was so funny. And then Bob of course,
is making a big thing about it and get back
over here. I have a show to do, blah blah blah.
But then after that show, when she personally came back
(01:01:11):
to where they processed the contestants, it gave me that
autograph picture that to me was the icing on the cake.
It's like, see, she is awesome. I've known it all
these years. She just without me asking, gave me an
autograph personally autograph picture. It's not even just her autograph,
it has my name and that it was a great
television kiss.
Speaker 4 (01:01:31):
And I mean, you can't. I don't know how you
make it any better than that.
Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
Now if I remember correctly. Oh and Bob pulled you back,
and you said that there was a good grip.
Speaker 4 (01:01:43):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (01:01:45):
He because he's got he's got to keep not only
he's got to know where to go, he's got to
make sure the contestants in the shot with him. So
he had this habit of grabbing you. And I'll try
to demonstrate it, like right here on your elbow and
enough pressure where it's like, you know, you better do
(01:02:05):
what he's doing. So he's pulling you this way, you
better know that way because it's hurting.
Speaker 4 (01:02:11):
But yeah he did, he did.
Speaker 5 (01:02:12):
He grabbed my left elbow and he pulled me back,
and I mean I turned around and walked back.
Speaker 4 (01:02:16):
But that was just like ow do.
Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
Before I wrap up the podcast today, which I used
to ask my guests for a closing thought for the
people listening, well, I don't know a much to ask you, no,
but do you get a closing thought for the people listening.
I'm trying to keep me.
Speaker 4 (01:02:42):
Vote for Kamala. That's my closing thoughts.
Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
All right, I don't know how well that in the comment.
Speaker 5 (01:02:55):
All right, we'll make my closing thought. I'm voting for Kamala,
you vote for whoever you want.
Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
Well, that's more like boy would Ted, I would. I
don't thank you for coming on the podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:03:07):
Thank you appreciate it very much.
Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
Oh, absolutely all right, and that wraps it up for
this week for conversations with Jacob until next week. Uh,
may God bless you and we work to you guys
in the next episode.
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