When watching game shows on television, one might wonder what it takes to actually be at one of those show tapings.
Seymour resident Brandy Drummond knows all about being on a game show and will appear on “Let’s Make a Deal” next week.
Drummond managed Family Video in Seymour for 15 years and currently is a staffing assistant at Elwood Staffing in Seymour.
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Her adventure began in September 2019 when she and her husband, Jason Drummond, along with their best friends, Kevin and Chanda Hackman, took a trip out west.
“We decided we were going to fly to Las Vegas because the flight and car rental was cheaper than California, so we flew to Las Vegas and stayed out there for a week,” Brandy said. “We saw so many things in seven days, it was crazy. We rented a car and drove to California for two days since we knew we had the tickets for ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ on Friday.”
During the trip, some of the places they went were Red Rock Canyon, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier where they rode the scooters.
Brandy said she and Jason love “Let’s Make A Deal,” and Kevin records the show and watches it every day.
“He is the real reason that we went, but we all enjoy the show,” she said. “We were trying to think of ideas of how we could dress up, then saw that costumes could be rented there.”
They rented their costumes, and Brandy dressed as a princess, Jason and Kevin both went as ‘70s guys and Chanda wore a Cleopatra costume.
“While we were waiting in line at the show, there were three girls dressed as the three little pigs. They had on pink leotards, and it was just so cute,” she said. “They were second in line, and as we walked past, they were slapping everyone’s hands and welcoming us all to the line.”
Brandy said there was another girl in costume who was wearing a raincoat that had postcards pinned all over it.
The postcards had words on them, all pertaining to debt, like credit cards, help me, student loans and others, and she was holding an umbrella. When asked what she was supposed to be, the girl said she was “drowning in debt.”
The basic premise of the show has not changed much since it premiered in 1963. Brandy is too young to remember the original host of the show, Monty Hall.
Hall was the host for nearly 30 years, and since then, the show has been hosted by Bob Hilton and Billy Bush. The current host is Wayne Brady.
On “Let’s Make a Deal,” contestants are chosen from audience members, who dress up in outlandish costumes in an attempt to get Brady’s attention.
“It says on the show’s website to try and make yourself stand out and be really energetic,” Brandy said. “That helps your chances of getting chosen to play one of the games.”
While in the audience, she said she was slapping people’s hands and saying, “Who wants to win some money?” and was really excited.
“Before you go in, they give you some guidelines in case you’re on camera, like not to give personal details such as your full name, where you work and things like that,” Brandy said.
She said her personality is loud and obnoxious anyway, and she was so nervous, that when Brady walked up to her in the audience, she rattled off her full name and hometown.
Brady replied, “OK, now that we know everything about Brandy, we can commit identity theft on her.” Brandy said it was funny, but she hopes they cut that part out.
“I watch ‘The Masked Singer’ and I didn’t know it at the time we were there, but it was revealed in December that Wayne Brady was the Fox,” Brandy said. “He was the winner for Season 2, so I thought that was pretty cool.”
She said with some of the games on “Let’s Make a Deal,” contestants might have to make a choice between curtains one, two or three and see what prize is behind the chosen curtain.
“Another thing they do on the show is they might bring out a box and you have to choose to keep it or trade and you hope you don’t get a zonk,” she said. “A zonk is an unwanted prize that is basically of little or no value and means you lost.”
To find out if Brandy won any prizes or if she got a zonk, tune in to watch her appearance on “Let’s Make a Deal” at 10 a.m. Wednesday on CBS.