2001-06-26 - 11:33 p.m.

Just Call Me Mr Trebeck

Once upon a time, I was a game show host.

It was during high school, and the program entitled "Who, What, Where?" ran on the Birmingham public schools' channel. I got brought in late in the game because nobody in the actual cable production classes or club wanted to be the host. Since I always like having an audience, I went for it.

The first round of the show went fine, I thought. I missed one crucial point: Each round was supposed to run about 10 minutes, and mine had taken two. Nobody told me the host was supposed to improvise patter between questions to keep things flowing along.

Still, I was fine with that. In the second round I stretched out a bit, and after about the fourth question I knew from the smiles in the control room that I was hitting it right. My parents absolutely refused to believe that I wasn't working from a script. (Which was funny, since one of my best lines was a slap at my Dad. The question asked about the names of Columbus' ships. After someone answered, I said something like, "Historians have often theorized about a fourth ship that really did sail off the edge of the world, but my Dad was later proved wrong.")

The show sort of petered out due to lack of contestants. Our prizes were donations from local businesses and not especially attractive to kids with places to be and homework to do. Still, it was fun while it lasted.

I hadn't thought about it in years until I caught a picture of me on the set in my old yearbook. I was totally amazed. More than any other picture ever taken of me, that picture looked like I feel. Maybe I should get back into broadcasting. Then again, maybe I'd miss actually making money and stuff.

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