Game show fans show their spirit
Enthusiastic audience rocks Jube for live version of Price is Right
They came (on down,) they saw and while they didn’t conquer, they guessed at prices with all their might.
Spirited fans of The Price is Right packed the Jubilee Auditorium on Sunday afternoon for the first of two sold-out live editions of the old-school game show, which has never been to Edmonton before.
Of the hundreds of participants who’d registered at the Jube three hours in advance for the chance to “Come on down!,” only a couple of dozen heard their names called. But that didn’t quash the enthusiastic you-win-we-all-win mood of this pricing party. I haven’t heard cheering like in the Jube … ever.
Dress code for The Price is Right Live was true to the televised version: casual, costumed, and of course decorated with a retro name tag.
The Edmonton crowd got into the spirit with tiaras, feather boas, leprechaun hats and Oilers jerseys, steering clear of wardrobe-malfunctiony items like tube tops (thank you).
The prizes felt so techny compared to the olden days, when people bid on steak knives and boxes of macaroni and cheese.
The first item up for bid was something called a Quadricopter, followed by all manner of gadgets, including a helicopter alarm clock, a slot machine and a motion-activated snack dispenser. Not the stuff you’d put on a grocery list, but never mind.
The sets were as identically retro-fab as we’d all hoped, featuring all our favourite games: Plinko, Cliff Hangers, Hole in One.
Audience participation was solid, with rowdy shouting of “HIGHER!” and “LOWER!” and hand-signalling. You’d look around and see that people were no longer in Edmonton. They’d been whisked away into the studios of CBS, into the cornball, wholesome magic of it all, this forty something-game with all its chutzpah.
We saw a lot of OMG-I’mon-stage jitters, which game show host Mark Walberg (U.S. version of Antiques Roadshow, Temptation Island) smoothly turned into a laugh. The first contestant was so nervous she sat. Walberg sat beside her and they even lay down for an awkward moment. Walberg then got out of the predicament with, “It’s a family show, and we don’t need to make a family.”
He made a solid, likable host. Right away he addressed the fact he is NOT the other (hotter, more famous) Mark Wahlberg of The Departed and Calvin Klein underwear shoots, and showed genuine encouragement, sympathy and affection for the participants.
“Hold me Barb!” he shouted before taking one of the Big-Wheel spinners into a bear hug.
The Shake Weight moment was intensely funny. The weight for women, with its sexually suggestive action, has become a viral sensation (and even on Ellen).
Cue heckling when the vibrating cylinder came up for bid, to which Walberg called out, good-naturedly, “That is a legitimate workout item! You should be ashamed of yourselves!”
Price is Right purists might not have appreciated the travelling show’s inclusive format. To explain, there is no progressive winning. Instead, the production spreads the prizes out among as many spectators as possible. Each Contestants’ Row featured four new faces, and those called on to stage to play a game do not return to spin the Big Wheel. The wheel-spinners (new faces) do not return for the Showcase Showdown, and the Showcase Showdown isn’t a showdown at all. One guy — another fresh face, Jason — played the Showcase alone. He didn’t win the car or the flat-screen TV; just a fancy electric mixer, along with a supply of organic flour.
The live experience would have been augmented by inhouse video cameras, so we could have close-ups. As it was, we only got to see the back of people’s heads on Contestants’ Row and had to rely on the host for price information. Maybe they could consider something akin to a “kiss cam” in future, to involve the whole audience more.
There were bugs, too. Walberg made his entrance with one of the long, skinny microphones Bob Barker always used, but this mike was on the fritz and had to be swapped for a boring silver one, boo.
Announcer Howard Blank, who calls down the contestants and gives summaries of the prizes, had a voice that was so hoarse, he was at times unintelligible. The poor chap’s vocal cords needed to a holiday in Las Vegas
Then there was our collective streak of bad luck. No one in the 4:30 p.m. crowd won any big prizes, much as Walberg tried to give them away (including a trip to Las Vegas).
The highlight was when a trucker named Sandra got $1 on the Big Wheel in two spins, earning herself $350 cash.
Mary Jane Flett drove to Edmonton all the way from Fort Smith, N.W.T. to attend. She got to play Punch a Bunch, and passed up a $750-punch in the hopes of finding the one $5000 punch, only to end up with just $300.
Flett wouldn’t have taken the risk if it had been made clear she wouldn’t get to return to spin the wheel.
“It’s not like the show on TV,” she said afterwards, as she went to collect her winnings.
“If I’d have known that, I’d have taken my 750 bucks.”