Tufts student gets chance to spin the big wheel

    The famous artist Andy Warhol once said that "in the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes." Many students may roll their eyes at the popular saying, resigned to spending the next few years in the obscurity of Tisch Library, but for one Tufts senior, fame is just a spin of a wheel away.
    Senior Peter O'Regan unknowingly signed up for his time in the limelight while playing a game of online "Wheel of Fortune" one evening last winter. A link by the computer screen's edge caught his eye, and, without any real hope of success, O'Regan signed up to be thrown in with thousands of prospective contestants, all eager to win a spot on the show.
    "I had actually forgotten about it until I got the e-mail for the group audition," O'Regan said.
    Five months after signing up, O'Regan was called to audition with a relatively small pool of entrants. He was then chosen to represent Tufts University in the second round of the "Wheel of Fortune" College Week special, taped in the Boston Convention Center and set to air on Nov. 10.
    The format of the College Week edition is largely indistinguishable from the show's standard daily episodes, but several key alterations were made to accommodate the week's theme. The taping location was moved from the show's usual home — Los Angeles — to Boston, arguably America's greatest college town. With it came a full-sized traveling Wheel of Fortune wheel and a stage set that consisted of a mostly accurate, slightly undersized cardboard New England street. On the set, a projector screen played a looping video montage of scenes from various competing schools, including live footage of Tufts' very own West and Eaton Halls.
    Boston University's cheerleaders egged on the audience and helped announce co-hosts Pat Sajak and Vanna White, and Boston foodie group The Phantom Gourmet helped Charlie O'Donnell entertain the audience during the show's opening.
    Over the nearly three decades of its existence, Wheel of Fortune has integrated several similarly planned themes to honor specific events and boost viewership. One of its most successful themes in recent years has been the NFL Players Week, in which the game show competitors are exclusively NFL athletes, according to Sajak in a behind-the-scenes interview with the Daily.
    In addition to attracting spectators, themed weeks create a unique atmosphere behind the wheel and in the audience. College Week in particular stands out because of the sense of partnership it consistently builds between competing players.
    "There's a level of camaraderie any time, but it's always interesting with the college students; there's such a camaraderie since they're all in the same point in life," Cassandra Thompson,  the Wheel of Fortune contestant coordinator, said. "Everyone roots for everybody, and they're excited for each other because you can have three big winners every show. I've seen people come away in third place with $25,000, so there's no need to have that competition. You can all come away with so much."
    The contestants' politeness seems antithetical to the theme and its accompanying setting: university students, often representing rival colleges, competing with one another to win the largest sum of money. But when plucked out of their cutthroat classrooms, the students seem to bond over their shared nervousness and pride.
    Despite the obvious sweating and breath-holding every time O'Regan or one of his competitors from Georgetown University or the University of Maryland spun the wheel, by the end of the day, contestants had already planned to make a Facebook group and keep in touch, O'Regan said.
    It is obvious to viewers that Wheel of Fortune is not simply about the money, but also about puzzles, ambiance and humor. According to co-host White, this has allowed it to outlast many other game shows with easier puzzles and larger cash prizes.
    "It goes back to that old game of solving the puzzle. You walk by the TV, and if there's a half puzzle showing, you want to solve it," White said.
    "People like the game no matter how much money we're giving away," Sajak added. "The idea is not necessarily to solve the puzzle quickest. It's to solve the puzzle and amass money, and the puzzle is up there a long time. The way it's designed, more often than not, you have it at home before anyone solves it in the studio, so you also feel pretty superior to those people. That's probably part of it."
    There is also the comfort of Sajak and White, who have co-hosted the show since its syndication on primetime television in 1983 and who now have their schtick down to a T. White has never repeated gowns (and has even changed between half-hour episodes taped on the same day), her record for claps  averages 720 per episode, and Sajak's interactions with the contestants have become familiar to three generations of American television viewers. The show's light humor also keeps audiences coming back for more; it is cheerful, homey and sometimes even scandalous.
    "Do you want to speak into my chest?" Sajak offered to White after her microphone malfunctioned several times.
    "Do you want to speak into mine?" White replied.
    "I can just imagine the echo," Sajak hit back, resulting in gasps and laughter from the audience.
    From a participant's perspective, Wheel of Fortune rolls by quickly. "It was exciting. It was just fast," according to O'Regan, who was still blushing with excitement as he walked through the curtains separating the glitzy stage set from the vastness of the convention center's open space. But while fifteen minutes of fame is not much time in the limelight, sometimes one can take something from the time into the future.
    The cash prize O'Regan proudly took home to Tufts was one such souvenir. The amount will be revealed on Nov. 10 at 7 p.m., when he is allowed to discuss the puzzles and prizes with others. More significant, though, is the fleeting experience of stepping out of normal life — in O'Regan's case, one of chemical engineering, being a Wren Ram and heading up the Tufts Energy Forum — and stealing a moment in the spotlight. The beauty tips from the show's makeup crew weren't bad, either.
    "I look good," O'Regan said, smoothing a hand over his recently airbrushed cheek. "I like this. You girls have the right idea."