Q&A (or A&Q): With Local Jeopardy! Contestant
 Timothy Shuker-Haines, right, poses with 'Jeopardy!' host Alex Trebek. |
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.
Q: It is the hardest thing about appearing on the game show "Jeopardy!"
A: What is smiling?
That is the response of Williamstown's Timothy Shuker-Haines, a teacher of American history, religion and economics at Buxton School who will appear this week during the 30-year-old game show's fourth Teacher's Tournament.
"The worst part is when they're introducing you," Shuker-Haines said last week. "You're supposed to stare into the camera and smile ... and all you can think about is the camera and the people watching. I was thinking, 'This is not what a normal smile looks like.'
"The interview is pretty nerve-wracking, too. But once you play, you don't think about the audience or the camera. You just play the game."
Shuker-Haines played his game – or games – earlier this month. He joined 14 other teachers from around the country in the two-week tournament. Winners of the quarterfinals, which air Monday through Friday this week, move on to the semi-finals along with four "wild card" semi-finalists, the next highest finishers who did not win their first-round matches.
The nine semi-finalists compete in three matches that air Monday through Wednesday the second week of the tournament, and the winners of those matches compete in a two-day final with a $100,000 grand prize on the line.
Viewers will have to tune in this Friday, Nov. 15, to see whether Shuker-Haines made it to the semi-finals. But he made some time last week to talk with iBerkshires about the experience and share some backstage details.
Q: I won't ask you how you did, but how many times since you got back have you been asked how you did?
A: Quite a few, especially at school. Kids are very anxious to know.
Q: What was the reaction generally from your students?
A: They're very excited. They think it's cool to have their teacher on national television. Being with other teachers, a lot of them were worried that their students would make fun of them for making mistakes. Mine are very supportive.
Q: What was the social atmosphere like among the teachers?
A: We were all very amicable. You spend a lot of time together. Basically, we're sequestered in the green room for the first day. You can't see how other people are doing because it would affect your wagering on Final Jeopardy because of the wild card spots. You're spending a lot of time hanging out in the green room.
People were very friendly, very chatty. I was the oldest person there and the only person from a private school. There were kindergarten teachers, others who taught high school social studies.
Q: Tell me about the trip itself. How long were you out there?
A: They shoot the tournament over two days. The five quarterfinals are one day, and the next day they shoot the three semifinals and the two finals.
We were out there about five days. We went out Saturday and came back Thursday. For the regular shows, you're on your own for travel and rooms, but in the tournament they bring you out and put you up.
We went out a day early to have some vacation time in Los Angeles. We requested an earlier flight and had to pay the difference for the hotel. My wife and my youngest daughter came with me; I paid for their tickets.
They saw a lot of "Jeopardy" – 10 shows in two days.
Q: Would you say you were a devotee of "Jeopardy" before this started?
A: I'm not a fanatic. There were some people there who could name all the big champions. I can't do that.
I've watched it on and off, depending on schedules. I've not seen it much the last few years. ... I think it was last year or the year before I was watching it and they would have promos to take the test at home and audition, and I thought I should give it a try.
Q: Were you a College Bowl guy or do you do bar trivia nights and things like that?
A: I've gone to the Purple Pub a few times. Sometimes the teachers from Buxton will go together. I don't drink, so it's weird to hang out at the bar, but we have fun.
And I'm always pretty good at answering questions on the couch.
Q: Did you do any special preparation before you competed?
A: My daughter periodically would ask me sample questions. Right before I went out, I asked my daughter to print me stuff on Olympic sites, famous operas and the periodic table – things I'm particularly strong on. ... There was one thing that came up on the show that I'd learned the day before.
Q: Were your students involved in that process?
A: The day before I went to the in-person audition [in Boston], I told my history class I had to go and was going to be missing class the next day. One of them, thinking I don't know much about popular culture, said, 'What if they ask you what the name of Beyonce's kid is?' I said, 'Blue Ivy Carter.' They were pretty surprised I knew that.
Turns out, that was one of the questions in the audition.
Q: Do you get to spend much time on the set getting familiar with the surroundings before the actual competition?
A: It's a very long day. They start taping at about 11:30 or something, but the call was 7:45. There's makeup, a lot of paperwork and they do a bunch of practice rounds to get used to the stage and the buzzer. It's like the actual game except you're getting questions from the stage manager instead of Alex Trebek.
Q: How was your experience with the clicker? Did you experience any problems during the game?
A: I wasn't terribly good at the buzzer. ... I had a little bit of trouble getting the timing.
The way it works is when Alex stops speaking, there's a guy who presses a button, and that does two things: It lights up the lights at the edge of the playing board and it activates the buzzers. I found my reponse time was just a little bit slower than the others, being a little older. What worked for me was to do what the guy was doing – listening for Alex to stop talking and pressing my buzzer then.
Q: How did you do with having to phrase your responses in the form of a question?
A: I blew it once. You sort of get used to it.
In Single Jeopardy, they allow you one mistake. In Double Jeopardy, they penalize you.
Q: Would it be giving away too much to tell us when the mistake happened for you?
A: It was in Single Jeopardy.
Q: Where do you plan to watch the show?
A: The whole school will get together on that night and just watch it. I think that should be fun. The school is pretty excited about it.
Normally, the [teacher's] class gets taped for a little five-second 'shoutout,' and it's ID'd as somebody's class. Here it's the whole [89-student] school getting together to do it.
"Jeopardy!" is broadcast locally on WTEN Channel 10 at 7:30 p.m. Shuker-Haines is appearing during the Teacher's Tournament that runs from Monday, Nov. 11, through Nov. 22.
Tags: contest, game show, television,
