NPR – What Story Would You Tell On Jeopardy?: For many contestants, their anecdote is their main sou

NPR – What Story Would You Tell On Jeopardy?: For many contestants, their anecdote is their main sou

NPR – What Story Would You Tell On Jeopardy?:

For many contestants, their anecdote is their main source of anxiety. “People tell me that this is the scariest part — this chat thing!” James says. “But the thing is, Alex is so good at his job, he will bail you out no matter what.” [Contestant Coordinator Robert] James sits down with each contestant to settle on three of their best anecdotes from the questionnaire. That often requires more work.

Once, after responding to all the questions on the form, a contestant settled on the most interesting thing he could share: “I like to walk.” “C’mon — ‘I like to walk’?!” James says. “We all like to walk! But we worked with him some more and he came up with some good stories.”

Three final stories wind up on Trebek’s note cards. He makes the final call on what to ask the contestants about. Trebek likes to hear stories about the military, James says. He’s been active with the USO. He likes romantic stories, too.”But I can always guarantee that if there’s anything about power tools, he’s going to want to talk about that,” James says.