Walking into this Saturday's Lancer Productions' The Prize is Right, I wasn't sure what to expect. Was Bob Barker going to enter through the door, smiling as though it was the best day of his life, and possibly soon to be mine? Was the Price is Right theme song going to go off? I had no idea.
As I entered Wygal's doors, a young woman in a glamorous red dress gave me a ticket stub to write my name down on. As I handed back my name to her, I wondered what I had just signed my name to. Did I just sign a contract in blood without looking at the fine print? I was soon to find out. I took my seat in the auditorium, awaiting the fate of myself and all those around me.
When the host entered, the show began by choosing the first four contestants by picking four of the many ticket stubs out of a bowl. Once the four contestants were chosen, they would have to guess the closest or exact price of an object by writing their estimate on a white board. You guess the closest? Guess what, you get to go to the next round —solo.
I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the contestants. The first few rounds of guessing each item's cost, I did rather poorly on. But when the host took out that 12 pack of beef ramen, I knew I had this. I know my ramen. I was on. I guessed 3 for the dollar amount. It was 4. Close enough. And I was on to the next round.
Whatever this mysterious "next round" entailed depended on your luck. Each round was different. One round was titled Then and Now, where the contestant was given a picture of three items (i.e. milk, gas, and eggs). The current prices of the items were shown, and what the contestant had to do was to guess as closely as he or she could what the price of said items were ten years ago. The contestant was only given a 25 cent difference of the guessed price to guess wrongly. Too high or too low, you're out.
Another game played was Mountain Climbers. Various prizes are shown to the contestant one-by-one, and, similarly to Then and Now, the contestant had to guess the price of the items. To represent the mountain, a cardboard cut-out of a ladder-like mountain was on display with a small cut-out of a person standing on the bottom step. You continuously guess the price range of the prizes correctly, you go up a few spaces on the mountain. You guess wrong enough times, you slip off the mountain, thereby losing.
The prizes capable of being won by contestants in each round included a bike, a bed comforter, a coffee machine, a box fan, an iHome, various gift cards — the list goes on.
The round I played? Bags. Was it bags of fun? Oh, no. Bags of anything but fun. In Bags, there are six bags displayed with six items. Each item is in one bag, and hidden. The contestant – in this case, me – had to take the six items and place them in order of price from lowest to highest. The items included Pringles, dish soap, pretzel snacks, toilet paper, cereal, and coffee. I didn't know squat when it came to these products. How could I win? I trusted the audience. Relying on the audience to tell me, "There. No, move that there," I was able to win the round. Each bag opened to display what the correct item would be in what order, lowest to highest. Having a large number of strangers look at me like, "How do you just not get this?" before each item was shown was worth winning a few giftcards for iTunes and Applebee's.
With every three rounds, one person per round, the three contestants of those rounds are given one shot to go to the final round. Each player has to spin a wheel two times. The wheel has numbers that are to be totaled up after spin. In the end, whoever has the highest score goes to the final round. Only two end up in the final round. Intense.
The last round consisted of a Good Night or Two: two bottles of sparkling cider, a bucket of Orville Redenbacher popcorn, "The 40 Year Old Virgin," "Marley and Me," a Blu-ray player, Lancer Productions packs filled with snacks, a trip to Busch Gardens, and last, but not least, a digital camera. The total price of all of the prizes had to be guessed by the final two contestants. This was sudden death.
Any contestants who were unable to get a chance at any of rounds were given a consolation prize of a large white board. Not bad.
Rachel Ballard, a sophomore at Longwood, was one of the final two contestants of Lancer Productions' The Prize is Right. Ballad described herself as "excited" by the end of the night, commenting that she didn't expect to get picked as a contestant, let alone win at second. Ending the night with a Harry Potter box set, a soccer ball, a lamp, Apples to Apples, a Dirt Devil vacuum, and a cooler, Ballard recommends people to "Go to Lancer Productions."
The number one winner of the night, Gregory Robey, a junior at Longwood, says he was "kinda surprised" to not only win first place, but to even get called as a contestant. "I was expecting to lose." Winning the whole display in the final round, Robey ended the night better than the unlucky many who decided not to spend the night at Lancer Productions.
Check out more games, movies, concerts, and activities hosted by Lancer Productions by checking out their website at http://lancerproductions.longwood.edu/.
