"I'd like to buy an OU"
Alumna cashes in on "Wheel of Fortune"

By Chuck Bowen

A one-week trip to Hawaii for two, $1,000 spending cash and another $10,000 isn't a bad haul for 20 minutes of work.

Marci Greenberg, BSC '00, took her chances spinning for success on “Wheel of Fortune,” and it paid off.

Guessing word puzzles such as "macadamia coconut cake," "Halifax" and "take two: Oscar-winner Julia Roberts has twins," Greenberg fought for fame, fortune and a chance to stand next to host Pat Sajak and guess the bonus puzzle.

She made it to the coveted final round, but then learned an unfortunate geography lesson.

The category was "On the Map," and she had seven letters to guess. The puzzle answer turned out to be "Halifax" -- the capital of the eastern Canadian province of Nova Scotia.

"I didn't know then what it was, but I know now," she says. "I'll never forget."

Greenberg says the experience of being on the show was "lots of fun" but also stressful.

"It was so overwhelming," she says. "It takes 22 minutes; you're looking at the letter board, how much money you have, if you can buy a vowel. It was definitely crazy." More than a year ago, Greenberg competed with 600 other contestants and made it through four rounds of play at her auditions in Phoenix, where she works as a real estate agent. They played as if they were really on national television, spinning the wheel and solving puzzles so producers can gauge their enthusiasm for the game. Even if a contestant was good at solving puzzles, she says, he might get cut if he's not fast enough or doesn't show enough zeal for the wheel.

She says she sympathizes with contestants now when she watches from home and understands how hard being on the show actually is. "It's much easier to watch from home," she says. "And the wheel's a lot heavier and smaller than it looks on TV."

Having auditioned so long ago, Greenberg wasn't expecting to ever get on the show. But, in early December, producers called and said she was scheduled to tape a show the following week.

To prepare herself, she played a "Wheel of Fortune" computer game and watched the show every night, taping it if she couldn't be home -- all to get her mind into thinking quickly. Then, she flew out to Los Angeles with her dad on Tuesday, Dec. 7, taped the show on Wednesday and flew back to Phoenix on Thursday.

"I would go back again," she says, "but you only can be on once in a lifetime. You can't be greedy."

She says she doesn't yet know what she'll do with the money -- maybe redecorate or put some toward the mortgage on the house she bought in July. And the week in Hawaii isn’t on her calendar just yet, but she's had lots of offers for a travel companion.

"All my friends are my best friends now," she says.

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