If you’re assembling a trivia team for Thursday night at Ithaca Bakery, you might want to see if Laurel Gilmer is free.
Gilmer, director of events for the Department of Music in the College of Arts & Sciences, battled against super-champion Tristan Williams May 12 as a contestant on the TV game show Jeopardy! Though she didn’t win, she discovered that preparation, curiosity and a sense of play can carry you a long way in the game show world.
Gilmer’s path to the iconic quiz show began in her childhood living room in Memphis, Tenn., where she watched the show nearly every day after school. As a student, she eyed the show’s teen and college tournaments with interest, but the audition process was more complicated than it is today.
By the time she was in college at the University of Tennessee, where she studied business administration and marketing (with two music minors), she recalls racing back to her dorm after a wind ensemble dress rehearsal to take one of the early online tests, then offered just once a year.
Today, though the audition process is more forgiving, it’s still formidable, beginning with an online 50-question quiz spanning everything from geography to pop culture. Success there led to a proctored Zoom test, and then to a virtual audition featuring a mock game and interview. When she cleared those hurdles in fall 2024, she entered the contestant pool – where hopefuls can wait up to two years for the call.
“It’s really an accumulation of knowledge over your life,” said Gilmer, but she did study once she got the call that she was chosen for a taping. She wrote out old-fashioned flash cards and used tools including the online J! Archive, a database of past clues and categories. She dove into online communities where former contestants share advice and she practiced with a makeshift buzzer, standing in her living room and clicking in time with host Ken Jennings on past shows.
The buzzer, she learned, is less about speed than precision. Contestants must wait for a light cue signaling the system is live; buzz too early and you’re locked out.
The preparation had a familiar rhythm. As an oboist, Gilmer found parallels between rehearsal and the game show stage. “The more you practice, the easier it gets,” she said. Her comfort being behind the scenes in her current music department role – understanding timing, cues and production – proved useful during taping in Culver City, Calif., where five episodes are recorded each day. She attended a full slate, bonding with fellow contestants and taking in the choreography of cameras, sound and staff.
“There’s a whole contestant team helping you at every break,” she said. “It reminded me of what I try to do, handling all of the logistics in my own work, making sure everything runs smoothly.”
Though she was super nervous for the taping, Gilmer said the trip to California with her husband was also fun, though top secret. She couldn’t tell anyone else that she was even chosen for the show until the airing time was near.
For anyone on campus harboring similar dreams, Gilmer has simple advice: take the online test. “It’s breadth, not depth,” she said, “knowing a little bit about a lot of things.”
More News from A&S
