The show did not return requests for comment. “They want to know that you understand the puzzles, that you can speak clearly and loudly and follow directions, and that you won’t freak out,” McMahan said. McMahan filmed one on his phone, which Hart - another former musical theater actor - “stage mom-ed”: “We did multiple takes I kept telling him to smile, to show more enthusiasm.”Ī month after he sent the video in, a representative from the show invited him to the next step: a tryout in Brooklyn, where applicants took turns playing a version of the game and were given 25 fill-in-the-blank word games, of which they had to solve 15 within a set time. Getting on is a multistep process, the first of which involves making an introductory video. “He’s enthusiastic about teaching, he works in a low-income school, he’s gorgeous, and he’s been on Broadway. “I knew he would get on if he tried,” Hart said.
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When Wheel announced it was seeking contestants for another Teacher’s Week, Hart urged him to apply. While McMahan worked as an actor for several years - including in the most recent revival of Les Misérables - he currently teaches second grade in the Bronx as part of Teach for America.
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One day, however, the two caught a “Teacher’s Week” rerun-a themed episode where all the players are teachers. While McMahan and his partner, Adam Hart, were regular Wheel viewers, he never gave serious thought to competing. Making big bucks on the show is extremely difficult.
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If getting on the show is hard, winning is harder still - requiring not just puzzle-solving acumen and the ability to think on one’s feet, but also strategy and luck.