Mental Notes 'come on down' to Hollywood & CBS
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Members of the Mental Notes, JHU's comedy a cappella group, got more than their 15 minutes of fame when they visited the set of CBS's The Price is Right last week. They also got a glimpse into the strange world of gameshow culture.
"It's like you're clapping for hemorrhoid cream," said senior Curt Gabriel of being a member of the show's studio audience. "It's ridiculous."
The Mental Notes ventured into the CBS studios in Television City Hollywood last Monday for the 1 p.m. taping of the classic daytime game show, now in its 32nd season, as one of the stops on a spring break trip to California that served as an extended tour for the group. The show, during which senior Michelle Moniz was selected as a contestant, played a "pricing game," and had the opportunity to win a car, will air tomorrow at 11 a.m. on CBS.
College students are commonly contestants on The Price is Right and it was Gabriel who suggested that joining the audience of the show could be a fun addition to the trip's agenda. "I always wanted to go," he said. "It was serendipitous that the Mental Notes were going to California as a large group. It's easier to get tickets as a large group."
In obtaining admittance to The Price is Right, Gabriel simply called the show to reserve tickets for his 14-member entourage. When the group assembled outside of the studio early Monday morning, however, they gathered that not everyone waiting to get inside had a ticket. The group spoke with individuals who had been waiting since as early as 10:30 p.m. the previous evening. "If you don't have ticket, it's a first come first serve basis," Moniz said.
It was in line outside the studio, where audience members were first identified with nametags, that the Mental Notes, clad in blue tie-dyed tee shirts created specifically for the occasion, first observed what they consider to be the spectacle of show business. Gabriel noted that patient audience members and potential contestants waiting in line were unusually cordial, as though they thought they were being watched at all times. "People were really nice and really happy," he said.
The Mental Notes determined that with the size of their group and the size of the audience, there was a "purely statistical" 38.75 percent chance that one of them would be called on stage to be a contestant on the show.
It is neither random selection nor an observed waiting period, however, that determines who will be called from the audience and have a chance to "play" The Price is Right. Instead, it is a very brief interview session with show producers.
Collectively, the group had decided that senior Tom Mansell, off-campus business manager and an "extrovert," would be an ideal contestant to represent the group. "If we could have elected one of us, it would have been Tom," junior Jessica Yeatermeyer, Mental Notes President said.
Yeatermeyer also recalled an ironic conversation she had with Moniz, who was selected among the first four audience members to participate in the show, before taping began. The two commented that they were glad to be visiting the show with a large group of "funny and eccentric" people who would decrease their own chances of being selected.
The group tried to further pinpoint the producers' logic in contestant selection. "I knew I'd never get called because I'm from New York and I talk too fast," said Performance Director Arielle Goren.
Once on the set, the Mental Notes were inundated with bright lights and cold temperatures to offset them. They described the set itself as "very Hollywood," like an "acid trip," a "bad seventies basement" or a place where "Rainbow Brite threw up."
They also found it to be smaller than it looks on television, especially the aisles. "Maybe it's as big as the Mudd auditorium," Gabriel said.
After the show had begun, audience members were cajoled by applause signs to show enthusiasm and a man in a Hawaiian shirt frantically urged them to get excited about the game and the products being displayed. Gabriel classified the scene as a strange psychological experiment with a "really promising reward system."
Moniz, of course, reaped the benefit of this prize system. She correctly bid on the price of a crystal stemware set and was the second contestant to join icon host Bob Barker on stage. "Michelle did the typical cutthroat Hopkins thing," Gabriel noted. "She bid a dollar over a person that bid a dollar over. The audience booed her."
Members of the Mental Notes concurred that Barker looked frail on stage and upon standing next to him, Moniz noticed orange colored makeup caked on his face.
Introductions aside, Moniz was then asked to tackle a game called "One Away." Before revealing her potential prize, Barker suggested that it would be something that would please the audience. "We went 'oh my god, it's a car'," said senior Jamie Palaganas.
"One Away" presented Moniz with five digits representing the price of the car, with the initial digits being one more or one less than the actual price that Moniz was responsible for guessing.
The Mental Notes actively tried to assist their group member in her decision, but she could not make out their suggestions. "I could not hear anything," she said. "You just hear all this noise at once."
While Moniz failed to accurately guess the price of the car, she was given a chance to spin a number wheel mid-show in hopes of being the contestant who came closest to $1 in two spins without going over. This individual gets to participate in the show's finale, the "Showcase Showdown." She spun $.90 on her first spin, but since another contestant had already reached $1, she had to go again. The second spin was worth $.25, putting her out of the running.
"It was sad," she said.
But while Moniz came away from the experience with at least some crystal stemware (which will be shipped to her by July) and an autographed picture of Barker, other Mental Notes were left with something more like bitter tastes in their mouths.
Because the show's format was "live to tape," meaning that the recording session included breaks for commercial slots, Mental Notes Music Director Ben Kingsland thought the group might be able to sing to the audience during one of the intermissions. He asked Barker if they could perform and then if he could have minute to confer with his group to decide which song they'd sing, perhaps on the next break. Barker's response was disappointing. "He said, 'I made my decision, you won't sing,'" said Goren.
Instead Barker had other audience members practice oohing and aahing. "They wasted time when we could have been singing," Goren said. "From that point on, I became a very bitter person."
While in California, the Mental Notes also sang as a guest group at a concert for UCLA's The Awaken and visited three high schools -- two in Los Angeles and one in San Diego -- to perform and workshop with students. They also gave a concert at the home of a Hopkins alum in Beverly Hills and sang at a convocation for area alumni at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, which was attended by President Brody. He was particularly amused, the group offers, at their classical music medley entitled "Your Mom."
Since they've been back in Baltimore the group has been rehearsing for their performance at Friday's HABIJAM and preparing for their alumni concert to mark the group's 10 year anniversary on May 1.