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It's not every day that you find yourself on the set of a locally produced game show, getting your mic hooked up, nervously reviewing the rules of the game -- and silently cursing Suzanne Pleshette.
I found myself in this predicament a few weeks ago as I prepared to face off with City Paper Music Editor Patrick Rapa on the La Salle University channel's game show, Q&A. Where does Pleshette fit in? She chose to star on the worst television show in history, Good Morning Miami. A few months ago a friend and I were desperately flipping channels to avoid watching it when we discovered Q&A.
With bare-bones production values and occasionally less-than-energetic contestants, Q&A, the first and only game show in the La Salle channel's 12-year history, might be easy to dismiss. But it's oddly mesmerizing, as student hosts Steve Martin (yes, his name is Steve Martin) and Seanna Bruno banter their way through a half-hour of television that melds Match Game, Jeopardy! and Name That Tune, often with confusing results.
La Salle 56's sole employee, station manager Tonya Ellis (the rest of the station is student-run), informed me that they were looking for contestants, and suggested I pick an opponent and head out to La Salle on a Tuesday evening for a taping.
It's funny how things seem like a good idea before you actually do them.
So here I am, standing at a podium next to Rapa while Martin and Bruno get ready. Martin, a 20-year-old junior and a philosophy major, was born to be a game-show host -- imagine the love child of Alex Trebek and Guy Smiley. Bruno, a 22-year-old senior and communications major, is Martin's straight man, with a hint of Vanna White (she hands out the cards that stand for points).
A student camera operator is signaling us that we're about to start taping. The show may as well be live,...