My original January taping date was postponed. Ben chose the Inauguration (attending as a family friend of the Bushes) over working that day.
“What, he’d rather hang out with the President than meet you?” Mom huffed.
The reprieve gave me extra time to prepare. Becky loaned me her excellent Dictionary of Cultural Literacy and I studied it every night before bed. Mom taped episodes for me so I could practice “ringing in” on the buzzer. This was key as I do not have television service in my cabins.
Other friends e-mailed their favorite trivia questions to me. After reading that students who listened to Mozart before an exam performed better than those who didn’t, I bought a CD of Mozart piano duets and taped it.
It wasn’t until the second week of January that my cell phone rang. “Hi Lynn, this is Harv from ‘Win Ben Stein’s Money.’ How are you?”
“Good question, Harv: How am I?” I asked.
He laughed. “Well, probably pretty good, in light of what I’m about to say. Are you still interested in participating in a themed episode?”
I was eager to wear a costume on the show. That way, it would seem more like being in a play and less like me testing my own wits.
Harv continued. “Our writers have come up with a theme episode and I think it would be perfect for you. Are you familiar with film noir?”
“Movies from the 30s and 40s with beautiful, deadly women and the men who love and arrest them, right?”
“You got it. Well, our writers have developed a film noir show and we’d love for you to participate. They’ve written some great bits for Ben and Nancy and we’re filming the entire episode in black and white. Do you have anything in your closet that could suit the theme?”
I made a mental inventory of my closet and hat rack. “Definitely.”
“Super. The taping date will be Thursday, February 8. I’ll send you another contestant bulletin so you know where to park and where your guests should meet.”
“Thanks, Harv. I’m really looking forward to this.”
***
Whenever I have an early morning flight out of San Jose International (airport code SJC), I spend the night at my buddy Steve’s house. Not only is he one of my favorite people in the world, but he lives one block from light-rail and one mile from the airport.
We ate Chinese take-out the night before. My fortune cookie promised future riches beyond my imagination. Good sign. Steve set the alarm clock near the loveseat before going to bed, but the loveseat deemed itself unworthy for sleeping so I pulled the cushions off the couch and put them on the floor, where I slept until the alarm woke me at 5:00 the next morning.
I brushed my teeth in Steve’s kitchen sink and peed outside so as not to awaken him, donned my fabulous lucky panties, my travelling clothes and was at the airport by 5:50.
While waiting in line at the gate I noticed some valentines stapled to the wall behind the counter: “Scott loves the Women of SJC.” “The women of SJC love Scott.”
The Southwest agent gave me boarding pass 23, my lucky number. Woo hoo!
I dozed on the plane ride between pages of A Very Long Engagement, a book that the night before made me cry on page 63.
The plane landed at Burbank, the Lilliputian airport, at Gate A1. Positivity abounding, I had my combat boots shined at the airport for $4, plus a $2 tip. As I rose from the chair another man lingered, considering having his own shoes shined. “He did a beautiful job. Really,” I told the potential patron, “I could eat off of these.”
I called the Cheapy Rental Car counterman from my cell phone. He gave me a Ford Escort. It was pink. Nothing screams “White Trash!” like a pink Ford Escort with somebody else’s Taco Bell garbage in the back seat. I shall not rent from him again.
After putting my bags in the hideous car I returned to the hotel for breakfast, ordering the Burbank Special: an English muffin with Canadian bacon, poached eggs and processed-cheese slices vulcanized on top. I ate quickly, fearing that once the cheese cooled I might break a tooth.
Post-breakfast, I called my wisest client for some last-minute advice. “Just be yourself,” he offered.
I thanked him, and then picked a bone with him over the fact that the book he’d recommended made me cry on page 63. We rang off and I retrieved my bag from my car, to change from modern-woman Lynn Benson to femme-fatale Lynn Benson. This required stripping completely naked in the handicapped stall of the Ramada’s ladies room. My costume consisted of my mid-calf bias-cut Ralph Lauren navy skirt, a long-sleeved pale-yellow sweater with a deep v-neck and the purple cloche hat I bought in Toronto a few years prior. The ensemble didn’t quite match, but as the show would be filmed in black and white I figured it wouldn’t matter.
I chose to wear my super-lucky panties by wearing none at all — it wouldn’t do to get a wedgie on national TV. Once dressed, I ran through my toilette from toothpaste to toner to full TV war paint. Those who saw me enter the ladies room were very surprised when I emerged. I think this had more to do with my costume change than my breakfast choice.
I drove the now-familiar route to the KTLA studios, noticing a movie poster for the upcoming “Sweet November,” which I took as another good sign because November is my birth month. I stopped at Rite-Aid for some last-minute supplies (lipstick, safety pins, water and an eyelash curler) and pulled into KTLA’s “Producer Lot A” 75 minutes before my call time.
Not seeing a parking attendant, I popped my Mozart tape into the cassette deck and read more of Becky’s Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. Another happy coincidence occurred when I glanced at the car’s digital clock and it read 11:23, which is my birthday. About that same time the absent parking attendant returned, and walked around to the driver’s side of my ugly-as-sin rental car.
“Win Ben Stein’s Money,” I answered before he could ask.
“Contestant?”
“Yes.”
“What, are you studying?”
“Yeah,” I said, pushing the button forward to roll up my window and return to the book. Close to noon I left the car, packed the book and my cell phone in the trunk (no cell phones would be allowed on the set) and was preparing to close the trunk when I saw another man dressed in a zoot suit. I smiled at him.
“I bet I know which show you’re taping.”
He smiled back, kind of. We all queued up outside of the guard station and were brought in by some of the same contestant wranglers I remembered from my testing date. They brought us through the parking lot (I hadn’t noticed before that Ben Stein’s license plate phonetically spells “Clear Eyes,” one of the products he promotes) and into the studio building.
We walked up two flights of stairs to a room where we could leave our extra changes of clothes. Then we went to the Green Room where Harv read the rules and regulations to all of us. We signed about 14 forms apiece and were invited to have a Krispy Kreme donut. I ate half of one, hoping the sugar rush would grant me a competitive edge.
“OK, the first show we’re going to tape is the film noir episode.” Harv named me, Terry (the man I’d seen in the parking lot) and the third contestant.
We moved into the hallway to be fitted with microphones. Next thing I knew, a man’s hand was running up the back of my sweater, then around front to pin a mic to my V-neck.
“Uh, hi…” I said, making small talk to assuage the awkwardness of having a strange man’s hands up my front. “What’s your name?”
“Mike.”
Heh.
Chris and Harv led us down to the warehouse adjacent to the sound stage. It was the same place I’d taken the entrance exam. Terry told us that two years ago he’d won $10,000 over two nights playing “Jeopardy.” I concentrated on breathing and staying calm. We talked about movies and funny Ben Stein stories.
Upon learning that I live in the Santa Cruz mountains, Chris warned me that Ben was likely to make some sort of marijuana joke.
“Every day Ben sidles up to a staff member and whispers in their ear, ‘Yo, who’s got the chronic stash?’ ”
“Guess that’s why he’s a pitchman for Clear Eyes,” I commented.
She laughed.
Around 1:00 they let us on to the sound stage. The set dressers outdid themselves. I saw a door with “B. Stein, Private Investigator” to the right of the stage, a big wooden desk with an Underwood typewriter, and other film noir-ish props. Fabulous. I was delighted to see the raven that serves as a mascot on the set.
Harv put me behind the center podium and the two men to either side of me. A prop handler slipped each contestant’s name onto the front of our podiums.
It was about this time that the audience started filing in. This was to be the highest point of my day. Mom had told me a couple of weeks prior that it was fine with her if I invited Dad. They’ve been divorced for more than 10 years and it would be the first time I’d been in the same room with both of my parents since my cousin Clint got married in the early 1990s. I saw them enter with John and my friend Nick, who lives in Southern California and had driven up for the day. They waved. I surreptitiously waved back.
It’s true what they say about filming: it’s a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. It wasn’t until 2:00 that Ben Stein himself appeared on the set. He shook our hands and spoke to each of us in turn.
He was intrigued to hear that I lived in the Santa Cruz Mountains and did indeed mention the cash crop that the area is famous for. I didn’t have the opportunity to tell him that he and I are probably the only two registered Republicans ever to live in Santa Cruz County.
“Hey, we’ve got a lot of vineyards, too, don’t forget,” I chided smilingly.
It was a big thrill to meet him — he seems a very genuine individual.
Then Nancy came over to us. She was all dolled up in a nipped-waist coat with a staggering amount of black liner on her eyes and fake eyelashes out to here. Nice lady, charming and very funny. Super slender, too.
The entire audience was in the studio at this point and a not-so-swell comedian was trying to warm them up. “Please, somebody shoot me,” the comedian said after yet another of his jokes fell flat. “You’re already dead!” I heard my dad respond.
Each contestant pulled a Ping-Pong ball out of a bag to see who would get to go first. Mine was not the brightly painted ball, so no love for Lynn.
The make-up lady went over our faces with a powder brush and the show began!
The contestant to my right was questioned and then the camera focused on me. “Lynn lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains. So, Lynn, we hear that’s where they grow the finest pot in the world.”
I just smiled. I mean, I was taping a show for national television, being teased by one of my favorite celebrities. What else was I going to do?
Nancy continued reading from the card. “And it says that you live in two cabins and get your water from a well.” “Yes, that’s right.” “Well, welcome to civilization.”
John told me later that Ben made me out to be a pot farmer who gets her well water one bucket at a time. What do Southern Californians know about water, anyway?
Terry chose the first question but botched his answer. I rang in and answered correctly. This meant I received a follow-up question, one that I answered correctly thanks to Becky’s book.
For one brief, shining moment, it was Lynn: $100, boys: zilch.
Alas, the trend did not continue. The show folks had warned us beforehand that the buzzers aren’t activated until the question has been read. I’d practiced for weeks with videotapes, ringing in the second the question was read.
Unfortunately, I overtrained. Though I knew most of the answers, I rang in too quickly. Maybe my next job will be as the electrician for “Win Ben Stein’s Money,” ’cause the guy they had was asleep at the switch.
During the commercial break I caught Harv’s eye. “I don’t think this thing is working.” We tested it and it was OK.
Too bad for me. Out at the end of the first round. Bummer.
Of course, when one gets out in the first round, one must wait around for the second and third rounds to be done. I sat to the side of the aisle, below the audience bleachers. Mom gave me a thumbs-up and Dad patted my shoulder.
Naturally, during the second round, there were two questions that nobody, including Ben Stein, knew the answers to. I knew ’em both (“Where is the Rosetta Stone housed?” and “Who is novelist Carol Higgins Clark’s mother,” to which one contestant answered “Agatha Christie.” Mom was laughing about that one for the rest of the day).
These two questions would have put me into the third round even though I’d earned only $100 by the end of the first. I would not have done as well as Terry did in the third round, though: He ended up tying Ben’s score and going home with $1400. If you watch the show to the very end when the roll the credits, you will likely hear me calling “Woo hoo!” in the background.
I should have my lovely parting gifts, $205 worth of outdoor gear (probably backpacks), 90 days after my show airs. Hopefully I’ll have them in time for a backpacking trip before the season is over.
I figure that I spent $500 on two plane tickets, two car rentals, and new clothes, so it’s not the worst investment I ever made…
When all’s said and done, though, it was worth it to share a lunch with my Mom and my Dad and John and Nick at Musso and Frank. It was especially worth it to walk up Hollywood Blvd. with the four of them to visit the Frederick’s of Hollywood Celebrity Lingerie Museum, where we saw one of Uncle Milty’s dresses and a tiny doll-sized bra.
“Who’s bra is that?” John asked.
“Calista Flockhart’s,” I answered.
He laughed.
As I left the room I heard him repeating the line to Dad.
It was super-especially worth it when Nick cornered me in the secondhand bookshop we stopped in at. “You looked great… gorgeous, really. I wanted to eat you alive. I told your Mom that I figured by the time they were done with the taping you’d have a show of your own.”
We returned our respective rental cars and hung out at the airport, drinking copious drinks (except for John), talking about books and waiting for our flights. John took a picture with me, Mom and Dad — the first such picture to exist since my Junior Prom in 1988. I kissed both of my parents goodbye and boarded the San Jose-bound plane with John.
I was so high on life by that time, I expect I could have flown home without benefit of an airplane. And I’m not even a pot farmer in the Santa Cruz Mountains.