Chalfont had its day of fame on January 25, 2023, when Wheel of Fortune aired and St. Jude parishioner Nick Tomaselli appeared on the show. Nick had a great night, winning a trip and cash. We asked Nick to tell us a little about the exciting event.

Q. Why did you apply to be on the Wheel of Fortune?
A. Well, my wife Liz and I love to watch it and we like to challenge each other to see who can get the right answer first. It’s just a really fun thing we like to do together.

Q. So, how did you apply?
A. You can actually just go on wheeloffortune.com. Liz applied first. She’s a teacher, and she applied for the Teacher Week event. But it was during the covid lockdowns and they never got back to her. Maybe they just went for local people, since travel was so restricted. Anyway, after a while I asked if she would mind if I tried. She said go for it!

Q. What was the interview process like?
A. About a month after I submitted my application I got a call, which was followed by 6-7 Skype video-calls. I think they were looking for personal characteristics, like if you’re a lively, smiley person, and also if you know how to play the game well. The last Skype video-call was playing against others – that was an interesting experience over Skype! – so the producer could decide if he likes the way you play.

I guess he liked my style, because they put me on the waiting list, and four or five months later I got the call – they wanted me to come out to California the next week! My father-in-law, Dan Grater, who’s the Grand Knight of our Knights of Columbus, went out with me.

Q. What did you do once you got to California?
A. Well, the first day, Monday, I had to get a covid test and wait 24 hours for the results. So on Tuesday we got to tour around Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, which was really beautiful. Then on Wednesday we filmed. First they went over the rules again and had us practice spinning the wheel. It weighs 2,100 pounds! It was heavy as anything. Spinning it was like trying to swing an 80-pound bowling ball. So there’s definitely a technique in order to not hurt yourself.

Then you get professional TV hair and makeup done, they mic you up and out you go! That was the first time we met Pat Sajack and Vanna White.

Q. So you didn’t meet them beforehand. Did you get to talk to Pat?
A. Only on the show. If you ever watch it, you see that he introduces the contestants and asks them each something about themselves. You fill out a form with a few interesting tidbits and he works from that. I thought he would ask me about my being deputy Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus or about selling fire extinguisher equipment, and I was all set to talk about them, but he chose to ask me about playing drums! So I was a little unprepared, but it was fine. He did mention my wife and little girls, though, which was nice.

Q. Did you have a real audience?
A. Yes, which I was a little surprised about. And they actually do stop the playing for commercial breaks, so during the breaks the producer would come out and give a pep talk or more reminders about being really outgoing, about thinking out loud so people hear your thinking process and it’s more interesting for them, stuff like that.

Q. So you did really well!
A. Yes, it was lots of fun, and I came so close to winning, behind by just $1,500! If you ever watch the show, you know sometimes there’s a big gap between the winner and the other contestants, but I was really proud of being so close. My appearance on the show was also in an article in the local news website The Patch (patch.com) the next day. They got my job wrong, but it was fun to be in the news.

Q. Would you recommend the experience to others?
A. Absolutely. Being on Wheel of Fortune was great fun and I’d encourage anyone to try.

Thanks, Nick, and congratulations again!


Click to go to the Patch article
.