Do you know how much you would spend on a high-end top loading VCR in 1986? How about a trash compactor? Apparently, I don't, which made me a terrible audience member at Showboat Casino's all new stage show, The Price is Right Live. Just as in the television show, the audience is encouraged to help out contestants by yelling out what they believe to be the correct answers. Determined to have the full Price is Right experience, I screamed at the top of my lungs. One thing the show's producers might point out is that listening to answers from theaudience is a lot like shopping in the stores; buyer beware. You know what? A karaoke machine is a lot less expensive than I thought. Perhaps I shouldn't have been placed in the first row.
 I brought with me two friends (both, coincidentally named "Mel") to guide me through my first live Price is Right experience. As we entered The Price is Right Showroom, the Mels began to ooh and ahh. "We're practicing," they told me, and explained that as the prizes were revealed we would be expected to make such noises. I practiced a bit until the man in a Hawaiian shirt sitting next to us began to look at me as if I was an escaped mental patient.
A highly excitable man in an alarming pink suit bounced onto the stage, and we were introduced to Daniel Rosen, a comedian who would be our announcer for the evening. A veteran comic who had appeared on The Tonight Show, The Late Show, and in "Nash Bridges" (you know, the show where Don Johnson wears less pastel) got the crowd riled up and ready to guess prices with the poignant war cry, "This is not a show where you raise your hands, this is a show where you GO CRAZY!" So we went crazy.
Daniel Rosen introduced our host for the evening as "a real pick-me-up", former E! correspondent Todd Newton. Mr. Newton is an exceedingly handsome man straight from the Bob Barker/Guy Smiley School of Game Show Hosting. He was charming. He was kind. He walked a confused little old lady back to her seat after she walked up to the stage for no discernable reason. We all said "Awww".
"I never wanted to be an actor," Mr. Newton told me after the show, "I always wanted to be a host. There's a great energy when you've got a show with audience participation. And I will be hosting 'Made in America', a new series that pits inventors against each other this fall, on the USA Network, Wednesdays at ten, beginning September 14th." I swear I didn't just plug Mr. Newton's upcoming show because I want to be a contestant and win big bucks for my invention of the Tantisserie. Are you tired of uneven tans and unafraid of skin cancer? You might want to try my invention. Call me, Todd. CALL ME.
 Names were called, and a cameraman scanned the audience for the lucky contestants, who did a wonderful job of arm flailing and hysterical yelping. Melissa, who was convinced that a high-end top loading VCR cost $200 in 1986, was fully prepared to leap up on stage at any moment, execute several cartwheels, and attempt to climb The Big Wheel. Melody told her to go for it, but sadly, she was never called.
The games began. Clock Game, The Big Wheel, Cliffhangers, It's in the Bag-all old favorites, the Mels assured me as we bellowed our price guesses at the more timid contestants. It was very exciting, particularly when I actually knew the price of something. Who on earth would think that a box of microwave popcorn would cost more than kitty litter? A person would have to be OUT OF THEIR MIND.
The contestants were of varying ages and from all parts of the country (and a lucky guy from Toronto won an exercise unit). It was thrilling to watch the tattooed young guy win a pool table, and the older woman sink a putt to win a Las Vegas Vacation. "I get to be part of once-in-a-lifetime moments," Mr. Newton said, and I felt, somehow, that my voracious screaming on the subject of the price of Fresh Step might have helped her to get to Nevada. It felt good.
 Mr. Newton and Mr. Rosen have been working together on the show for two years, dazzling enthusiastic crowds in Reno, Shreveport, and Kansas City before coming to Atlantic City. "Friday nights at ten, that's the show to go to," said Julie, one of the long-time multi-outfitted models who demonstrated how refrigerators and cabinets open. I went on a Monday night and the crowd was pretty wild-I tried to imagine more pricing madness, and envisioned a crowd full ofcart wheeling Big Wheel climbers. My god, I thought, that would be glorious.
I'm going to hang out at malls and take notes. I'm going to start to comparison shop. I'm going to call my father and ask him how much money he spent on the Quasar television set. I've got a few more months to train, and I'm going back, baby. I want that karaoke machine, I want that karaoke machine reeeeal bad.
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