Sooo…by now you know that I was on Family Feud with a few of my cousins. And spoiler alert…… we didn’t win, anything, at all. It was beyond disappointing for several reasons to say the least.
For starters, the tapping was over six months from the airing date on April 25, 2019 and to be excited about losing for all that time was such a downer an internal conflict. Can you imagine knowing the verdict while sharing the news with your friends on Facebook and beyond?? I’m pretty sure all of Eastern NC has been alerted. What’s the first question that EVERYONE wants to ask? How’d you do?? Did you win?? Ugh…
I have been fairly creative though. I can hold water pretty good.
Our journey began back in November 2017 with an audition when the company came to Charlotte. It was a Sunday afternoon, and everyone was decked out in their best. The line was long, but the energy was high. After waiting, and waiting, and waiting it was my family’s chance to show them what we got. It was pretty comical. We were paired up against a family that I actually knew — Aggie Pride!! We had our pointers to clap, “good answer” all answers, answer everything, project our voices, and always play the game. When it was my turn to say something my voice actually cracked. It was like I was a young boy hitting puberty, LOL. A few more housekeeping items for the company to make their decisions and we were done. The waiting game began, again.
It wasn’t until emails in January and June of 2018 that things got real. We were one step closer to being “chose.” Everything is an audition, and nothing is final. That’s show business for you. We picked our dates, flights were booked, hotels secured. And we were off. Being the college-educated persons that we are, we optimized the situation and made the journey a true vacation with a few extra dollars. What should have been a two to three day trip became a five day excursion. You can’t go to Los Angeles and not see the beach – at least I can’t. We started the trip with people watching in Venice Beach and a visit to The Getty Museum (I could spend all day there). After two days, we transitioned to the main event. One more wake up until show time.
It was finally the day we were waiting for, hair did, make up on and transportation in place. We make it to the studio and checked in. The first bump. An ID was left in the hotel, not mine, but I will not name names. Luckily we had a guest who would be sitting in the audience who searched the hotel room and was able to bring it later. Crisis averted, but boy did we start to fuss. How could you… didn’t you… man. Yup. A mini family feud. Nerves eventually calmed. However, as we’re leaving the trailer to the studio my necklace falls apart. Like not all the way, but going without a necklace wasn’t going to be cool. Luckily, I had patience to fix it and the producer was even offering to help. (In reality, it had happened before so I knew how to fix it, but still. If it’s not one thing, it’s the next.) We’re sitting in the audience, getting prepped. Families are called up to play a practice round as a final audition. It was surreal. To be on the set, be at the buzzers. It was really happening. We break for lunch and then it was on. The real deal. No more play play. We sat and watched as families played, got a feel for the flow and then boom. We were next.
We came to win and we had our game faces on. We were jovial, had our thinking caps on like Middle America. I won’t say that I killed it, but I definitely had good answers. And from my thoughts in the moment, stage presence. (What it looks like on tape may be another story.) We’re up in the game. We get to the final round and we pass/lose the opportunity to play.
Now pause… this is where it gets serious.
Back to the fact to that we didn’t win and why it was disappointing. I knew the answer. Yes, I repeat. I knew the answer. And for the first week after the taping, I’m pretty sure I woke up screaming — motorcycle.
I know you’re asking yourself, “if you knew the answer, then why didn’t you win?” Well, why do any of us second guess ourselves? Rethink our contributions while in a group, interacting with your elders, supervisors, or whoever it may be.
But here it goes. We were huddled up, thinking about the question and listening for the other team’s answers not to duplicate and get a feel for what direction to go when it swung back to us. They said “cars.” Almost immediately, I shared “what about motorcycles?” Someone on the team thought it was too close to cars, so I shrugged it off and kept thinking for other answers. We came out the huddle drawing blanks and in the moment my answer had been long tossed to the side to reclaim it for the win in a last ditch effort. Instead as the answers appeared on the board it was like egg on my face and an unsettling feeling that I could have closed the deal.
I was positive in the end, but as a unit once we hit backstage we definitely look defeated. (Fact check: In that moment I definitely reaffirmed that I shared the answer, out loud, in the huddle. And it was confirmed that someone else heard me. That is all, LOL.) It was a hard pill to swallow that we came, we saw, but we fell short of our goal. And that I could have been the GOAT to send us to fast money!! Sad times.
Though we didn’t win money (any), we got a trip free to California, an extra day to hang out as cousins and new memories of a lifetime. And in the reflection over the last six months, many lessons have been learned. I’ll share those at another time.
But anyways, who wants to file California taxes. Sometimes, losing is still winning.
Clips from the episode — Round 1, Round 2
..:eclectikread:.. 