Lucas appeared on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this last week. Enjoy!
Q: That was crazy that you mentioned Frank Lloyd Wright in your Howdy, only to have it come up in your first Final.
A: Wasn’t that whole Frank Lloyd Wright thing INSANE?? Given that we tape the Howdies before any games? I couldn’t believe it. Such a crazy coincidence. A glitch in the Matrix, even. That and an entire category of Chicago clues — it was pretty incredible. And then the bitter irony of me totally blanking on the response for FJ (Taliesin) — I’d heard of it before, but I can’t honestly say I knew it and just had a brainfreeze. My parents, of course, said they knew it immediately. Man, I will never, ever live that one down in my hometown.
Q: Did you say the same thing in your Howdy the day I (Jeanie) taped? When did you wind up taping?
A: I did NOT do a FLW howdy when you taped — if I remember correctly, I did some lame thing about the White Sox. No, when I went back this August I set out deliberately to do a really horrible and obvious pun 🙂 I think it worked — you can hear the production people cracking up at the very end of the Howdy.
Q: Can you talk about your 7600 Final Jeopardy wager in your second game?
A: I liked the category (music) and I felt good about my chances. I got it down to Sound of Music and West Side Story … and I picked the wrong one. It’s hard to think of it in these terms, but me getting that question wrong, flipping a coin, basically — that’s a $15,000 swing. Unbelievable how you just play around with such huge sums of money when it doesn’t seem at all real.
Q: And what about your 11400 wager in the third game?
A: Same deal. I was just mad at that point that I’d gotten lapped by Jason and just bet everything — but, again, that fit of pique cost me a thousand dollars for absolutely no reason, and maybe I’d do it differently in retrospect. Though, in retrospect, there’s a whoooole lot I’d do differently in that last game (hellooooooo, Queens) 🙂
Q: I’ve thought about the Peace Corps myself. Would you do it again (minus the scorpion incident)?
A: Peace Corps is an experience. It varies so much from country to country, and even from site to site within a given country. I was in El Salvador. They actually don’t send volunteers there anymore — it became too violent. It’s a much longer conversation and I can’t really do justice to it in a short Q&A. Most people ask me if I “had fun” in the PC and I have to answer honestly and say no…. I wouldn’t really call it “fun.” Unforgettable — absolutely. Totally wonderful and amazing and horribly lonely and at times excruciating — absolutely. But not fun. It’s definitely not for everyone. But if you’ve got a pretty hardy constitution are and a pretty self-motivated person, then, yes. I think I’d recommend it. I met some fantastic people — I’m still close with several people in my group and I’ll probably stay close with them forever. But plenty of people quit after a week and honestly — there’s nothing wrong with that, either.
Q: Did you know the correct response to Jason’s “Michelangelo” Daily Double?
A: I think most people probably knew the answer to the Michelangelo DD. I was hoping for something just a teensy bit tougher for Jason, given that I thought the $2000 clue I had just answered (chiaroscuro) was relatively tough … but that’s just the way the ball bounces sometimes.
Q: Did you stick around in the audience after you lost? Did you have anyone in the audience with you?
A: After the game was the lunch break, and my whole family was there, so I just left with them and we went to lunch together. I would have liked to have stayed, but I had about 10 people there waiting around.
Q: What kind of acting work do you do?
A: Ahh acting. It’s a love/hate relationship, and I think a lot of actors probably feel the same way. When you’re working, you love it. And when you’re not working (which is most of the time for most of us), then well … I did a couple independent features last year that have been doing reasonably well in festivals (“Dead Dad”) and limited release (“Escape From Tibet”). I also have a nice little short film coming out soon starring me with one of the stars of the TV show “Friday Night Lights.” But I usually just try to stay busy doing whatever’s available — commercials, film, TV, theater. It’s… a tough business. It’s fairly unique as one of the artistic professions in that you can’t really do it alone. You rely on other people, constantly. Musicians can practice their instruments alone. Writers can write. Actors, however, cannot wake up and decide to be in a movie. You need so many other people to make it happen. And that’s what becomes frustrating — the inability, on a day-to-day basis, to really practice doing what you love. This is why actors go crazy and start talking to themselves when they walk down the street.
Q: Is there anything else you want to say?
Q: Is there anything else you want to say?
A: Jason was fantastic on the buzzer — had me totally beat and played a very good game. It’s funny — he wasn’t even supposed to play that game. Originally a woman (I forget her name) was at the middle podium. We were all ready to go — literally seconds away from beginning the show — when she said she didn’t feel well and had to go to the bathroom. So they stopped everything and let her go. About five minutes later, Maggie came out and said they were going to replace her with Jason. Chance and randomness has soooo much to do with the outcome of these games (as I’m sure you can appreciate). And it works both ways: I mean, had I not answered the last clue of the game wrong of my first game — the $400 dollar clue where I mixed up homicide and manslaughter — I would have wound up in 2nd place at the end of DJ and lost that game! The Jeopardy gods giveth …
Thank you, Lucas! You’re terrific!