Show me the letters Wheelmobile offers tryouts in Bangor

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The wheel has come around again for Jennifer DuBose.

The Bangor resident will be among those in attendance this weekend at the Bangor Auditorium, where auditions will be held at the Wheel of Fortune’s Wheelmobile. The event is hosted by WVII ABC-7, which airs the show at 7 p.m. Monday-Saturday.

Provided by Winnebago Industries and featuring the game show’s recognizable graphics, the Wheelmobile gives viewers the opportunity to try out near their own hometown. The vehicle has traveled more than 110,000 miles and visited better than 100 cities. This marks its first stop in Maine, and one of its few visits to New England.

The Wheelmobile is the invention of Harry Friedman, the show’s executive producer.

“Every year we get over a million inquiries from viewers who want to be contestants,” Friedman has said. “The Wheelmobile was created to give people all over the country an opportunity to realize that dream.”

Each stop produces contestants for the show.

“I guarantee people from the Bangor stop will be on the show,” said Suzy Rosenberg, promotions director for “Wheel of Fortune.” “We’re looking for high-energy, fun people who know how to play the game.”

The enthusiastic DuBose fits that description. She will take a second spin to try out for “Wheel.” It’s bound to be a more comfortable experience than her first time, but let’s let her spell it out: “It was about six years ago, when I was living in Pittsburgh, and the Wheelmobile came to town. I was so pregnant that I could barely walk, but I stood in line for six hours in the rain, waiting to spin the wheel. My friend that I went with gave up and left.”

DuBose, 36, didn’t get the call that day (“I guess they figured I’d be too preoccupied the next few months.”) But the admitted “Wheel watcher” has been preparing for her next shot to take her place alongside host Pat Sajak and letter-turner Vanna White.

The daughter of two English teachers, DuBose was raised to love words, and she’s passing that on to her two young children. They watch “Wheel” together as often as they can.

“It’s a fun way to encourage Noah [who she was pregnant with during her last tryout] to learn spelling and reading,” she said. “Also, my daughter Holly, who is 3, likes to holler ‘Wheel of Fortune’ at the beginning.”

DuBose generally does well when playing at home against contestants on the show.

“It depends how loudly my son is yelling ‘Pick a letter, Mommy,'” she said. “It depends how much I can concentrate. Generally, I’m ahead of the contestants. But I’m sure it’s a lot harder when you’re playing on stage.”

DuBose and her son have been practicing as well by playing the online game offered at www.wheeloffortune.com.

“I’ve reached the ‘superstar’ level [of the game], so Noah keeps telling his friends I’m a superstar, which I never tire of hearing,” she said.

Other fans in the Bangor area are wheely, wheely excited about this chance to get on their favorite game show.

Julie Nadeau of West Enfield has been watching the program “even before Pat Sajak was on it.” (Chuck Woolery of “Dating Game” fame was the original host of the daytime game.) She’s tried for years to get selected as a contestant, first applying by postcard, and later online.

“I love that you never know who’s going to win until the very end,” said Nadeau, 35. “I like all the different kinds of prizes. Also, it’s a good family show to watch.”

Nadeau said that she generally keeps ahead of the TV contestants. She’s also been playing the “Wheel” CD-ROM on computer.

She’ll attend the tryouts with her mother, C.C.

“I’m just going to get a shot,” she said. “Even sitting in the audience will be great, just to be a part of it.”

Diane Newman of Bangor has also been watching the show for many years, “back when they gave away prizes instead of money” on the wheel.

Newman, 37, and her two children watch the program every night, and she “beats my family to the puzzle [answer]. Also I usually get the puzzle before [the contestants] do.”

She hopes to take her children with her to the audition.

“It’s my favorite show, and I’d like to try it to see how well I’d do on it,” Newman said.

At the Wheelmobile event, the fans will fill out applications and gather in front of a stage with a traveling version of the Wheel and Puzzleboard. The day’s host draws applications at random and calls individuals on stage in groups of five to participate in a brief interview, to play a version of the “Wheel” speed-up round and to win special show-themed prizes.

The top candidates are called back to participate in private final auditions for the show, usually about a month later in the host city. At those final auditions, the show’s contestant coordinators select those who will appear on the show.

All three women interviewed vowed to be there both days if necessary.

“When fun stuff like this comes along, you have to have a ball,” DuBose said.

Dale McGarrigle can be reached at 990-8028 and dmcgarrigle@bangordailynews.net.