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Beek on being a GAME SHOW CONTESTANT · Beek on being

0:00
Melissa Shere Beek: Hi. I hope you're well. This podcast is a place for people to share personal and professional perspectives, talk openly, and ask questions. From serious to silly to sublime, it's all about communication and connections. Always coming from a place of kindness and curiosity, we talk about shared humanity, discuss ideas, and highlight people creating a better world.
0:21
We've got to keep learning, keep growing, keep being. I'm Melissa Shere Beek, and this is Beek on being, a game show contestant. Do you sit in your favorite chair and yell answers at the television in response to the host's questions? What if you were on that game show? Would you be as relaxed as you were at home?
0:38
Would you have the confidence in front of total strangers to go for the millions? CPA and CVA David Goldweitz and educator, mother, and promoter of curiosity and understanding, Jennifer Strickland are here today. Competitors and now friends who were on the game show the floor hosted by none other than Rob Lowe. We'll talk more about that later. They are here to tell us all about how they entered the process, got on the program and give us behind the scenes information on what happens before, during and after being a game show contestant.
1:09
So welcome. I am so excited. Jennifer, wish you were in studio. I'm so happy we've got you in on on Zoom but David, we've got you in studio. I cannot wait to talk all about this.
1:20
Fascinated. We're Yeah. So excited. So before we start getting into the like all the behind the scenes details, will you please tell our listeners a little
1:30
Jennifer Strickland: bit about both of you? You want me to go first? Yeah,
1:33
David Goldweitz: go first.
1:33
Jennifer Strickland: Okay. Y'all first for a minute. Sorry. So I'm in Georgia. I was born and raised in Georgia.
1:45
I've been teaching for thirty years. Actually, should say I taught because it's now past tense because I just retired in May. Oh, wow. Yeah. So I taught social studies for just over thirty years.
1:58
And now I'm figuring it out what my next chapter is. Like that. So my two kids are, you know, have flown the nest. So one just graduated from UGA. My daughter Aaron, she's an interior designer.
2:16
Then my son a civil engineering major at Georgia Tech. Wow. Yeah. I know. Yeah.
2:24
We'll be there tomorrow. And listen to this y'all. It's parents weekend, and they're playing Mercer, which is where I went to school. Uh-oh. Yeah.
2:33
Uh-oh. What you're looking for? Yeah. I was like I'm wearing orange and now I'm supposed to be wearing blue and yellow and I'm not. I'm wearing orange.
2:42
Melissa Shere Beek: That's so funny. I love it. I love it. And David, tell us tell our listeners a little bit about you.
2:48
David Goldweitz: Well, I was born in Brooklyn. I'm down here forty nine years. I came down in 1977. Wow. I'm a CPA, partner in a two eighty person firm and yeah, I'm practicing forty nine years.
3:04
Just turned 70 and got a lot of energy to keep on going. I'm not retiring anytime soon. The R word is not allowed to be spoken in my house.
3:15
Jennifer Strickland: Oh, okay. Alright. Okay, I love it. So, you're in
3:18
Melissa Shere Beek: the same chapter and you love it. Like it.
3:20
David Goldweitz: Yeah.
3:20
Melissa Shere Beek: I like it a lot. Okay, so can you tell us a little bit how this started, how you got on to the game show, how did you even hear about this game show?
3:29
David Goldweitz: So I heard about it because we have like most people I'm sure a family chat.
3:35
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah.
3:35
David Goldweitz: And my daughter puts in the family chat a link and says, Don't you think dad should apply for this show? So I never even heard of the show.
3:47
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah.
3:47
David Goldweitz: It was only season one that had been on So I said, what the heck? Yeah. So I tap on it and I thought somewhere mistakenly that it was being filmed in Miami.
4:02
Jennifer Strickland: Far from that.
4:03
David Goldweitz: It forward by the was filmed in Ireland. Yeah. But had I realized it was filmed in Ireland, I wouldn't have filled out the application. Really? They would have said, can't afford the time.
4:14
I'm too busy. I would have internally I would have made a million excuses. Right. But I filled it out,
4:21
Melissa Shere Beek: this application. Oh wow.
4:22
David Goldweitz: They probably know the color of the underwear you're wearing. I mean they get so intrusive. Detailed, really? Detailed and everything. But because it's pages long and I filled it out and that was it.
4:34
That's it. Zero expectations.
4:36
Melissa Shere Beek: And Jennifer, what about you? So my story was
4:39
Jennifer Strickland: a little bit different. I was actually watching Saturday Night Live with my son and they did a skit on making fun of it. And Bowen Yang was like one of the contestants. And then there was the... It was a comedian whose name I can't think of.
4:53
He was like, you know, the guest on the show. And it was hilarious. Like Bowen Yang was all freaked out and he was trying to say milk, but he kept saying like, white water, you know, like he was... And so I looked at my son and I was like, what game show are they? What is this?
5:10
Anyway, I looked it up, and I was like, oh, look. They're accepting, like, you know, applications for the new season. I'm gonna apply for it. Oh my Yep.
5:22
Melissa Shere Beek: Yep. And were you both surprised that they said we'd love to have you on as a contestant when you got accepted?
5:27
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah. I was actually back up. Like, didn't I didn't even know. I mean, we filmed the end of July, but mid June, I got an email saying that I was a backup. But but Oh, wow.
5:41
To hang tight that I might be, like You might be called upon. Right. So backup. And we did have backup people there. There were backup.
5:49
David Goldweitz: Yes. We did. Yeah. Really? We had three or four backup people because what happens from time to time someone will get sick.
5:57
Right. Someone may do something inappropriate. Right.
5:59
Melissa Shere Beek: They have to get them off
6:00
David Goldweitz: the And get them off the show. So, there were three and four, Colin was a backup.
6:05
Melissa Shere Beek: Yep, did the backups go on the next season?
6:08
David Goldweitz: Not necessarily, but some of I them think somebody went on season five. Yes. Oh wow. You know the commercial years ago, one-eight 100 Cars for Yeah,
6:19
Melissa Shere Beek: yeah. That's gonna be like an ear word now.
6:21
David Goldweitz: The original commercial, lead
6:25
Melissa Shere Beek: of the backups?
6:25
David Goldweitz: One of the backups.
6:26
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah, oh, I love
6:27
Melissa Shere Beek: That's so funny.
6:30
David Goldweitz: So, I had, like I said, had no expectation that not only are they going to pick you but when they get to know you with your personality, they're going to protect you. They're going to put you near a corner.
6:42
Melissa Shere Beek: They're going put
6:44
David Goldweitz: you near a corner and they're never going to randomize you.
6:48
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh that's
6:48
David Goldweitz: so I had no idea what she was talking about Jennifer. I had no idea what randomizing because I
6:53
Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah, had never seen the I had never seen the show.
6:55
David Goldweitz: And sure enough exactly what she said.
6:58
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah,
6:58
David Goldweitz: During it's a the application process,
7:02
Jennifer Strickland: everything Yeah, want to is talk about this.
7:03
David Goldweitz: Interview process where you get to show who you are and what you're about and I guess they liked How dynamic you were? They must have liked my New York sense of humor originally.
7:17
Melissa Shere Beek: I was going to ask you about the interview process. Like do they, once you fill out all these applications, what comes next? Do they call you? Do they visit you? Do you meet with like a producer somewhere?
7:27
What happens?
7:27
David Goldweitz: So I'm sure the same thing happened with with Jennifer. I got... I was in New York at my other daughter's house and I get this call on my cell. Hello. This is such and such from a casting agency.
7:40
I'm calling you about the floor and I swear it took me a second.
7:44
Jennifer Strickland: What floor?
7:45
David Goldweitz: Because I had forgotten and I said, Oh yes, yes, yes. They said we got your application and we'd like to set up a series of interviews. And I said, Okay, when would you like to do that? He said, How about 02:00 today? Now even though I'm at my daughter's, I'm still working.
8:00
I have an office in So the I look at my calendar and I was available. I said, Okay, please send me the Zoom link and that would be great. Right. So he called me from his cell which showed his name. Did you get the same thing?
8:17
Did you get called Jennifer from a cell phone where the name was displayed? Do you remember?
8:23
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah. But I had a guy. I mean, I didn't have a guy. I interviewed with a a female, but I can't remember her name.
8:30
David Goldweitz: Well, they had a... I'm sure they had several of listening.
8:33
Melissa Shere Beek: We But did you go on Zoom as well to speak to her? Or was it just on
8:38
Jennifer Strickland: the phone? It was on the phone first. And then one of the girls who was a producer on the show later, Jen... Well, there were a bunch of gens. There was, like, there were multiple gens on like
8:52
David Goldweitz: It was. It was very confusing.
8:54
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah. Yeah. So one of the gens who was Irish is who I ended up zooming with.
9:02
Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
9:03
Jennifer Strickland: And And she was one of the producers but I can't remember her last name now.
9:07
David Goldweitz: It was so.
9:08
Melissa Shere Beek: So how many interviews did you guys go through in this I
9:11
David Goldweitz: got to tell you a very quick story because it was interesting. So after I hung up the phone, remember I told you that the application was pages long and they knew everything about you. So what I did was I went on to Facebook and I typed in this guy's name.
9:29
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh you did investigative And I services
9:31
David Goldweitz: found him. And I found out that he was a Marine.
9:36
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh wow.
9:36
David Goldweitz: So when the Zoom started, he said to me, How you doing? I said, Before we get started I just have to thank you for your service. He says what do you mean? He says well why aren't you a marine? Because you know once a marine always Always a
9:52
Melissa Shere Beek: a marine. Yeah.
9:53
David Goldweitz: He said yes but how did you know? I said well you know everything about me. I looked you up trying to level the playing field. He laughed, he said I'm doing this for four years no one's ever done that. He said this is going to be a fun interview and that's the way the process started.
10:07
Jennifer Strickland: Oh I love that, so fun.
10:09
David Goldweitz: That was good study. That
10:11
Melissa Shere Beek: was definitely guaranteeing you a spot on the floor. Oh my god. And did you have fun in your process of going through all the interviews as well or was it sort of stressful?
10:21
Jennifer Strickland: It was fun. Wasn't that It fun. Yeah. Oh good. Was good.
10:25
Was just like maybe I'll get on there maybe I won't. Then I was like, oh, I'm a backup. And then I don't know maybe two weeks out it was like, you're not a backup. You're on. Yeah.
10:36
Like can you can you come? I'm like, yeah, I can make it to Ireland.
10:41
Melissa Shere Beek: So for our listeners who don't know about the floor, I've tried to explain it's like a territory game show but it's all trivia. So you each have categories that you're sort of experts in and then you go up against each other.
10:54
David Goldweitz: Right? Correct. There's a 100 squares on the floor.
10:58
Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
10:58
David Goldweitz: And every square is occupied by a contestant.
11:01
Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
11:02
David Goldweitz: So there's a 100 contestants. Each of them has a category of their air quotes expertise.
11:08
Melissa Shere Beek: You got it. I want to get into this in a little You
11:11
David Goldweitz: are, the game starts out by randomly selecting someone. I discussed the randomizer So that person then has the right to challenge anyone that's adjacent to their Got it. You can't jump.
11:27
Melissa Shere Beek: Can't just do somebody who's far away. Has to be someone who's touching your square.
11:32
David Goldweitz: If you challenge them in their category and you go up and have the challenge and if you win you take over their territory.
11:41
Melissa Shere Beek: Right. And then do you get their category too? You get your
11:45
David Goldweitz: category but if they beat you they inherit your Because you only do a category once
11:52
Jennifer Strickland: Got a
11:53
David Goldweitz: it. So the goal is to get as much real estate so to speak as possible at the end of each episode there would be a $20,000 prize for who has the most real estate.
12:05
Melissa Shere Beek: For that episode, okay.
12:07
David Goldweitz: What's the strategy? Do you go for the quick money? You go for the long game? There's a whole game within the game.
12:14
Melissa Shere Beek: Okay, so I want to talk about that too but first I want to tell our listeners where this is filmed.
12:20
David Goldweitz: Jennifer, where was it filmed?
12:22
Jennifer Strickland: Dublin, Ireland.
12:24
Melissa Shere Beek: Insane when you think about that. It's unbelievable. And where did you stay? How does this happen? Like, did they fly you out there?
12:33
Where do you stay when you're out there?
12:34
David Goldweitz: We actually fly into Dublin
12:36
Jennifer Strickland: and we
12:37
David Goldweitz: took a, it was about a twenty minute bus ride to a beautiful quaint town called Ballsbridge.
12:45
Jennifer Strickland: Uh-huh.
12:46
David Goldweitz: And that's where the that's where we that's
12:48
Melissa Shere Beek: where Yeah like a studio and a hotel and everything's out It's
12:51
David Goldweitz: a studio. I mean it's a studio where Braveheart was filmed and And had a particular that they have you know back lots like a regular movie studio. Apparently less expensive to fly a 100 people over.
13:06
Melissa Shere Beek: Unbelievable. Put
13:07
David Goldweitz: them up in a hotel in Ballsbridge. Right. Then it would be to have it in The States.
13:13
Melissa Shere Beek: That's insane. Were you excited to go there though? Were you excited to go there? Yeah. I mean it's so exciting.
13:21
David Goldweitz: Well during the interview process, one of the interviewers a young lady said to me, Is your passport up to date?
13:29
Melissa Shere Beek: Uh-oh, then you know.
13:31
David Goldweitz: I said, Remember I thought it was still in Miami.
13:33
Jennifer Strickland: Right.
13:33
David Goldweitz: I said, Yes but why? I said, I know that a lot of people think Miami is a third world country. Right, right,
13:39
Melissa Shere Beek: why do I need my passport?
13:41
David Goldweitz: She said Miami, it's built in Ireland. She said is that going to be a problem? I said no, no.
13:48
Melissa Shere Beek: And when you're there, do you get cut off from your friends and family? Do you have to like sign an NDA? Does your family sign an NDA? Like what happens as far as communication?
13:57
David Goldweitz: Well, we sign an NDA but we're allowed when we go back to our hotel room, we're allowed to communicate with them. We're just not supposed to tell them about what happened
14:09
Melissa Shere Beek: that day
14:10
David Goldweitz: or at any time during the week but we can say hi, you know I spoke to my wife. A lot of people you know, yeah you communicate I in had to speak to clients. Right. Let them
14:24
Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah because you're taking off of work and what do you guys do in the downtime?
14:28
Jennifer Strickland: Well there wasn't a lot of downtime.
14:31
Melissa Shere Beek: There wasn't.
14:32
David Goldweitz: First day of filming which was Monday, we were in the studio from 06:30 in the morning till probably eleven or 11:30 at night. Really? Yeah. Because of How 100 contestants they have to. Yeah.
14:45
We all had to do, we had to do wardrobe. We had to do hair and makeup. In my case just makeup. And you know, there was a lot that had to be done and you know moving a 100 people around and then feeding us lunch.
15:02
Melissa Shere Beek: Yep. Oh my god.
15:03
David Goldweitz: For dinner.
15:04
Melissa Shere Beek: So you don't really have downtime at the hotel together?
15:09
David Goldweitz: Uh-uh. Some people are a lot younger, like I'm a lot older than Jennifer but there were people that were even a lot younger than Jennifer who you know would unwind with a drink or like I said I bought pizza for people.
15:22
Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah, mom
15:22
David Goldweitz: would pay
15:23
Jennifer Strickland: for people.
15:24
David Goldweitz: I would stay down there fifteen minutes or twenty minutes and then go back and a lot of them you know stayed up later apparently.
15:32
Melissa Shere Beek: And how many episodes are you guys filming if you're there from 06:30 to 11:00 at night how many episodes are you filming a day? The first
15:40
Jennifer Strickland: day was two because Uh-huh. They had to get all the glitches, like, worked out. But it was, like, two and then three and then two that would alternate back and forth.
15:50
Melissa Shere Beek: And when you talk... Because you said about wardrobe, but, Jennifer, what... You told me something off camera about wardrobe. You tell our listeners like what happened with the wardrobe because everybody's in the same outfit throughout the whole entire Yeah so I
16:01
Jennifer Strickland: mean you had to submit like I had to go to the store and buy three outfits. My daughter went with me because she's much more fashionable than I am and then they look at your three outfits and then they're like okay bring this like for me it was that dress the
16:18
Melissa Shere Beek: flower dress
16:18
Jennifer Strickland: yeah I love it but you had to buy
16:20
Melissa Shere Beek: two so you had to buy two of the outfit
16:22
Jennifer Strickland: yes yeah So... And then some people ended up not wearing what they brought even though they told them to bring it. And I think part of that is just like they said they don't want... They wanted like... Like Joanna in front of me was wearing a solid kinda yellow mustard color dress.
16:38
Melissa Shere Beek: Right. So they don't want everybody kind of in the same. They want you easily Yeah.
16:44
David Goldweitz: Had me bring two outfits. Yep. Because they weren't sure what I, they wanted me in.
16:50
Melissa Shere Beek: Depending on where you stood and who was next to you?
16:53
David Goldweitz: They decided that one of them had a linen sport jacket.
16:57
Jennifer Strickland: Uh-huh.
16:58
David Goldweitz: A blue linen sport jacket and they decided that that was too formal for my personality.
17:04
Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
17:04
David Goldweitz: I was in more casual, was in blue pants with a gray long sleeve shirt. I wanted to wear long sleeve because know
17:14
Melissa Shere Beek: Studio might be cold.
17:15
David Goldweitz: Studio might be cold and I didn't want to freeze.
17:17
Melissa Shere Beek: I'm sorry, I don't remember your outfit. I remember Jennifer's floral outfit and I remember Vina's hair because green's my favorite color and she had she had green hair.
17:26
David Goldweitz: Nina, you mean my granddaughter.
17:28
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah, that's it. There's like
17:29
Melissa Shere Beek: a gif of you guys out there, like a gif or
17:31
Jennifer Strickland: a meme of you guys out there.
17:33
Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. So was there camaraderie amongst everybody or was there like fierce competition or strategy? Like how did it work with everyone?
17:41
Jennifer Strickland: I mean, was different. I think Joanna was pretty, so so we kind of sat at the same table or you know when like that's where you ate your you know breakfast lunch and well not breakfast but snacks lunch and dinner.
17:56
Melissa Shere Beek: But did you meet at the table with the people who were sort of in your area?
17:59
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah but then you sort of like grouped. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But then Joanna kinda left, I think she was...
18:06
I was more social. I just didn't wanna be the first one to go home. That was my goal. Just not to be the first one to go home. Because I was like, was gonna get to know everybody.
18:14
You know? So... But you did kinda sit at least... I don't know about you, David, but I... Like, we were at the same table and then it was just me and Nate.
18:22
And then, you know, who was Beech, who became Right. We were like the last two that were at our table. At your
18:31
Melissa Shere Beek: table. Yeah.
18:32
Jennifer Strickland: So I mean, there was a lot of commodity, especially our corner. Like one thing they cut, David, that I wish they kept is, Ralph Lowe asked like it came to me and he's like, Jennifer, you know, and I said something about this is the party corner, you know, because we were always dancing and David was cracking everybody up. I mean, Sabrina, you know, Mina, Joanna, and then we had Danny on the other side of me and we were just having fun. They cut that. Like, they didn't show that.
19:03
But I was I was like, we're the party corner, you know? And everybody at the corner was like, woo. But I was like, dang it. They didn't show it. But Aw.
19:12
Yeah. So that's kinda how I feel. I was just like
19:15
Melissa Shere Beek: So you went in for more social?
19:17
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah. Because I was like, I'm on a game show. Yeah. Fun. But I mean, yeah, $20,000 would have been nice, you know, if you'd won the most territory at the end of the night.
19:30
Right. But, yeah.
19:32
Melissa Shere Beek: But wait, I did you have a strategy? No. David, did you have a strategy? I
19:37
David Goldweitz: had absolutely no strategy. I was going to be me. I am a student of people. I look at people, I study people, I understand people and I was just going to use my social game which I think is pretty good. Can disarm people with humor and at the same time sound like I know what I'm talking about.
20:03
So I was able to fool them. So at one point, so everyone's a creature of habit. Soon as everybody picked a table for the first time to sit to the same table, pretty much the same seat. And I even commented about it during one of our breaks and you know people laughed. But someone came up to me and said, I guess it was the first day, said, What's your category?
20:31
I said, American history. Right here you I said I'm not worried. Was an American history undergrad major. Yeah. Right away it just came right out.
20:39
I said I I you know I...
20:42
Melissa Shere Beek: I wanna talk about these categories.
20:44
David Goldweitz: I said I'm in my my undergraduate undergraduate degree is in American history and everyone except one contestant of California, I forgot her name forgive me, everyone believed me except her. She used to come to me and said, FOS, you're FOS. Not an American. Would an accountant be an American history undergrad. Said, that's why there's graduate school.
21:15
Right,
21:15
Jennifer Strickland: right, right.
21:16
Melissa Shere Beek: Electives. I'll also... Very
21:18
David Goldweitz: quick, I tried but I could not throw her off the scent.
21:23
Jennifer Strickland: That was a terrible idea.
21:24
Melissa Shere Beek: So wait, now this was a category that Jennifer wanted actually, right? Yep. Yeah. That's the category. So now how did you get your category?
21:33
David Goldweitz: Yes, how did you get
21:35
Melissa Shere Beek: And tell our listeners what your category was.
21:37
David Goldweitz: How did you get your category?
21:40
Jennifer Strickland: Beans, legumes, and pulses was my full category. I don't be delabbing. Was an accident. Like it was such an accident. It was just a fluke.
21:51
So my husband had some heart issues. So about I don't know now five years ago now he started maybe six he was became a vegetarian. So I had and I do the most of the cooking so I had to like change how I cook. So you know meat was like the side, you know, and I had to learn how to cook vegetables. So anyway, they're like, okay, we know you asked for American history movies, but now we need a quirky category.
22:20
You know, something that's just kind of weird. And I was like, I don't know vegetables because you know, the cooking thing. And they're like, no, we don't want to reuse categories. We had vegetables last season. And I was like, okay, because keep thinking, keep thinking.
22:33
What's similar to vegetables that's kind of quirky? And I said, I don't know beans? And that was it. And he's like Oh, no. Oh.
22:42
Oh, it was the guy that time. And I said, no. No. No. No.
22:46
No. No. I don't want beans. Like, no. Like, please.
22:49
That was a joke. Like, I'm just talking out loud. He goes, no. No. That's quirky.
22:52
That's good. And I said, I don't I don't want that category. I said, I already sound southern, like... And am southern. Like, the last thing I need is, like, my category of beans.
23:02
So then as the thing progressed and you know you kept talking to people I would kind of fit that in there like listen if there's any way possible like I said beans but I really don't want beans as a category. I really want
23:16
Melissa Shere Beek: to take that back. Yeah like I wanted to take
23:18
Jennifer Strickland: it back but here's the weird thing, this was weird and I didn't even notice that somebody else did. So when they sent out all the categories on a piece of like just a PDF or whatever, you didn't have names beside them, just had categories And mine was mine was Bean's exclamation point. No other category had an exclamation point. Oh, mine. So then when I started meeting people as we, like, got there into the studio and, you know, you would say...
23:49
It wasn't even like where are you from? The first thing most people would say is what's your category? You know like that's how you met people, coffee, or tea. I was like beans and then somebody went beans exclamation point and I was like yeah you're right. I forgot about that.
24:05
Melissa Shere Beek: So did you guys study other people's categories?
24:10
Jennifer Strickland: No. Not initially. Not... When we got the first list, I looked at it and I was like, this is overwhelming. So So not
24:21
David Goldweitz: I didn't either. You didn't. But what happens once they gave you the layout of where you were standing and what your category or
24:31
Jennifer Strickland: what
24:31
David Goldweitz: categories were around you, Many, many of the contestants at night would go back and study other categories.
24:39
Melissa Shere Beek: The neighboring categories.
24:40
David Goldweitz: Yeah, the neighboring. I didn't because I had to work. Right. And what I did was honestly I have a partner named Alan Kinko, shout and he's the director of learning. So I would tell him the categories around and he would send me like a 100 of the top this and a 100 of the top
25:00
Melissa Shere Beek: You had someone researching for you.
25:01
David Goldweitz: He did research for me and had I bothered to study what he sent me. I probably would have done very well but I was so consumed with making sure I was responding to emails from clients. Right, you were working. I was working. Yeah.
25:17
Melissa Shere Beek: Because I'm a working man. And, oh sorry go ahead.
25:20
David Goldweitz: So I didn't get a chance to really do it, but many did. Jennifer
25:23
Melissa Shere Beek: did you, not beforehand but during the course of the program, like all the recordings, did you start studying other categories?
25:30
Jennifer Strickland: So, my son asked me who was around me and he's the one that's always been obsessed with like countries and skylines and all that. So, my son sent me Buzz Feed, like skyline BuzzFeed. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I said, dude, first of all, I don't know if it's gonna be American skylines.
25:49
Is it gonna be global? Like, I didn't know. Right. So he sent me that. And then Nate that was at the table with me, he's like, Joanna's cutthroat.
25:59
She means business. You need to study CEOs. So Nate would send me CEOs. Like, he's like, study these. And I was like, okay.
26:08
Melissa Shere Beek: So you were doing a
26:09
Jennifer Strickland: lot of homework. Well, no, the only time I studying is, like, when he... Like, after lunch or at lunch because I'm tired. Like, like David. Yeah.
26:19
He went down for fifteen minutes. I was drinking chamomile tea and trying to just, like, wind down from the adrenaline of the day because David would tell you when that randomizer was going off, like when I would hear it at... When we were watching the... Like having... I had a watch party at this brewery near our house and when the randomizer would go off, like, you would tense up even when you were watching it back at home because you're like, holy crap, you know?
26:46
Oh, shit. Yeah. Was like, chilling at the randomizer, like, yeah. So we got Yeah.
26:52
Melissa Shere Beek: It's like a Pavlov's response now.
26:54
David Goldweitz: Yeah. Yeah. The PTSD from it.
26:56
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah. Yeah.
26:57
Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. So what happens when you get eliminated though? Oh. Tell me like Well Okay.
27:04
David Goldweitz: You know, Jennifer got eliminated a little later than most people did.
27:11
Melissa Shere Beek: Do you wanna tell our listeners who you lost to?
27:13
David Goldweitz: By the way, I lost to the one, the only beautiful Jennifer Strickland. Yay! Okay? And what made me proud was that Jennifer got to the end. Yeah.
27:28
But Yes she she didn't experience the exit methodology that they had that I
27:33
Melissa Shere Beek: did. Okay.
27:34
David Goldweitz: So what happens is if you lose, it's kind of like you ever watch Big Brother. Big Brother, if you get eliminated from the house, you immediately have to pick up your bag and exit the house.
27:46
Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
27:47
David Goldweitz: Okay, that's the same thing here. You immediately get taken to an area where you have like your exit interview. Your suitcase is packed every episode. So your suitcase is with you.
27:59
Melissa Shere Beek: So you pack yourself before you even go to do the episodes just in case
28:03
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah. You don't need
28:04
David Goldweitz: Oh yeah.
28:05
Jennifer Strickland: That was part of the exhaustion.
28:08
David Goldweitz: You're basically living out of a suitcase. I was
28:10
Melissa Shere Beek: just going say don't unpack but okay.
28:12
David Goldweitz: Right. Remember. Yeah. Remember you're wearing the same outfit. Right.
28:17
You shouldn't have a lot of clothes in
28:18
Jennifer Strickland: You your have toiletries So and stuff like
28:22
David Goldweitz: after I got eliminated, by the way, I just, I blacked out after I lost. I actually walked off so quickly that Rob Lowe had to call me back at first because I like had my tail between my legs and I started to walk off. They called me back and had to reshoot that part because you know Rob has to thank you. Right. I
28:44
Melissa Shere Beek: didn't get You left to the building.
28:45
David Goldweitz: I left the building. I didn't get a chance to hug Jennifer and congratulate her.
28:49
Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah.
28:50
David Goldweitz: And I didn't get to see you know what Nina's reaction which I...
28:54
Jennifer Strickland: Oh, tell her,
28:54
Melissa Shere Beek: tell her listeners what happened with
28:56
David Goldweitz: As Beek Jennifer said earlier, we had a very fun group, corner. And one of the things that made it fun was we all had a lot of personality but we all came from such diverse backgrounds. And no more of a diverse background than Mina who had green hair.
29:16
Melissa Shere Beek: I loved it.
29:16
David Goldweitz: She had tattoos. Her
29:17
Melissa Shere Beek: piercing. She piercings. I loved it. She was fun.
29:20
David Goldweitz: And then me. Right. And we bonded. I mean there were photos. She was like my daughter.
29:28
Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah.
29:29
David Goldweitz: And she called me and said I have a dad but I don't have a grandfather. You're like my grandfather.
29:33
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh I love that.
29:34
David Goldweitz: So when I got eliminated which was late in the season,
29:42
Jennifer Strickland: episode 10. You were very close by then.
29:44
David Goldweitz: We were very close by then and she apparently broke down hysterical where Rob Lowe had to and come it's on me, part of it at least is on the episode.
29:55
Jennifer Strickland: We have to
29:56
Melissa Shere Beek: go back to season two episode And
29:58
David Goldweitz: and you know Mina and I speak regularly you know.
30:01
Melissa Shere Beek: So what happens when you get eliminated? You just don't get to say goodbye to anybody? No.
30:05
David Goldweitz: You get
30:05
Jennifer Strickland: you get...
30:05
Melissa Shere Beek: Only Jennifer because you were up against her.
30:07
David Goldweitz: Right. Then you
30:09
Jennifer Strickland: get it's like sent to a... On the way out people come
30:13
Melissa Shere Beek: running over. But who's ever there next to you as Exactly you're escorted and then they do an
30:21
David Goldweitz: exit interview. They then book your flight and then they send you to a different hotel near the airport so you don't communicate
30:32
Jennifer Strickland: with And
30:34
David Goldweitz: then so by the time I got to the hotel there were many people there that had been eliminated that day.
30:43
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh, you're all waiting for flights back.
30:45
David Goldweitz: Because the day that I got eliminated we did three episodes.
30:48
Jennifer Strickland: Oh, so there
30:49
Melissa Shere Beek: must have been like 20 people.
30:51
David Goldweitz: If there were four or five challenges per episode there was 15 or so people So they're all, you know, we're all at the bar hanging out and drinking.
30:59
Melissa Shere Beek: So you're commiserating.
31:00
David Goldweitz: Commiserating and they sent me from Ireland to Helsinki, Finland which is two hours and a couple of time zones east to catch the turnaround, wait three hours, and then fly back to New York.
31:18
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh my goodness. And wait, so now you made it, you were runner-up, sorry. You didn't win the whole entire thing. What was your elimination like? So what happens because you're the second to last person standing.
31:33
Right. So they rushed is different.
31:36
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah. So they rushed me off pretty quick. And then everybody, all the producers, all the gens, the mic people, they were, like, hugging me. And then one of them was crying, and I was like, why are you crying? And they were like, well, why are you not crying?
31:53
And I was like, well, it was never mine in the... I didn't win it and then lose it. I just never won it. Like, you know?
32:00
Melissa Shere Beek: Right. Right. Right.
32:01
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah. So, yeah. I was exhausted. So then, like, that's when it's like, I didn't even know until I watched the finale, like, Keelan, how it ended with all the confetti and, you know, all that stuff. Because you don't see it.
32:14
They... I had the same experience David did, except for they never did any interviews with me. Like, they were pulling people throughout the filming to, like, ask questions. And they didn't ask me any questions at all. I was there for over an hour.
32:32
This is the bad part. As tired as I was, I had just lost. And they're, saying, well, now we need you to talk about when you and David dueled. And now I need to talk... You to talk about Joanna's duel.
32:44
And I was like having... They were like, you're talking in the present tense or we need you talking in the past tense. Now we need you talking in the future tense. And I was exhausted. I So that's get not one kind
32:55
David Goldweitz: of beef
32:56
Jennifer Strickland: I have. And then there's one thing that they showed of me where I was, like, in, like, tears because it was, like, you know, teachers don't make much money and, you know, that's a lot of money. They didn't film that before. They filmed it after I lost. So I got period because I was having to talk about what $250,000 what it meant and I had just not won.
33:17
Yeah. So you got just a jerker thing going on which if they had asked me that before when I hadn't won it.
33:26
Melissa Shere Beek: Different response.
33:27
Jennifer Strickland: You know what I mean? So anyway, that was my one little thief and then they were like, was gonna ask you about that. Yeah. And then they were like, well, what about Mina? And, you know, she's different.
33:37
And I'm like, I said, I'm not gonna trash talk. I said this. I was like, I'm not trash talking anybody. Like, Mina's a wonderful human being. Like, she is great.
33:48
Like, I would never... Like, yeah. Like, I think they wanted more of, like Conflict.
33:54
Melissa Shere Beek: Conflict. A little drama. Yeah. But they
33:57
Jennifer Strickland: didn't get it. Like, that's the thing about our season. David, don't know if you agree with this or not, but other people have since told me that the interview questions they were getting was a little bit, like, combative, like, trying to trying to be, like, more intense.
34:12
Melissa Shere Beek: And they're definitely stirring it up in the later seasons.
34:14
David Goldweitz: Try to make good television, know, that's what they're supposed to do. But we were told that the season before us and several seasons after were not like us. There was a certain chemistry.
34:27
Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah, your season was different.
34:28
David Goldweitz: There was a difference about our season. I mean we have a WhatsApp chat with 75 or 80 people.
34:35
Jennifer Strickland: I love that!
34:36
David Goldweitz: And it's two years later when someone is going through a bad time or a good time, we all support them. When Virginia who is the most adorable woman in the world, who lives in Ireland, when she had a fundraiser for her area, we had people that flew over from The States I to I couldn't fly over but I donated money and I was one of the producers of it. So still, it's unusual because there were people from so many different backgrounds. Right. Different parts of the country, different ideologies, different political beliefs, different sexual orientations, different ages, socioeconomic.
35:27
It didn't matter.
35:31
Melissa Shere Beek: You all have this shared experience that connects you.
35:34
David Goldweitz: Shared one thing in common bonded us. And it was truly, truly something that was very unique which is why I say it was the most fun I've ever had with my clothes
35:48
Melissa Shere Beek: on. Well, Jennifer told me something and Jennifer I want you to tell the listeners because I think this group chat that you had and I want to talk about when it started but that you still have going and how fabulous it is that you support each other, that you make sure that everybody shows up for each other but who shows up in the group chat that you told me, like, that you have the surprise? Do you remember?
36:14
Jennifer Strickland: Who? Bravo.
36:18
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh. Oh.
36:20
Jennifer Strickland: Flat... You're talking about flat wrong? Flat wrong. That's right. Tell our
36:26
Melissa Shere Beek: listeners how Rob Lowe shows up for the group Okay.
36:29
Jennifer Strickland: So I never got flat rob. Did you ever get flat rob? Did you?
36:32
David Goldweitz: No. Flat rob never made it to Miami.
36:37
Jennifer Strickland: He never
36:38
Melissa Shere Beek: made made it. It. He
36:42
Jennifer Strickland: made
36:47
David Goldweitz: He that was a powerful contestant. Right. She had many challenges
36:53
Jennifer Strickland: and she
36:55
Melissa Shere Beek: was awesome. But our listeners have to look this up because you have this group chat, 75, 80 people, you all show up for each other like David said in good times and bad times, whatever it is and then you bring a life size cardboard cutout of Rob Lowe and he's in every single one of these pictures with the group. When you sent me pictures, I was hysterical. Yeah.
37:18
David Goldweitz: So, Flat Flat Rob Rob! Gets shipped to different parts of the country to the different contestants and they take him they take him on vacation with them. Does he know this is going on? Of course not.
37:31
Jennifer Strickland: He doesn't? No. This is hysterical. You have
37:34
Melissa Shere Beek: to tell him.
37:35
David Goldweitz: So, I think he would appreciate this. It's hysterical. When my daughter went on her bachelorette
37:41
Melissa Shere Beek: party Your daughter's bachelorette party
37:43
David Goldweitz: flat rock was there? No. No. A a flat picture cut out of her fiance. Oh wow.
37:51
And he was in some photos but this is years later. Later. Yeah. It was very funny. So Flat Rob is there.
38:01
Melissa Shere Beek: I think this is brilliant. You all need to tell him. I think he has such a great sense of humor that he'd appreciate it. Maybe he would surprise you all and show up for real.
38:08
David Goldweitz: Yeah, the problem is he's a real Dodger fan and I'm a Yankee fan so...
38:12
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh, so, That wouldn't work out. It wouldn't work wouldn't out. So you were telling us a little bit Jennifer about like the hard part of like your exit interview and then having to be past tense, present tense
38:24
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah. Like sort of like clips
38:26
Melissa Shere Beek: that they took out. Is there anything else because you also said that viewers didn't see that sort of camaraderie fun that you had. Is there anything else viewers don't see when you watched it back with your family and friends? Is there anything else you said, oh, I wish they showed that or
38:40
Jennifer Strickland: they missed that? No. I mean, there was a hilarious part where one of the contestants was wearing the kilt. Do you remember that? David, I can't remember.
38:51
And the jokes were flying when he got up there with the kilt, and some of them were set this... The the back and forth between Rivalo, and I cannot remember that contestant's name. Oh my gosh. But it was hilarious.
39:05
David Goldweitz: We were...
39:05
Jennifer Strickland: I mean
39:05
David Goldweitz: a lot of banter.
39:07
Jennifer Strickland: Oh my god. It was so funny, but they cut most of it because I guess it was maybe a
39:12
Melissa Shere Beek: little inappropriate. Short on time. Probably. That's why it was funny.
39:16
David Goldweitz: Yeah. You know, stuff like, would you have anything under the kilt?
39:19
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh yeah, my mother asked everybody in Ireland, went up to many strange men, what are you
39:24
Jennifer Strickland: wearing under the kilt?
39:25
David Goldweitz: There were times when we would have to stop recording because Rob would, you know, occasionally his lines he would fumble a little And at one time he just like threw his hands up in the air and we said okay we'll take a break so we Oh all get to sit
39:47
Melissa Shere Beek: yeah because you're standing a long time.
39:49
David Goldweitz: Yes they demanded, they didn't demand but they strongly suggested we wear very comfortable shoes and we discovered why.
39:59
Melissa Shere Beek: Especially if you're doing three or four episodes and you're going from 06:30 to 11PM at night.
40:04
David Goldweitz: The first night is the roughest but you stay in the lot so it's good.
40:09
Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. And how was it? So, that you're eliminated and you go home and can you tell your family that you won or you lost? What happens?
40:17
David Goldweitz: No. They know, the family knows.
40:21
Melissa Shere Beek: Maybe not Jennifer's though because
40:23
David Goldweitz: Jennifer knows but in my case I got home a day before, they knew that filming was Monday through Friday.
40:31
Jennifer Strickland: Right.
40:31
David Goldweitz: And I got home Friday so they knew I didn't make it to the end but people would call Stacy, my wife and say, How's
40:40
Jennifer Strickland: he doing?
40:40
David Goldweitz: How's he doing? And she would say, I don't know I haven't seen him yet. That's all
40:44
Melissa Shere Beek: she could say. So that was all she could say and what about you because your family may not have known because you stuck it out to the end.
40:50
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah. So we didn't talk much So when you got home. Yeah. We didn't talk much because of the time difference. But when I went to the exit hotel, I went upstairs to change shower and change clothes.
41:02
And then most people were at the bar from that day. And and Nate's like, hey. We don't know how you feel, but we would love to see you. And I was like, of course, I'm coming down. I think they thought I was devastated and I was gonna, like, moat, but that's not me.
41:17
So I was like, of course, I'm coming down. I gotta see everybody. I mean, we were up till, like, 3AM, I think. Rita Rita was... I think she thought she was about to miss her flight.
41:26
We ended up in the line together at... Yeah. But, anyway, like, we stayed out. We had a good... You know, stayed up, and we had a good time.
41:34
Anyway, that's the only time I actually talked to my husband on the phone when we got back. I said, all I'm gonna tell you is that I made it to the final episode and I did not win a penny. That's all I said. Oh. And then when I got home, you know, I told him things, but I didn't tell him or my kids.
41:52
I wouldn't tell him any challenges.
41:53
Melissa Shere Beek: Right.
41:53
Jennifer Strickland: I didn't tell him who I dueled. Right. I didn't tell him anything other than I didn't win and don't tell a soul. Like, just don't tell anybody.
42:02
Melissa Shere Beek: And then how much longer does it? Oh, go ahead. Sorry.
42:05
Jennifer Strickland: I just waited. Like, I wanted them to watch Like, I wanted it to unfold. So I wouldn't... It's... That's it's
42:11
Melissa Shere Beek: gonna happen.... Much longer.
42:13
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah. Oh,
42:14
Melissa Shere Beek: until it came out when you watched it with your family. Six
42:17
David Goldweitz: weeks? We we
42:18
Jennifer Strickland: Six weeks? No,
42:20
Melissa Shere Beek: a quick turnaround.
42:21
David Goldweitz: Wait, hold for a second. The game show is only on once a week. Right. So we filmed at the end of July. Episode 10 didn't air until December.
42:33
Yeah. I was in Aruba. I couldn't I was out
42:37
Jennifer Strickland: of That's the so
42:40
Melissa Shere Beek: funny.
42:40
David Goldweitz: So that's how long it took.
42:42
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah.
42:43
David Goldweitz: And there was a
42:44
Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah because it was an episode
42:46
David Goldweitz: a week. Got bombed by the World Series. Right. Of course, Rob Lowe was happy because you know the Dodgers weren't. Yeah.
42:54
And so you know there were a number of things that ended up
43:00
Melissa Shere Beek: making But it premiered like six weeks after you Yeah, September. September. Mid September, I think.
43:07
David Goldweitz: Yeah. Right. Right.
43:08
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah. But I just I didn't tell my family because I want... I've said it's... It would be like opening your Christmas presents early. I just want you to watch it and not know any...
43:17
Yeah, to have that full experience. Yeah.
43:20
Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. Yeah. Didn't know what's coming.
43:22
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah. Other than they knew I didn't But
43:26
Melissa Shere Beek: wait, back to this group chat. Oh, go ahead. Tell me.
43:29
David Goldweitz: Oh,
43:29
Jennifer Strickland: no. I was just gonna say my son at some point looked at me and said, you lying to us? Did you really win? That would been a good lie. And I was like, son, I would love to tell you I won but no, I did not.
43:43
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh my god, that would have been can you imagine? Wow, that would have been a great So, this group chat started not after but before, this started while you were filming, right?
43:54
David Goldweitz: Well, this group chat. There was a different group chat that started before. Is that allowed? And then we got shut down.
44:04
Jennifer Strickland: Were advised
44:08
David Goldweitz: to shut it down because we were advised that it might be a violation of the contract we signed
44:15
Melissa Shere Beek: and
44:16
David Goldweitz: we would not want to put the money that some of us had already won and others that were going to win in jeopardy. We shut it down and then there was a second one that was created right afterwards.
44:30
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh, that's exciting. So you have like a cash sheet so you could get everybody's names and numbers to contact them.
44:35
David Goldweitz: We did and every couple of months and I'm a little behind, I organize a Zoom.
44:41
Jennifer Strickland: Oh, like And
44:43
David Goldweitz: 10 or 12 of us get on, know, everyone has such crazy schedules. I have to do one the end of October. I'm going to organize another one. I have a Zoom account which you know you can stay on for four because I pay for it. So I organize it and they can't help but they have to see me.
45:00
Jennifer Strickland: I love that. That's fun though.
45:02
David Goldweitz: And we have a good time catching up because it's one thing to text things
45:07
Melissa Shere Beek: on Right, different
45:09
David Goldweitz: when And you're we also have Jennifer, have you participated in the Secret Santa?
45:15
Jennifer Strickland: No, I did not participate in the Secret Santa.
45:19
David Goldweitz: We've had two years of Secret Santas.
45:21
Melissa Shere Beek: Yep, you got to get her on the list.
45:22
David Goldweitz: We got to get her
45:23
Jennifer Strickland: on I know, I need to.
45:25
David Goldweitz: Elf store or something.
45:27
Melissa Shere Beek: Love that, that's so
45:28
David Goldweitz: fun. Secret Santas and
45:29
Melissa Shere Beek: I love that these friendships came out of this.
45:32
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah. This is really cool.
45:33
David Goldweitz: And you know, Hayley was the one contestants who unfortunately got eliminated very early. Her father was a former Major League Baseball pitcher for the Detroit Tigers in 1968 and when Hailey towards Christmas time Hailey and her family drove down to or flew down to Naples.
45:59
Melissa Shere Beek: And you go meet them?
46:00
David Goldweitz: I went over and met them.
46:01
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh I love that.
46:02
David Goldweitz: And I got to meet her parents and her father was kind enough to give me an autograph baseball card.
46:07
Jennifer Strickland: That's so cool!
46:08
David Goldweitz: So you know we try to stay in touch like I said and support each other.
46:14
Melissa Shere Beek: Is this the greatest takeaway that you both have from this experience because I was going to ask you what was your greatest takeaway from all
46:19
Jennifer Strickland: of Yes! Yeah, I think so. I mean, again, the, it was amazing. I mean, my goal again was just not to get eliminated, you know, and I didn't want to be the first one to go. And then I said, you know what?
46:33
I didn't get eliminated. And now I'm just gonna talk to everybody and meet everybody. You know, like that was my goal. Yeah. Have But to just have fun.
46:41
And then whatever happens, you know, happens. So it was like, it was like a camp. It was like a summer camp for adults. And you know, when you have those summer camp experiences, like they live with you forever. Yeah.
46:53
Like, that's intense.
46:55
Melissa Shere Beek: There are these intense short period of time that these experiences that you have that connect you for always.
47:00
David Goldweitz: It's great then. I have seventy, at that time I had sixty eight years worth of shtick and they were totally new audience.
47:08
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh, a whole new audience.
47:09
Jennifer Strickland: So I
47:09
David Goldweitz: had, I I easily have a week's worth of shtick so I was entertaining as many people as I could and having just a good time, you know, making fun of me, making fun of other people.
47:22
Melissa Shere Beek: I love it. Would you all do it again?
47:24
David Goldweitz: All in good spirit. Oh yeah!
47:26
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah? Yeah. Definitely? Yeah, for sure. I love that.
47:29
Yeah, for sure.
47:31
Melissa Shere Beek: What's the next adventure for you guys?
47:35
David Goldweitz: Jennifer retired, she could have so many.
47:37
Jennifer Strickland: Okay, so my next thing is there's so much filming in Atlanta. I reconnected with the former friend from college who also retired as a guidance counselor, and she's doing background work. Like she's been in Tulsa King and she was just in background
47:55
Melissa Shere Beek: for Oh, extras.
47:57
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah. Because there's a huge filming industry in Atlanta now. Mean, back, like, not just, like, stranger things, you know, everybody knows stranger things, but there's so much... There's four major studios.
48:08
Melissa Shere Beek: Are you gonna do that?
48:09
Jennifer Strickland: Yes. So now she's like, every time there's something that fits that... Like, you know, white woman over 40, you know, like she'll... A ding ding ding. Right.
48:19
She'll like send me a link and then she'll say, okay. She does it. She does it. I think she gets paid like a $125 or something for, you know, six hours. But that's fun.
48:30
Yeah. So now I... Yeah. So I'm like, why not? Even if I only did it a couple of times, you know?
48:37
Yeah. It's an Yeah. So James McQueen was doing it. I don't know if you remember James McQueen. Jennifer,
48:47
David Goldweitz: James and I ended up in the same car service to the hotel together.
48:54
Jennifer Strickland: Oh, love it.
48:54
David Goldweitz: So James great. James, you know, a dancer, real charismatic guy with...
49:04
Melissa Shere Beek: I gotta rewatch this season again.
49:05
Jennifer Strickland: I can now know everybody more. He had dressed then.
49:09
David Goldweitz: Cassel. Anymore. But anyway, he had a lot of hair. I had none. And we couldn't have been two totally different people.
49:19
Jennifer Strickland: He's Larry.
49:21
David Goldweitz: He's great. He's great. And he tried to compete for something and we were all voting for him and voting for him. Every time you voted, if you voted once it was free. If you wanted to vote five, you had to donate $25 to a I think I spent $500 on trying to get him But up for yeah, you know, it's for a good cause and anything to help James because he's such a
49:44
Jennifer Strickland: great guy. I love that
49:46
Melissa Shere Beek: you guys are still so connected. Yeah. Is there anything that I left out in questions about like that you wanted to make sure our viewers knew about
49:55
Jennifer Strickland: this
49:55
David Goldweitz: experience? No. I can't. It was The it was just a... The one thing I do want to say is the crew in Ireland and the producers, were fantastic.
50:10
The hair and makeup, all of them, they were so amazing.
50:17
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh wow!
50:17
David Goldweitz: So warm, so you know, they really were special and we all recognize that, you know that they were so great and we were sad when we had to leave them. Bonded with them too.
50:33
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh yeah, well I guess if you're spending all day every day with them you'd have to.
50:37
David Goldweitz: Yeah, mean you know anybody made me look good, you know, with makeup. Said, why you putting makeup on the top And of my then I realized they had cameras from up above. Right. They didn't want to be blinded
50:52
Melissa Shere Beek: by No the shine, no shine. Yeah.
50:55
David Goldweitz: One one makeup artist came next to me with with lipstick and I said sorry.
50:59
Jennifer Strickland: No.
51:00
Melissa Shere Beek: We might have been a good pink shade for you. That would have been cute.
51:03
David Goldweitz: Could been. Yeah.
51:05
Melissa Shere Beek: And, Jennifer, anything anything you wanna add to that?
51:08
Jennifer Strickland: No. I'm glad David mentioned that because, I mean, everybody from the mic people to food service, like craft services, I think they call it. Uh-huh. I mean, everybody was fantastic. Like, it was...
51:18
Yeah.
51:19
David Goldweitz: I gotta tell you one... Can I tell you one? Of course. You said the mic people, Jennifer. So we were mic'd all the time.
51:26
Soon as we had hair and makeup Uh-huh. Then we went to get sound. Uh-huh. Steven would appreciate that. We were sound.
51:32
Jennifer Strickland: Yay, Steven.
51:33
David Goldweitz: And we would have to get tested and everything.
51:35
Jennifer Strickland: Yep.
51:36
David Goldweitz: But you wore the mics all the time.
51:38
Melissa Shere Beek: Uh-oh,
51:39
David Goldweitz: Not what did you me, but someone had their mic and battery go down the toilet once. Know, it's not easy to have bathrooms for a 100 contestants plus the crew. They had porta potties lined up.
51:57
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh no. Tons of porta potties. It was lost in the porta potties.
52:01
David Goldweitz: And it got, you know, got flushed.
52:05
Melissa Shere Beek: Uh-oh. Yeah.
52:06
Jennifer Strickland: Oh no, that's hilarious. I know.
52:09
David Goldweitz: This
52:09
Melissa Shere Beek: is so exciting though. I'm so glad you both had such an incredible experience and I thank you guys for coming on here today.
52:15
David Goldweitz: Well, thanks for having us.
52:16
Jennifer Strickland: Wait, I've got a little game for
52:18
Melissa Shere Beek: you though before you leave. What? Oh yes, I'm sorry, our sound delay. I'm sorry, go ahead.
52:25
Jennifer Strickland: No, what? My dog is barking. I'm so sorry.
52:28
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh, no, no, that's okay. No, the sound delay.
52:31
Jennifer Strickland: I was thanking you guys for being here. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's been great.
52:37
Melissa Shere Beek: But I have a little game for you that I do with all my guests before they leave. It's called Quickie Questions. Are you up for it? Sure. Sure.
52:44
Okay, good.
52:45
David Goldweitz: As Jennifer would say, we're always up for a quickie. Are you? Oh my god.
52:51
Melissa Shere Beek: Okay. Besides the floor game or reality show, what else would you be on?
52:59
David Goldweitz: Oh, I would be on twenty, thirty years earlier if number one I would have been on try to go on Jeopardy!
53:09
Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah, and Brother.
53:12
David Goldweitz: Really Big Brother? Our house is a big brother, our family is a big brother.
53:17
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh, that's
53:17
David Goldweitz: so
53:17
Melissa Shere Beek: And
53:17
David Goldweitz: I'm trying to get my son-in-law to go on. Oh, wow. But he won't.
53:21
Melissa Shere Beek: What about you, Jennifer? I would love I to do another game
53:26
Jennifer Strickland: would love to do Amazing Race. I I don't know.
53:29
David Goldweitz: You would eat some of that stuff?
53:31
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah. You would? No. She'd make your husband eat it. That stuff?
53:35
No. I don't wanna do that part. Maybe whoever I teamed up
53:38
Melissa Shere Beek: with would Make your husband. Make... If your husband goes with you, make him do that.
53:43
Jennifer Strickland: Oh, he wouldn't do it. No. We kill each I have a friend. I have to do this with a friend that I could like, you know, we can like yell at each other and get over it. Okay.
53:55
Then make
53:56
Melissa Shere Beek: sure she eats the gross stuff.
53:57
Jennifer Strickland: Yes. Yes.
53:58
Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. Okay, good. Do you have a favorite childhood memory?
54:04
Jennifer Strickland: I have a bunch. It's hard to pick one.
54:07
Melissa Shere Beek: What's the first one that came to mind?
54:09
Jennifer Strickland: So I am from a very small town and I had a lot of cousins. We were like stair steps. It was like my sister was the oldest and every year there was another, you know, Strickland in the, you know, and we would just run from house to house, play outside until, you know, this, you could hear our parents, you know, calling us to come in and... Yeah. I...
54:32
That was...
54:33
Melissa Shere Beek: That's a beautiful memory.
54:34
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah. It really was. Yeah.
54:37
David Goldweitz: So when I was a kid, when we lived in Brooklyn, every summer, we went to the Catskill Mountains. Sure. To a bungalow colony you know kind of like dirty dancing.
54:46
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah yeah yeah. Oh!
54:47
David Goldweitz: And manager for Tony Fields used to be at the bungalow colony so Tony Fields came up when I was a little kid. For those that don't know Todi Fields was a very famous comedian in the 60s and 70s and you know she would buy us ice cream but just going to the Catskill Mountains every summer was just an amazing experience for my family and for me and my older sister. That's a
55:22
Jennifer Strickland: good one. That's great. Okay.
55:24
Melissa Shere Beek: First thing you do every day?
55:28
Jennifer Strickland: Drink a cup of coffee.
55:29
David Goldweitz: I open my eyes, what about you? After
55:32
Jennifer Strickland: I open my eyes, I go get the coffee. I love that.
55:38
David Goldweitz: I don't drink coffee, believe it or not. Is me without caffeine.
55:42
Melissa Shere Beek: You imagine? Oh goodness, I love it. Okay, what's your greatest strength?
55:48
Jennifer Strickland: Resilience. Think that's the strength.
55:53
Melissa Shere Beek: That's a great strength. David?
55:56
David Goldweitz: My greatest strength is caring.
56:01
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah, that's me too.
56:03
David Goldweitz: Caring for people.
56:04
Melissa Shere Beek: That's a good one too, I like that. Okay, most important lesson you've learned?
56:10
Jennifer Strickland: There's a lot.
56:16
David Goldweitz: Have a I have a mantra that I live by
56:19
Melissa Shere Beek: Okay.
56:19
David Goldweitz: Which I... It's an expression that I learned when I was 20 years old. Prior to that I wasn't necessarily the nicest person in the world.
56:32
Melissa Shere Beek: You know as a kid growing up you know In The Bronx.
56:35
David Goldweitz: In Brooklyn. In Queens. So I read this, I wrote it down and I put it my wallet and I carry it you know always. It's fame is a vapor, popularity is an accident and money takes wings. The only thing that endures is character.
56:58
Wow. You know that's the way I try to conduct it.
57:00
Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah, where did you find that?
57:02
David Goldweitz: You're not going to believe this but I read it in a Sports Illustrated article about OJ Simpson many many many years before the OJ Simpson that you made when
57:19
Melissa Shere Beek: he was... He was still running
57:20
Jennifer Strickland: through airports over.
57:22
David Goldweitz: Long before that when he was, you know, when he was playing for the Buffalo Bills and was setting records and handled himself in a great way and the Sports Illustrated writer wrote that about him.
57:33
Melissa Shere Beek: So we're going to credit the writer with that?
57:35
David Goldweitz: Actually it was written by Horliss Greeley. Okay. Of course you know who that is. Yeah. The West Young Man
57:42
Jennifer Strickland: was his most famous yeah, Right.
57:44
David Goldweitz: So but it struck me, I wrote it down to the great my kids use it as their high school quote.
57:52
Jennifer Strickland: Oh, a good one.
57:53
David Goldweitz: It's, you know, it's what I what I try to get. I
57:56
Melissa Shere Beek: like that.
57:56
David Goldweitz: Live by.
57:57
Melissa Shere Beek: And Jennifer?
57:57
Jennifer Strickland: So I'm gonna sort of follow-up on something then, but I'm gonna have to paraphrase it. But it's Teddy Rosellini, man the man in the arena because that's kinda how I felt about being on the show, but just in general because it's, you know Right. It's like even if you fail, at least you tried and then you've got these critics, you know, and people, you know, say... Because we didn't mention this, but some of the people on these Reddit groups and stuff for the floor were being... They were just haters, you know?
58:30
Like... And some of the contestants were reading the things that they were saying about them, and it was like, yeah. And it was cool. That's hard breaking. Stupid stuff.
58:39
And so when all that was going on, that was probably September, October. It made me think about that, you know, the the Teddy Roosevelt man in the arena because at least we dared, you know, and dared greatly. And they're sitting on the couch. Like, these people that are typing horrible things on Reddit, you know Haven't even tried.
58:59
David Goldweitz: But it's it's easy
59:00
Jennifer Strickland: to be
59:00
David Goldweitz: brave when you when you're behind a Right. Keyboard.
59:05
Melissa Shere Beek: So my next question was gonna be who inspires you but that sounds very inspiring. You have someone that inspires you in your life? It doesn't have to be personal, could be like historical, it could be anything.
59:19
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah, I do like Teddy Roosevelt.
59:21
David Goldweitz: Historical would be Yeah. Historical would be appropriate for you.
59:24
Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. That would be I know. Teddy Roosevelt.
59:26
Jennifer Strickland: You know, I'm gonna have to say my children. Like like Yeah. My biological children, of course, but also just all students I've taught over the years. Like, some of them, just, you know, they have different stories and different baggage and then you just, when you don't teach school or you're not working in a school system, you forget how hard adolescence is, you know? Sure.
59:49
And then so many kids have touched my life because they deal with so much crap. You know, I get teary eyed talking about it, but yeah, I mean, people say negative things about the future and I'm always like, no, these kids, you know, yeah, there's knuckleheads everywhere. Collectively, you know, I find like hope in the future. Don't look in at a negative way. I I do think about that.
1:00:17
Like, these adolescent kids with all the challenges they face now, I mean, I'm glad we didn't have cell phones when I was growing up.
1:00:25
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh, yeah. I don't think I'd survive today's day.
1:00:27
David Goldweitz: Yeah. I gotta tell you, Jennifer, those kids were I'm sure inspired by you. And I'm sure those kids are better today than they were because of you.
1:00:40
Melissa Shere Beek: I agree with that
1:00:41
David Goldweitz: one Because 100 that's how much I think of you.
1:00:45
Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah but also it takes a great educator to inspire children and for them to have you as a mentor. That's amazing.
1:00:54
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah. It was all fun.
1:00:57
David Goldweitz: Jennifer who invented the telegraph machine because that who inspired like me. David.
1:01:05
Melissa Shere Beek: Everybody go watch season two episode 10 of the four, you'll understand that.
1:01:09
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah. Yeah. Now speaking of this, I forgot to tell this crazy story. I have to slip this in. Got a letter from, like, a little elementary school kid from Utah, but he didn't put his return address on there.
1:01:27
And it was, like, in December. And he's like, hey. I have it somewhere still. And he was like, hey. My name is...
1:01:34
Oh gosh. I can't remember his name now. My family and I watched you on the floor. We wanted you to win. I was so sorry that you didn't win.
1:01:42
I just wanted to write to you and and, like, see if you're okay. And... But then I couldn't write him back because he didn't put a return address, but it it was stamped Provo, Utah. You know, the mail stamp was Provo, Utah. Right.
1:01:55
And I was like, first of all, I'm like, is this legit? Like, how did they even get my address? I mean, but you can find it on white pages or whatever. So anyway, I decided to go to What's white pages? Yeah.
1:02:09
Kids don't know what that is. But anyway, I went to Instagram and I typed in that kid... That name, and then I started looking for the kid's name. But, of course, she was too young to have Instagram. But then I I found, like, this guy, the dad, on Instagram, but he wasn't very active.
1:02:32
So, you know, I was like, you know what? I'm gonna send this guy this message and just see if this is his son that wrote me this letter. Right. Well, I mean, it was probably four months later, I get a message, you know, in Instagram, and it was like, it was the guy. Like, I I felt like I was being a stalker.
1:02:49
But I was like, hey. I don't know if this is your son, but I got this really sweet letter. There was no return address. Tell him I'm fine. Like, we're all still friends on the show.
1:02:58
We still talk to each other. But it was the guy's dad.
1:03:03
Melissa Shere Beek: I went That's so sweet.
1:03:04
Jennifer Strickland: But it was this little elementary school kid in his little handwriting. He was concerned. He was.
1:03:14
David Goldweitz: That's great.
1:03:14
Jennifer Strickland: But I forgot
1:03:15
David Goldweitz: about that. I
1:03:17
Jennifer Strickland: about that. I had to slip that in in case for some reason
1:03:19
Melissa Shere Beek: that they're listening to the podcast. Just to the
1:03:21
David Goldweitz: record, I received no letters. I received no phone calls. No one gave a hoot that I got eliminated.
1:03:27
Jennifer Strickland: I'm so sorry, David. I never get recognized. You know, Julian gets recognized constantly. She's always been recognized by people. Well, She's so stripy.
1:03:36
David Goldweitz: She's she's a very striking Yeah. Different look, you know, tall, the gray hair, the
1:03:43
Melissa Shere Beek: model I don't remember her. I remember Mina because of the hair. Oh, you... It's my favorite color.
1:03:49
Jennifer Strickland: She's the one. Julienne is, I think disco might have been her category. She's like a mom. Yes, she was.
1:03:55
Melissa Shere Beek: Oh, know who she is. Yeah. Long, white, gray hair. Yes, yes, I like the category. I was all about the disco.
1:04:02
Yeah, she's a model.
1:04:03
Jennifer Strickland: Remember that. She's a model. Was 60. Yeah. Right.
1:04:08
Melissa Shere Beek: I stopped you. You got stopped. Stopped you outside of a bagel shop.
1:04:13
David Goldweitz: Do get stopped. Most of the time it's because people have stopped me and asked me if I'm Larry David. People But did come me up and say, were you on that show? I said, yes, I was. Yep.
1:04:29
That's it. I had my five minutes of fame.
1:04:31
Jennifer Strickland: I love
1:04:31
David Goldweitz: it. I
1:04:32
Jennifer Strickland: love it.
1:04:32
David Goldweitz: What was it? Forty five seconds? Is that what it was?
1:04:35
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah, but you were on it way more than that.
1:04:39
Melissa Shere Beek: I love it. Okay, last question. What makes you laugh? David. David.
1:04:46
David, what makes you laugh?
1:04:50
David Goldweitz: I just find humor in everything.
1:04:52
Jennifer Strickland: Yeah, that's
1:04:52
David Goldweitz: a great way to try go to find humor in everything even when my parents died thirty seven days apart.
1:04:57
Jennifer Strickland: Oh wow!
1:04:58
David Goldweitz: You know the eulogies I had to intertwine humor because it was part of my mother and my father's DNA, it's part of mine. I find humor in things that most people I probably would
1:05:14
Melissa Shere Beek: find humor because I feel like it's a way to survival. There's a lot of hard stuff in this world and
1:05:19
Jennifer Strickland: I feel like if you if
1:05:20
Melissa Shere Beek: you don't laugh, you're not gonna get through it. Okay? Yeah.
1:05:22
David Goldweitz: Without a doubt.
1:05:23
Melissa Shere Beek: Yeah. Thank you both for being here. I'm so happy. This was such an awesome episode. I hope you enjoyed.
1:05:30
David Goldweitz: Yeah, it was great. It
1:05:31
Jennifer Strickland: was good to see you. Yeah, for sure. And I am coming to Miami eventually. Okay, good. Good, good,
1:05:38
David Goldweitz: Don't tease me now.
1:05:40
Jennifer Strickland: Beek I'll be there. All right. Thank you all.
1:05:44
Melissa Shere Beek: Thank you. To our listeners, thank you so much. So grateful you're here. Keep listening. Keep learning.
1:05:49
Keep laughing. Keep up with Beek on being. Listen to Beek on being wherever you get your podcast. All episodes are automatically transcribed. DM us to share thoughts, ideas, or nominate a guest.
1:05:59
A big shout out and a huge thank you to Steven Chen at Penthouse Studios. Beek on being was recorded at Penthouse Studios and is a