DANGER! contestant Isaac Hirsch was reluctant to mention other work outside of the game show.
The eight-day champion said he wasn’t good at stand-up comedy.
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During Friday’s show appearances, Isaac, who leads the customer support team, told host Ken Jennings about his stand-up career.
“Tell us about some of your audiences,” said Ken, 50.
“Yes, I have been very reluctant to bring it up because it makes me very funny as a contestant on Jeopardy! not very funny for a comedian,” Isaac revealed, which made Ken laugh.
However, the defending champion said the strangest show he ever performed was for the Montana International Guard at a minor league baseball stadium.
He opened the scoring and played a 20-minute set.
“They gave me a wireless microphone that didn’t work, so I just stood there and didn’t say anything for 20 minutes,” Isaac said.
“No one could hear. It was very brutal. It was a very brutal show.”
Ken tried to cheer Isaac up by saying he’s sure the International Guard wanted to laugh, but was “very disappointed” when his microphone didn’t work.
“They said, ‘Well, he looks funny, but we can’t hear him,’” Isaac joked.
Ken said he hopes Isaac gets a second chance before moving on to the next round.
HIRSCH Hail Mary
Isaac got his closest win on Friday.
He has the second longest race of the entire season.
After a total escape on Thursday, Isaac faced Ashley Weaver of Lakewood, Ohio, and Mike Ferguson of Edmond, Oklahoma.
After Danger! round, Isaac led with $6,600, chemistry teacher Mike came in second with $5,800, and Ashley had -$1,000.
Danger! Host timeline
Danger! has had a tumultuous history regarding hosts following the death of the iconic Alex Trebek in 2020. Here are every host since the game show’s inception in 1964.
Art Fleming – from 1964 to 1975, he was the original host of the daytime version of Jeopardy! on NBC.
Alex Trebek – From 1984 to 2020, the late, great Alex hosted the modern iteration of Jeopardy! for 36 years until his death from pancreatic cancer.
Guest Hosts – 2020 to 2021, Jeopardy! tested a series of guest hosts for one- or two-week stints, including Anderson Cooper, LaVar Burton and Aaron Rodgers.
Mike Richards – 2021, he was named host for a week before resigning amid controversy. He was the show’s executive producer at the time.
Mayim Bialik – 2021 to 2023, when Mike was announced as the show’s new host, Mayim was chosen to host tournaments and primetime specials.
Mayim and Ken Jennings – 2022 to 2023, 74-time champion Ken (the winningest contestant of all time) joined Mayim as guest host and they shared hosting duties.
Ken Jennings – 2023 to present. Last December, Mayim announced on Instagram that she would “no longer” host Jeopardy! After a long hiatus, having defended the writers’ strike, Ken was named sole host.
Ken now runs all editions of Jeopardy! including Celebrity Jeopardy!, the late night show and other primetime specials such as Masters.
Mike was giving Isaac a run for his money.
In Double Jeopardy!, Isaac and Mike each found a Daily Double.
This made Final Jeopardy! very close, as Isaac only led by about $4,000.
Isaac answered the question correctly and ended up with $34,001.
His eight-day total is $195,389.
TONING?
Earlier this week, Isaac revealed some of the game show’s rules after fans questioned his tactics.
In a Reddit thread, a fan wondered, “The contestants on Jeopardy! Are they specifically instructed to avoid adding ‘flair’ to their answers?”
The original poster noted that recent competitors seemed to be responding without much enthusiasm and broke it down into a few options.
Fans said the players were nervous, afraid of being “embarrassed” or “grumpy”, or were instructed by producers to give simple answers without “a twist”.
“I always wondered if it was option C. Since there are so many former contestants posting here, I was hoping someone would give me a definitive answer,” the fan added.
Isaac chimed in and said that they are instructed not to respond with charisma.
They are also not allowed to sing their answers due to copyright infringement.
“We’re not told to give answers without pizzazz – I think the biggest reason is that the contestants are so focused on saying the right thing,” Isaac responded.
“The only exception is that with your Kung fu fighting example, we are explicitly instructed not to sing answers because the song is copyrighted and costs Jeopardy money to release.”
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
