How to be on a TV game show like Wheel of Fortune

When Allison Kamm was a little girl, she watched “Wheel of Fortune” with her great-grandmother. The show was always on in her parents’ home, where she played along. When she told her parents she would one day be on the program, they laughed. But the Oyster Bay resident went on to appear in an episode in November 2015.

“It was the most lucrative 18 minutes of my life,” said Kamm, now 37.

It also was one of her most memorable days. She gushed that co-host Vanna White was so nice, “just lovely” and that “everyone involved with the show wants you to win; they give you tips.”

To get on the show, she submitted a short video highlighting why she would be a good contestant and was invited to audition at a Brooklyn hotel. During the first round, her name was called and she had to yell out a letter. “They wanted to see how loud you yelled and hear your enunciation,” she said.

Round 2 was a timed, written test. In the last round, each person stood up and gave their bio. She was told she would hear back within a month. She checked the mail every day and remembers that it was longer than expected before her roommate called her at work to say a letter had arrived from the show. Three months later, she was on her way to Los Angeles.

“It was nerve-wracking, but exciting, sitting in the audience waiting for your turn to play,” Kamm said. “I bankrupted five to six times, lost a car and a trip to Hawaii. I yelled out what I thought was the answer to the puzzle, and it wasn’t correct. I was embarrassed.”

She ultimately solved a puzzle and walked away with $10,000.

Several Long Islanders have appeared on the show. St. James Elementary School cafeteria worker Katie McCann won $65,253 in cash and prizes on the show earlier this month, and West Hempstead native Gabriel Berkowitz won $86,560 in cash and prizes in September.

Jamel Vanderburg, 38, of Hempstead, a professor at St. John’s University and a lifelong “Wheel” watcher, who also plays the game on his iPad, appeared on the show last year. His winnings totaled $41,000, including a trip to Alaska.

“If I live to be 80, I’ll never forget my experience,” he said. “That money I won came at a time when it was needed. It was a blessing.”