By PATRICIA DOXSEY
Freeman staff
pdoxsey@freemanonline.com; twitter.com/pattiatfreeman

KINGSTON, N.Y. — He may have gone bankrupt, but don’t feel sorry for Stephan Jablonski.

The 40-year-old Kingston firefighter said the experience wasn’t as traumatic as one might think.

“It’s OK. It didn’t kill me,” laughed Jablonski recently as he talked about the experience.

 At least, he said, he didn’t call a consonant that was already on the board.

In case you haven’t already figured it out, Jablonski’s bankruptcy came while spinning the wheel as a contestant on the television game show “Wheel of Fortune.”

Jablonski will appear during the show’s Fun and Fit week in October.

Until then, he said, he’s been sworn to secrecy about his success on the show he’s watched since he was a kid.

What he would say is that despite landing on the “bankrupt” space, he “did pretty good.”

“Everybody’s guaranteed $1,000. Luckily I did better than that.

Continued...

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“It’ll be fun to watch,” he said.

Appearing on the game show, which has been dubbed “America’s Game,” has been something Jablonski said he’s thought about since he was a child watching the show in his family home in Saugerties.

Then last fall he went on the game show website to get a Wheel Watchers Club Spin ID and a question popped up on the website asking him if he wanted to be a contestant.

He said he signed up to become a contestant and a few months later he received an email saying the show was hosting regional tryouts in Times Square in New York City.

Two weeks later, on Feb. 4, he headed down for the audition where he and about 60 other people practiced playing the game and took a written “test” to help the show’s producers determine each potential candidate’s puzzle-solving skills.

Two weeks later, Jablonski got a letter saying he’d been selected to be a contestant on the show and two weeks after that, he, his girlfriend Gina Perez and her mother, Beverly Putnam, were on a plane to California where the show is taped.

Jablonski said he was struck at how hard the show’s staff worked to put the contestants at ease.

“Everybody treats you great,” said Jablonski. “Pat Sajak was hysterical, he was really, really funny and Vanna (White) was sweet.”

“They want you to have a great time, they want you to do well, they really try to get you comfortable,” he said.

Jablonski said the staff encourages contestants to be outgoing and energetic so “I might have been yelling a little bit, I don’t know,” he laughed. Continued...

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Interestingly, in game show that once offered puzzle solvers the opportunity to buy a ceramic Dalmatian, Jablonski isn’t the first Kingston firefighter to be a contestant on “Wheel of Fortune.”

About four years ago, another firefighter won $6,000 on the show, Jablonski said. “I remember that he got the last puzzle before the bonus round.

“I may or may not have made it to the bonus round,” he said.

To see how Jablonski fared, tune into “Wheel of Fortune” on Thursday, Oct. 4 at 7:30 p.m. Locally, the show will air on ABC channel 7.

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