Wheel of Fortune fans have welcomed Pat Sajak and Vanna White into their living rooms for decades — but one contestant literally brought the game show into his home … or should we say, his garage.
In a clip from Tuesday night’s (April 18) episode posted to the show’s Instagram page, contestant Dirk Kappel reveals just how far he went to prepare for his stint on the hit series.
“You built a Wheel of Fortune in your garage?” Sajak asked, to which Kappel admitted, “I probably had too much time on my hands, and I built a wheel close to this size and practiced and played games in the garage.”
The video cut to a clip of the mega fan — first acting as the contestant — spinning the makeshift wheel in his garage as he exclaims, “Big money!” before saying, “I would like an N, please”
In his best Sajak impression, he then appears on the other side of the wheel as he replies to himself, “There is an N.”
In response to his bizarre (albeit brilliant) preparation tactic — which the page humorously captioned, “This wheel is the real deal (but not the real wheel, obvi)” — Sajak joked, “You owe us $1,200, by the way.”
Meanwhile, fans took to the comments section of the post to praise Kappel’s creativity. One wrote, “Now that’s WHEEL-y cool!” while another added, “That’s Great!!”
Other viewers even revealed that they’ve also made their own wheels, as a third person said, “I’ve made lots of homemade Wheel of Fortune wheels too!”
Someone else commented, “I thought I was the only one…my father said ‘there was something ‘wrong’ with me’ and I was taking my WoF stanning too far when I broke one of his power tools trying to build a wheel.”
While Kappel clearly did his due diligence in getting ready to compete on the game show, he unfortunately did not win the first-place title. However, he still got to take home $14,369 and a trip to Barbados — so runner-up doesn’t sound too bad in this situation.
Wheel of Fortune airs on weeknights at 7:30/6:30c. Find local listings on the Wheel of Fortune website.