Hofstra professor on "Jeopardy!" for 500: Who is Lisa Dresner?

Photo courtesy of Jeopardy Productions, Inc.

A professor whose audience usually consists of a room full of 30 tired college students found herself in front of an entirely new set of attentive listeners this fall: the crew and participants in the Professors Tournament of “Jeopardy!”

For Lisa Dresner, an associate professor of writing studies and rhetoric at Hofstra, competing on “Jeopardy!” this year is the culmination of decades of audition attempts for the show.

“I started trying out in the late 90s. At that point, people had to try out for ‘Jeopardy!’ in person,” Dresner said. “As far as I know, there were no internet tests to even start the process at all. There was one point where I was in southern California and I went to the studios to take the test in-person and I didn’t do very well.”

In the 2000s, Dresner took another test, online this time, before attending an in-person audition in New York. Unfortunately, she said that the audition “didn’t go very well.”

Dresner’s next attempt in the 2010s went more successfully. Despite making it through another online test and having a successful audition in Rhode Island, Dresner still did not appear on the show.

“Even if you’re successful, it doesn’t mean that you’ll necessarily get chosen to be on ‘Jeopardy!’ during that cycle,” Dresner said. “What they used to say is that ‘If you don’t hear from us in a year and a half, try out again.’”

During the pandemic, “Jeopardy!” transitioned from holding set rounds of online testing to a take-at-any-time test. After taking the test, Dresner went through Zoom auditions before finding out later that she was going to be on the show.

“I got a text and then set up a phone call in September, in late September, and it was amazing,” Dresner said. “It was a dream come true.”

Even though Dresner worked for years to get the chance to appear on “Jeopardy!” she wrestled with the choice to attend the show or not. “I wasn’t even sure I was going to say yes because I was nervous about going there and doing this during the pandemic, but they absolutely took it seriously,” Dresner said. “And I’m really glad that I went.”

Despite strict COVID-19 regulations, testing and social distancing, Dresner was still able to connect with her fellow contestants.

“We talked a lot and there was a lot of joking around, and a lot of people being really supportive to other people,” she said. “At one point they were calling people to go play their rounds and someone said, ‘I hope when they call me that somebody would do the wave. And we all did the wave when the person got called.”

To prepare for the show itself, Dresner has done her best to maintain an understanding of a wide range of different topics. “I have been studying for decades for ‘Jeopardy!’” she said. “For years I’ve been trying to keep up with sports news, for example, which is not one of my deep interests ... And I do try to keep up with cultural things in areas that maybe I’m not the strongest in.”

One of the elements she focused on was one that most people might not think about: buzzing in.

“When you buzz in on ‘Jeopardy!,’ you have to buzz in with the timing that’s right,” Dresner said. “If you buzz in before the question is over, it actually locks you out for a little while. That’s what I knew I needed to practice. I was at home with my ballpoint pen watching episodes of ‘Jeopardy!’ and trying to time when I rang in to right when the question ended.”

Although Dresner could not discuss the details of the actual competition, she said that some aspects of the “Jeopardy!” process surprised her. “It was very exciting to see the actual ‘Jeopardy!’ set up that you see on TV,” she said. “And we actually got a bonus set because our green room was the ‘Wheel of Fortune’ set.”

Dresner said one of the appeals of “Jeopardy!” was what Alex Trebek, the original host of “Jeopardy!,” brought to the show. After Trebek’s death, his influence still lingers on-set.

“The person who did my hair said she had done Alex’s hair for 38 years,” Dresner said. “I feel like the spirit of Alex Trebek is still with the production. They really are trying to make it worthy of him. They’re doing it in his honor.”

Even without Trebek, the show still creates a memorable, warm atmosphere. “People talk about the ‘Jeopardy!’ family and how, once you’re a part of ‘Jeopardy!’ you’re always a part of the ‘Jeopardy!’ family,” Dresner said. “I can see how people feel that way. That is kind of the vibe of the production, that they’re a big, kind family of people.”

While joining the “Jeopardy!” family took her longer than she might have wanted it to, ultimately, Dresner’s experience with “Jeopardy!” reminds her of the value of persistence. “Just because you don’t have your dream come true right away, that doesn’t mean your dream will never come true. It just means it might take a lot of tries,” she said.

Dresner appears on Wednesday, Dec. 8, in the third of five quarterfinal rounds in the Professors Tournament of “Jeopardy!” The entire tournament runs from Monday, Dec. 6, to Friday, Dec. 17, on KABC-TV ABC at 7:00 p.m.