WEST HAVEN–Last Saturday the stage in Dodds auditorium was alive with the lights and sounds of the TV game show Deal or No Deal. With Tim Fasano lending his talent to portraying Howie Mandel and the 16 lovely ladies of the 5,6,7,8 Dance Team holding the cases, this event promised to be the biggest of the semester thus far. It did not disappoint.
The Gaming Club planned everything right down to changing the boarder color around items already picked as the show does with dollar amounts that have already been picked. The display of computer technology and coordination of lighting and sound effects was phenomenal. It was truly like watching the original show with a different cast.

Since school policy prohibits the giving out of cash, the Gaming Club got inventive with the prizes offered. They ranged from a single paper clip to a Nintendo DS with things in between like Post-it notes, a stapler, a Tempur-Pedic pillow, and a digital camera. Personally, I was hoping for either the camera or the pillow, but all of the bigger prizes were worth winning.
Two of the contestants chose to take the deal that the banker gave out while the other two chose to go all the way to the final case, with differing degrees of success. One of the contestants won Post-it notes while the other won the Nintendo DS.

The show did hit a slight rough patch when an audience member noticed that the prizes in the cases followed a pattern during the fourth, and final, round. It is a shame that someone figured out the pattern, but even more of a nuisance when they brought down the level of enjoyment for everyone else in the auditorium. Despite this incident I believe that the Gaming Club did an amazing job with every aspect of the show.

I was a little upset come giveaway time as the advisor for the Gaming Club neglected to pull my ticket number from the bucket, but it was still great to feel that I was able to win something even though I was not chosen to be on stage. Sadly I was one number away from winning the digital camera, but my RA won so at least I can enjoy the continued satisfaction of bugging him about it.

If possible in writing, I would like to give a standing ovation to the ladies of the 5,6,7,8 Dance Team. They were all beautiful and I know that I never could have stood on a ramp in heels for as long as they did. They were the perfect models for UNH’s rendition of Deal or No Deal.

This event was a great success and even if they didn’t win anything, students left Dodds auditorium with smiles on their faces. I sincerely hope that the Gaming Club plans to put on this event in the future because if everything thought it was good this time around, I can only imagine what is in store the next time.