On the road with the cue card person from Wheel of Fortune, Family Feud, and other game shows

It’s a sunny morning. Scot Walker and I are sipping coffee. He’s got one of those humor-ready faces that a pretty good life on the road gives you. He’s a roadie. And it’s been a long and joyful road. “When I was just getting out of high school, my aunt, Roberta Kent, was Barry Manilow’s opening act, in Vegas. She was a stand-up comedian. So when I got out of high school, [she and my parents] said, ‘Do you want to go to college? Or do you want to go on the road with Barry Manilow, wear satin jackets, stay in nice hotels, meet girls who are going to sleep in the hallway?’ It took 30 seconds to decide.”

Walker spent years on the road, until he met a lady who ran a cue-card company. “Remember cue cards? I went to work for them. They owned the cue card rights to all the game shows, and for five years, I became Wheel of Fortune’s cue card person — writing out and holding up prompts for the talent. I also did Family Feud, Scrabble with Chuck Woolery, and then a couple of years on the actual Academy Awards. I covered boxing, pro wrestling, Major League Baseball. Do you remember Jerry Lewis’s telethon? I was Jerry Lewis’s cue card guy. I did seven telethons with him. I was blessed to work with Sammy Davis, George Burns, even Milton Berle at one point. But it wasn’t all plain sailing. During one of Jerry’s telethons, I have the cards ready for 40 minutes of live coverage. Jerry’s there waiting for me on the other side of the stage. Then I hear ‘On in 5, 4…’ Aargh! I go racing across the stage, and trip. Spill the cards everywhere! We’re now on, live. Jerry chases me around the camera. ‘So Scot, what should I do next?’ Millions saw that.”

Walker has since evolved into a live event editor, traveling all over the world, from Major League Baseball to the Olympics to the Kentucky Derby. “I may have as many as eight cameras at one time. Like boxing: if somebody’s going to get knocked out, I have ten seconds to show it. I can give you three looks, two at the knock-down, and one reaction shot. Baseball: when you’re watching, and you see a replay, a home run usually consists of three things. A ‘swing,’ a ‘shag’” — which is the ball soaring away, don’t even ask — “and a ‘hero.’ So, go to Camera Two, look for the swing, go to Camera Four, look for the shag, and either Camera Five or One for the hero shot, the batter coming around the bases. And by the way, I cover Petco Park. I love it. Everybody loves Petco Park.”

Three decades on, he’s still traveling the world. “But let’s just say I call myself more of a teacher at this point. Basic things, like I know that when the guy’s sitting in the chair, make him sit on his tail, so it looks like there’s no wrinkles in his clothes. Put make-up on the talent’s hands, because when his face is made up, and you see these fleshy hands, not good.”

And for the talent, the advice never changes. “Never chew gum on television. Never eat, unless you’re on Chopped [the cooking TV game show]. Take the Coke can off the table. Take the water off the table. Spills! Straighten your tie. Your microphone should be over your shoulder. But the most-asked question I get is, ‘Am I doing okay?’ Like Ryan Seacrest, who’s going to take over Wheel of Fortune. When he was starting out, I was his cue-card guy. It was the Radio Music Awards. I would follow him around, and we’d go do little hits, chats with the crowd. And after each chat, he’d say, ‘Scot, how was that? Was it funny?’”