Participating in game shows can be messy. Some entail eating bugs, racing through obstacle courses or pulling obscure facts from deep within the brain on a moment’s notice. Others simply require contestants to spin a wheel and guess a letter. In some cases, they provide the average person with 15 minutes of fame.

Daryl Johnson, a senior in technology education, was eleven years old when he participated on the Nickelodeon game show “Wild and Crazy Kids.”

Johnson said that they were shooting a remote show near Charlotte, and they picked him out of a huge crowd of kids.

Unfazed by the television cameras, Johnson remembered having fun on the show but said his cameo was not a “big deal.” A child model, he was used to being on local television commercials and seeing himself on television.

In fact, Johnson said, he didn’t even watch the episode when it aired. “I was part of a relay where we had to change clothes while jumping … and it ended with goo being poured over our team leader.”

Johnson said his team didn’t win, but he got to keep his green team T-shirt as a consolation prize.

He said the whole experience was “maybe crazy, but not so wild.” Shawn Campbell, a senior in biomedical engineering, was on Wheel of Fortune in January. P

icked randomly from a crowd at Crabtree Valley Mall, Campbell then had to audition at a local Raleigh hotel.

At the audition, Campbell said participants had to “pretend to spin the wheel,” and the judges watched how they clapped. “They wanted to make sure we were energetic enough for TV,” he said.

The next step was a written test which consisted of numerous words with letters missing. Campbell said it was like a mix between hangman and a crossword puzzle. After the audition he waited for a callback to be on the show.

Though Campbell did have to pay his own way to Los Angeles for the taping, the money he walked away with covered the trip. “I got the house minimum — $1,000 dollars,” he said, claiming he spun “bankrupt” and “lose a turn” a lot.

The showed aired in March, and although he was working at the time, afterward he got together with friends to watch the show on TiVo. “I would do it again even if I knew I wasn’t going to win any money,” he said. “I got to meet Vanna [White], and Pat Sajak was really nice too,” Campbell said. “It was a lot of fun — really intense and high pressure — but a lot of fun.”