The Music Man

     Part two of my interview with Stefan Goodreau...
     I had to ask Stefan more about the famous O'Brien's, where I first met him in person when I was in Los Angeles for Jeopardy!  By the way, if you are in town to tape the show, this is a must-do.  It's a dream for a Jeopardy! fan, with champs playing like Jerome Vered and Cliff Galiher (who looked happy that I recognized him).  Plus, everyone there will encourage you and share your delight that you are going to be on the show, and they'll go out of their way to make sure you meet every former J! champ there.  Stefan says, "Occasionally a newbie or two will show up, and a regular will help them find space."  My sister tapped a guy on the shoulder who looked like he had just two on his team.  Turns out it was former contestant Marty Butterick.  He mentioned he lost his episode in the Final. I realized later he'd lost to ToCer Justin Sausville, and I'd blogged about his episode!  Marty watched his episode at O'Brien's when it aired.
     O'Brien's tweets a picture each week of the winning team, but the week I was there the camera failed.  I told Stefan he always seems to be in the tweeted picture, and I asked him if he studies for the quiz.  He said, "I don't study for it. I'd rather not take it too seriously. And I more readily credit the company I keep for my frequent appearances there."  When I said I didn't know how the players know the answers to those questions, he said, "We don't, a lot of the time!"
     I told Stefan I wish I'd remembered his first interview with Mr. Trebek when I saw him at O'Brien's:

    
     I asked him if he'd have done that there if I asked, and he said, "Without question."  I told my sister he said that (she was there too that night), and she responded in a text, “what a cool dude!”  Stefan says he "delights in noises," and adds, "Maybe some regulars find it obnoxious, but I often break into song or noise at pub quiz."  Then there's this YouTube clip:

    
     Reader "BigDaddyJ" wanted to know how many takes this, er, took.  Stefan says, "I don't remember, but I would guess it was no more than two video takes. I took several audio takes to verify that my concept (recording all three parts in a single take and staying in key so they can all come together) would work (which was when I discovered I'd need a click track to maintain tempo)."

     Stefan studied Recording Arts at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.  He says he, his sister and his parents all graduated from there, and his parents met there!  He says, "I studied sound production (both music and sound effects, as well as on-set recording, although I was less enthusiastic about that)."  I remembered that Stefan said during his ToC that he was thinking about using his winnings toward music education.  He says, "I haven't done anything real with the money besides pay off a student loan of about $10,000, but studying music lingers in the back of my mind...Mostly I want to learn more about composition. I've got a good mind/ear for it, but the technical details are mostly lost on me.  Some more of my musical work, done via Game Boy, can be heard on myspace.com/unfasten."

     Find out more of what Stefan's doing these days, tomorrow!