Earlier this month, Central graduate Gregory Jolin completed a five-day run on Jeopardy that landed him in the show’s Tournament of Champions. It’s a journey that officially started in 2003, when Jolin was fresh out of high school, and was informed by his experience at Central.
Jolin, who now lives in Raymond and still has family in the area, hauled in a total of $138,000 in his run on Jeopardy. With his first run on the show complete, he took time to talk with us about his road to the show – including his time on the Granite State Challenge for the Little Green.
On one of our Facebook posts, we saw a relative of yours say that people had long told you that you should be on Jeopardy – has this been something you've wanted to do for a while?
Gregory Jolin: I've been interested in getting on the show at some point at least since high school. My first true attempt was for College Jeopardy when I was a freshman at RPI in 2003. As a freshman I couldn't have a car on campus, so my parents actually drove out to Troy, NY to pick me up and take me to Harvard. It was a written test and if you passed you would get an actual audition. I failed the written test (which I mentioned as my anecdote on my second show), but I never stopped trying. I always took the online test when offered. Before this year, I had made it to the final audition one previous time (in 2008), but obviously wasn't chosen at the time. It's interesting to think about what the best time to get on the show would be – if I got on in 2008, I would have more direct academic knowledge which has faded by now, but I think 16 more years of life experience and accumulated knowledge was more beneficial.
In addition to doing well on the show, based on Jeopardy fans online, you also seemed to be a really well-liked contestant. Did you expect to have so much success? Or maybe put another way, how did you think you'd do on the show?
GJ: I tried to be very realistic about my chances. My rough guess is that the defending champion is probably about 50% to win any given game, so the challengers are probably about 25% each. There were definitely some nerves in the first game, but once I won that one I was a lot more relaxed in future games. I figured no matter what happened, I was going to be a Jeopardy champion for life, so the rest of it was kind of a free roll. I am a board gamer and competitive Magic: the Gathering player so I had the mindset of treating it like a game - although I was competing for real dollars, in my head they were just points in a game I was trying to win. In one of my games an opponent next to me turned to me at the first commercial break and asked how I was so calm, and I think it was because of those reasons.
There was a lot of local backing for you, particularly from Central High. How did it feel to earn so much support from the community you grew up in?
GJ: It was a bit overwhelming and unexpected! I don't think Jeopardy is at the top of the cultural consciousness these days, but it must be something that is still in the back of people's minds as a sort of American institution. I don't do much social media these days, but a family member let me know that people were posting about my run every night in a Raymond Facebook group. It was a bit crazy to go back and read all the messages of people rooting me on that were complete strangers!
Do you feel that anything in particular from your schooling, or extracurriculars, prepared you for competing on the show?
GJ: I was the captain of Manchester Central's Granite State Challenge team in my senior year, so that is definitely a specific analog! We won our first round but lost the second, which was disappointing. I did learn a lesson from that loss, which was to not let ego get in the way of correct decisions. As the team captain, I had some say over the composition of the team, and because of a friendly rivalry I had with someone, I put him as the alternate when he really should have been on the main team, and we probably would have gone further if he was on the team. I was also copy editor of the school newspaper, which seems helpful to being on a show about facts since you have to review everything for correctness.
How does it feel knowing you'll be returning to the show for the next Tournament of Champions as one of the year's best contestants?
GJ: It's incredible. When watching the show, I never thought I'd be on the level of the players who go on long runs and make the Tournament. I think part of it is a weird cognitive bias - if you see someone get a question you don't, you feel like you're not as good as them. Of course, what you don't see is when they don't know the questions you do know. This year's Tournament field seems like anyone could win to me, there aren't any players who won 20+ games, or anyone who is very well known in the trivia world (such as Yogesh Raut or Troy Meyer from the last Tournament). I am a huge nerd and I actually made a spreadsheet of everyone's stats this year, and no one really stands out from the pack. I've picked up some confidence from winning a bunch of games and I now think I have as good of a chance as anyone. Like most Jeopardy games between equally matched contestants, it's going to come down to buzzer timing, Daily Doubles, and Final Jeopardy.
This has obviously brought you some national notoriety -- are you finding that people recognize you out and about now?
GJ: Surprisingly yes! I suppose I have a bit of a distinct look due to the long hair, but I got recognized leaving my voting location last week, and I've already been recognized twice in the grocery store. As I mentioned above, there must still be more people that regularly watch Jeopardy than I thought!