Story and photos by Oscar Daniel Jimenez Iniguez
Right before Thanksgiving break, Otter Media hosted “Game Show,” a live event filmed in front of an audience where students and staff participated in game shows inspired and based on popular television game shows from the 1970s.
The first game based on the hit game show “Wheel of Fortune” titled Wheel of Faculty, saw faculty members at California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB) participating in an Otter Media rendition of the classic game with a twist.
The second game, Fraternity Feud, took direct inspiration from “Family Feud” where instead of families competing, it was Fraternities and Sororities facing each other head-on in a brotherhood versus sisterhood battle.
JepOTTERdy, the third and final game of the night was played solely by participants chosen from the audience just like the longtime running game show “Jeopardy.”
Throughout the entirety of Game Show, the audience – which typically had between 20-30 members – participated and created an energetic and lively atmosphere with their awes, laughter, applause, gasps and occasional boos. The set for Game Show, along with the graphic design incorporated into the games made for a nostalgic and grand centerpiece to the already 1970’s inspired feel of the event.
Third-year Isabella Voskanyan and second-year Jaelynn Diokno worked on the set, with Diokno and second-year Skye Harrop putting on the designs.
Kah’maurie Norwood, host of Game Show and treasurer for Otter Media, delivered a charismatic and infectious performance. Despite feeling nervous at first, Norwood was proud of his performance but was more proud and even astonished by those who put on the event.
“The craziest part of this whole event is that it is student-made down to the bone. It was student-directed, the music we had was made by a student,” said Norwood. “Everything down to the tiniest detail was made by the students. Even the stands were packed with students.”
The notion of the event being entirely student-led was carried on by Game Show director and production manager for Otter Media, Micah Stamps.
“This event in every single step of the way was 100% produced by the students of CSUMB. And that is a huge thing coming out of the pandemic to be able to do something like that,” said Stamps.
Both Norwood and Stamps felt as if the administration has not believed in students and their voices as of recently, so they wanted this event to show that students can accomplish great things.
“There is a lot of talk about students not being ready and able to handle something on such a big scale. We believe that this event not only proves that students can do something like this but opens up the possibility for other students to do something like this,” said Norwood.
“A student-led project like this shows to the administration that we are more than just a couple of 20-year-olds screwing around. Regardless of the topic, when we can organize like this it gets noticed and it gets recognition. The whole way through production we had a lot of faculty and administration keeping tabs and wanting to know about the project, but not wanting to step foot in it because there is this attitude on campus right now that students just don’t know what they are doing,” said Stamps.
“I hope that this project reverses that and gets a lot more attention on students, and gets student voices heard more because it’s very important,” Stamps continued. “Recently I feel like we have been waking up to and realizing that we need to have our student voice heard, and so this project is arguably helping in that ability for students to be able to speak and be taken seriously.”
The recording of Game Show will be available soon on Otter Media’s YouTube channel [ottermedia].
