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In preparation, Berke had lined up
five people for the show's phone-a-
friend "lifelines." Berke's father
Michael is an obstetrician/gynecolo-
gist, so he was set to help with a med-
ical question. Michael was waiting at
home in Bloomfield Hills during the
hours of taping, being kept company
by Alisa's father, Stuart Bas of West
Bloomfield, who is a pharmacist, and
a friend who is an astronomy buff (to
cover any science-related question).
Second on Berke's list was Serlin,
should there be a question on general
trivia, literature or music. His friend
Mark Bordelove of West Bloomfield
was third on the list. "There is not any-
one in the world who knows more
about sports trivia than Mark," Berke
says. Berke's uncle Jeff Piell in Chicago,
a Harvard Law School graduate, was
fourth on the list, to cover any legal,
political or pop-culture questions. The
fifth phone-a-friend was Rabbi David
Nelson of Congregation Beth Shalom
in Oak Park, to help with any biblical
questions.
But with all this brainpower
behind him, Berke never made it past
the "fastest-finger" round.
The 10 contestants ran through
numerous trial runs of the "fastest-
finger" competition, in which they
must rank four items in correct
order in the shortest period of time.
"I did really well during the
rehearsal," says Berke. In fact, he
answered the trial questions correctly
more than once.
But the questions asked during the
actual taping were tougher for Berke.
He couldn't rank poets by the years
they were alive. He confused two his-
toric milestones in women's history,
and he was unfamiliar with the nick-
names of famous female performers,
so he couldn't rank them by their ear-
liest "hits."
Berke had three opportunities to
reach the hot seat — "but I had no
idea on two of the three questions,
so there was no way I could have
gotten them correct. I just started .
guessing."
While disappointed, Berke remains
optimistic. "Contestants can be on
the show two times in two years, or
once a season," he says. "As long as
you don't make it to the 'hot seat',
you can try again in a different sea-
son." And he is glad to have the expe-
rience under his belt, so he won't be
as nervous should he make it to New
York again.
Berke's appearance on Who Wants
to Be A Millionaire aired Nov. 21. ❑