Salisbury resident 'beaten at the buzzer' on 'Jeopardy!'

Sep. 23—SALISBURY — Melissa John Guisti had been dreaming about becoming a contestant on the "Jeopardy!" TV game show for the past 20 years and she finally got her chance last month.

Unfortunately for her, she ended up competing against a 27-game champion — Yale University computer science doctoral candidate Matt Amodio — and had to settle for second place.

"I got Amodio-ed," she said. "He really is a machine. I just couldn't beat him to the buzzer."

John Guisti, a 42-year-old corporate attorney, initially auditioned to appear on the syndicated game show about five years ago but didn't make the cut. She tried again in July and found herself on the Culver City back lot by late August.

"I did my best and it really was a wonderful experience," she said. "It was just a lot of fun to be there."

But, as always, dreams meet reality and the Beach Road resident finished the game in second place to Amodio with $6,600 but would only end up taking home the customary $2,000 second-place prize.

"I'm glad I won the $2,000 because it covered my expenses," she said.

John Guisti is an avid reader — she dreams of one day opening a book/wine shop called Gone with the Wine. She does The New York Times crossword puzzle every day and said she has been watching "Jeopardy!" for most of her life.

The episode in which she competed aired Tuesday, which was only the second segment of the current season and Amodio was already a holdover.

"I was watching him last season thinking, 'Oh God, please lose, please lose.' Then, I ran into him," she said.

The game's episodes are taped five at a time and are pretty much done so in real time, according to John Guisti.

"It's like your wedding day," she said. "You are preparing for it for so long and then it is over in a flash. Then, you are sitting there saying, 'Now what? What do I do next?'"

Geography is, in many ways, the trick to absorbing trivia, she said.

"You can usually learn the answers by the countries that they give you," she said. "For instance, if they say something like a Norwegian composer, you know it's going to be Grieg."

John Guisti also said she found a unique approach to practice working the game buzzer.

"Most people say that the best object to practice on is a toilet paper roll holder. That is the same size as the buzzer and you can press that button at the top," she said. "But I couldn't bring myself to hold a toilet paper roll holder in my hand for a half an hour. So I ended up practicing with a pen instead. Maybe, that was my downfall."

As a contestant, she had to keep mum about her experience for almost a month after the show was taped but she is now getting Facebook friend requests from prior "Jeopardy!" contestants.

"We have an I Survived Matt Amodio Club," John Guisti said. "But I really was overwhelmed by all the response when the show aired. In fact, I had to shut my computer down for a while."

Although her "Jeopardy!" tenure was short-lived, John Guisti said she is proud to have competed on a show that her grandfather watched every night.

Staff writer Jim Sullivan covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News. He can be reached via email at jsullivan@newburyportnews.com or by phone at 978-961-3145. Follow him on Twitter @ndnsully.