Who Is Nick Swezey?

THE WEEKLY STANDARD’s own Nick Swezey will be appearing on Jeopardy! tonight (check your local listings for show times). Nick is our advertising director, and by all accounts he has a freakish aptitude for worthless trivia. He filmed the show back in August, and despite repeated entreaties from myself and other staff members for a hint as to how he performed, we have no idea whether he embarrassed the magazine or employed shock and awe tactics on his way to a cakewalk victorry. I gave Nick some tips before he headed out there–I was on set to watch my brother in-law come in second in the 2002 teen tournament, suffering an historic collapse that resulted from a gaudy $20,000 wager on a Final Jeopardy question that left him stumped. You think you’re smarter than he is? If you wouldn’t have wagered $20,000 when you had a $19,000 lead, you’re right. But I doubt most 17 year-old kids could answer this question: On which famous American did James Fenimore Cooper base the character Natty Bumppo? (Hint: the only contestant to get the question right was Johnny ‘the machine’ Zhang from
Tennessee
Kentucky.) It’s all in the buzzer timing, I told Nick. But there are also a few secrets I can reveal. The first: avoid making eye contact with the Clue Crew babes. They loiter in front of the set and can prove a dangerous distraction to young, male contestants (or female contestants–it is LA). Second, as a contestant gets near a double jeopardy question, the camera crew has a tendency to prepare a shot of the player’s supporters–a dead give away that you’re getting close, though this may not be the case outside of the teen tournament, where family constitutes a large portion of the audience. In any event, if you too aspire to an appearance on Jeopardy!, you’ll want to keep this in mind. With this helpful advice, I’m confident our guy will represent us well tonight. I only hope he had the stones to make it a “true” daily double if he had the chance. So, for those who want a glimpse of the powerful intellect residing within the confines of THE WEEKLY STANDARD, tune in. To watch the video of Nick, click here, he’s at the bottom of the page. Update: My brother in-law Tyler writes in to correct the record. Zhang is from Kentucky, as was the American on whom Natty Bumppo was based–though Tyler adds that there is speculation that “some of the frontier accounts he wrote about actually took place in Kuwait.”