“ALEX BRAUN, COME ON DOWN!” During his sixteenth time as a Price is Right studio audience member, “Queen of Camp” Alex Braun finally heard those thrilling words. He was in Los Angeles in February, the day before the show’s 10,000th taping, along with a group of fellow superfans.
“With The Price is Right, they interview everyone in line for 10-30 seconds,” Braun says. “Hannah, who interviewed us, remembered us superfans, and I think I had some extra juice in me that morning. Let’s just say in the audience warmup, George Gray tells us if you hear your name, your mind will blank out. He wasn’t lying.”
I dubbed Braun “The Queen of Camp” in 2014 because of his love of kitschy decor, vintage vacuum cleaners (he refers to fellow members of the Vacuum Cleaner Collector’s Club as “vac heads”), posts about his job at Kmart (he partied with his decades-older female coworkers, which he dubbed, “The Gals O’ Kmart”), and especially because of his love of game shows. His personalized license plate, “O-Vanna,” was in honor of Vanna White, and he even read dishy books about game shows (who knew there was such a genre?). Over brunch, Braun delivered his favorite line from “Barker’s Beauties” alum Kathleen Bradley’s tell-all: “I’ve sucked your dick too many times to start kissing your ass now!”
Braun has been a contestant on three other game shows, including Wheel of Fortune, and is among Vanna White’s biggest fans.
Vanna White and Alex Braun in 2019. Courtesy of Alex Braun.
“I was on vacation in LA in 2019 and saw two days of Wheel tapings,” Braun says. “I brought my O-Vanna license plate for her to sign, which she did and posed for a photo that hangs in my living room. In between shows she filmed a promo for the Care to Learn gala in Cape Girardeau, that she was a special guest at. Turns out her son Nikko lived in Cape, and I bought my ticket.”
Attendees could bid on having a private lunch with Vanna White, and with several superfans present, the bidding was intense. “$5100 later it was mine!” Braun says. The two have been in regular contact since. She has even invited Braun to visit her dressing room when he was there for a taping.
One of my first memories is jumping up and down in front of the television during the opening of Price is Right. The lights, the music, the thunderous applause, the exuberant audience, and of course, the announcer saying, “Come on down!” Seeing our own “Queen of Camp” on television will be the closest I’ve gotten to that level of game show excitement since.
Watch Braun run down the aisle Wednesday on CBS stations, or on the Paramount+ app.
