If you’re a student at MLHS, chances are you’ve seen one of our history teachers, Mr. Hoffman, around the halls. Or maybe you’ve bumped into him around town. In this article, you’ll get to know a younger member of the Hoffman household: Mr. Hoffman’s son, Phil. A member of the MLHS class of 2010, Phil has been quite busy since he walked across the graduation stage. Most recently, he was a contestant on one of America’s favorite game shows, Jeopardy!, winning an impressive two nights. I spoke to Phil via Zoom a few days ago about this experience, and here’s what he had to say.
Which teacher or class at MLHS was most impactful for you?
That’s a good question… I guess you could say I’m sort of following in my dad’s footsteps right now. I’m getting a Ph.D. in history, so I loved the history classes that I took at Mountain Lakes High School. I took Modern European History with Mr. Ziccardi — that was great. I took AP Euro with Mr. Sánchez, AP U.S. with Mr. Cosgrove, and World Cultures with Mrs. Connors. And they were all interesting looks at a lot of different areas of history. It’s always been a passion of mine and has kind of led me to an interesting career.
Did you watch Jeopardy! as a kid, or was it something you started watching later?
Yeah, so we watched it a lot as a family. It was definitely either before or after dinner and a nice way to relax at the end of the day.
How does your dad feel that you made it onto the show and he didn’t? As I’ve been told, he has tried…
Laughter. Yeah, he did mention that… but, yeah, he’s been really proud and supportive. It’s been a fun experience for the whole family.
So then who’s really the best at trivia in the Hoffman household?
Laughter. I think it depends on how good of a night I’m having and how good of a night my dad is having.
You were on Jeopardy! for three nights. How did you prepare?
Before I went on the show, I didn’t try to study content. The questions are so broad that I felt like it would be a very hard thing to study for. What I did do was put myself in the mindset of having to buzz in when you see the end of the question. I watched the show for years. I knew how the format went, but I hadn’t prepared myself to be standing on that stage. As soon as the host finishes reading the last syllable of the question, you have to immediately buzz in. I basically clicked a ballpoint pen in time with the host’s cadence. I just found old episodes on Netflix and watched a few a day.
How many times did you try to get on Jeopardy! and how many times did your dad try to get on?
Well I can’t answer for my dad, but I think he’s taken the online test a few times. I took it once or twice in high school — I was really gung-ho about it. And then I think I took it once while I was in college. That was six or seven years ago. And then over this summer, like a lot of people, I was just kind of bored at home so I thought, why not?
How did the studio feel without Alex Trebek?
Pretty much everyone who’s worked on the show — the producers, the crew — they’ve done this for fifteen or twenty years. So they were all used to working with Alex, and they all had a pretty good relationship with him. So you could tell, people were still pretty upset about this. He died at the end of October, and I taped in the middle of December. But I think Ken Jennings did a really good job. He was the guest host on my episodes.
On the show, you talked about your time as a ringmaster in Jordan. Now we have to bring that up: what was that like?
That was part of my time that I spent in Amman, Jordan. I moved there after finishing my undergrad in the fall of 2014 and lived there until the fall of 2016. I found out that a large toy store was holding a grand opening, and they wanted an English-speaker to play a ringmaster. I think I have pictures floating around somewhere…
After your third Final Jeopardy question, how do you feel about figure skating?
After that show, there’s some random facts that I’ll never forget. You have thirty seconds to come up with something, the music’s ticking, and you’re under the lights. It’s really hard to think like that.
What really goes on during commercial breaks?
Sometimes they have to reshoot little bits of audio. So the commercial breaks are as long or as short as it takes them to do all that.
If you could choose the categories, what would they be?
They would be very obscure categories. I worked for a while in the humanitarian aid field, and now I’m getting a Ph.D. in history, so I guess historical theorists, UN agencies. Things that relate to my life.
If you could choose anyone to host Jeopardy!, who would you choose?
Ooooh, see that’s a tough question. Let me think about that. I’m going to pick someone who isn’t in the running at all: Trever Noah. He has a fun stage presence; he’s super quick. He would be great during the interviews.
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