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While the UWM men's basketball team was fighting for a championship in the NCAA tournament back in March, UWM meteorologist intern Michael Falk was making some buzzer go off on his own in sunny southern California while participating in the "Jeopardy" Tournament of Champions.

To get to the Tournament of Champions, Falk had to do well on a regular show first. Back in March, Falk won $59,000 in a winning streak that lasted five days.

"I was a little nervous during the first game," Falk said, "but after that I relaxed."

Falk first auditioned for the show about a year ago in Madison. First there was a quiz to separate the believers from the achievers, and, once he passed, he participated in a mock show setup on a laptop and a projector. Nine months later, Falk received a phone call inviting him to the show.

Falk made a vacation of his appearance, spending six days absorbing the southern California sunshine and seeing firsthand just what Los Angeles was all about. The beauty of this arrangement was in the way "Jeopardy" films its shows. In one day they film five shows, the total time he was on the show.

After he returned home, Falk's mother-in-law wasn't convinced that he had done well.

"I wasn't too excited about it, so she thought I hadn't won anything," Falk said.

As is always the case with game shows (and national security) Falk had to keep quiet about the final results. Although I begged him to say how he had done, Falk declined to answer.

Luckily, celebrity status has not affected Falk.

"It has its benefits, but I was recognized in a restaurant once," Falk said. He also said that he received a letter from a female fan in St. Louis who liked his work.

With his winnings, Falk plans to pay off the student loans he accumulated while attending Iowa State University, where he received his bachelors degree in 2001 and his masters in 2004, and maybe a down payment on a house.

Would he ever compete in any other game shows? Probably not.

"Jeopardy is the Holy Grail of games shows," Falk said. Though a confessed geek when it comes to game shows, the allure of "Fear Factor" and "Deal Or No Deal" have no appeal to him. To a man of logic, "Deal" contestants seem far too insidious with their greed, but he can't help but watch; for "Factor", cockroaches aren't appealing enough.

Falk said that the inner workings of "Jeopardy" aren't what they seem. Off camera, host Alek Trebek likes to joke around with the camera crew, but when the cameras are rolling he is all business. Despite the fact that Trebek is Canadian-and naturalized in1998-it was almost impossible to tell, Falk said, "except for the way he pronounces some words, like literature."

When he isn't competing on or watching game shows, Falk likes to play basketball, participate in his church choir and practice his bass guitar. All this aside from his research on clouds, a part of a cog in a research machine designed to make weather forecasts better. Clouds are what he researches; no classes, just research of clouds.

This Wisconsin native has made his mark, and as far as he's concerned he's made enough to last him a lifetime. Life continues and those 15 minutes are nothing but memories, stories to be told to your grandchildren when they are interested enough.

The "Jeopardy" Tournament of Champions runs May 8 through the 19.

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