“Let’s…Make…A…Deal!” Those are the iconic words that Draper resident David Wright will never forget, after he and his friends embarked on a California road trip to be studio audience members on the popular game show.

“We wanted to go on a trip before school started,” said Wright, 22, currently a sophomore at BYU. “My friend’s fiancé lives in Corona, Calif., so we thought it would be fun to try and get on a game show.”

Wright and his friends showed up for the taping in August and discovered they needed costumes, one of the funnier antics the popular game show is known for.

“We only had our Sunday dress shirts and ties,” Wright said. “So, we dressed up as a boy band and named ourselves The Provo All-Stars.”

The LDS returned missionary, who grew up in Draper in a family of 13, drew some attention for his charisma during the preshow interview, after he discovered one of the game show’s staff was from Lehi.

“Yeah, I tried to get her number,” Wright said with a chuckle.

After Wright was specifically escorted to an aisle seat, he knew something was up.

“During the breaks they would have dance parties…I love to dance…we were letting it all out,” Wright said. “Then halfway through the show, Wayne Brady randomly picked me to stand up and asked me to dance. I was freakin’ out.”

Brady is the new host of the iconic game show in which audience contestants are picked at random to try and win cash or prizes by making certain choices, hoping not to get undesirable items, referred to as “zonks” by choosing incorrectly.

“He asked four contestants to stand up,” Wright said. “You could choose or pass between four prizes, and one of them was a zonk. The lady before me picked the zonk, so I figured my chances were pretty good. Then Wayne pulled out a silver envelope and said I could open it or pass.”

Wright turned to his friends and they encouraged him to open the envelope, which contained a $4,000 check to Target.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Wright said. “I’d never seen that much money on paper before.”

Wright and his friends agreed to split the winnings if any of them were lucky enough to take home a cash prize.

“My friends were a big part of it—I was just lucky to be chosen,” Wright said. “We all agreed to give a bit more to two of our friends who are getting married in December.”

When the game show officially aired in November, Wright ended up watching it with his parents in Brazil.

“I originally thought the show was going to air in December and had already gotten tickets to visit my parents while they were serving as mission presidents in Brazil,” Wright said. “We ended up finding it online.”