MARSHALL – A local boy, Marshall High School class of ’96 Joe Mulder, will appear on this show Monday. What is “Jeopardy!”?

Mulder now lives in Los Angeles, where he has lived for almost 20 years. He works for a firm that does closed captioning for movies and television. His wife, Karen, and he have two daughters, Anna, 10, and Daphne, 7.

Mulder, the son of Gail Ahern of Oklahoma, and Dr. Steve Mulder of Hutchinson, said appearing on the game show has been on his bucket list for a long time. He has been a fan of “Jeopardy!” since he was a teenager – “I’ve always been a trivia nerd,” he said.

He has auditioned for the show for the past 14 years. He has taken the online qualifying test every year and has been asked to interview in person five or six times. Mulder said he believes “100,000 take the test and then it gets whittled down to 400 spots a year. They randomly select certain people.”

Mulder was first selected to be an alternate.

“They pick a local contestant to be a backup in case someone doesn’t show,” he said.

Five shows are produced in one day. Host Alex Trebek takes questions from the audience during commercials, Mulder said. Mulder was honored to be able to appear with the iconic host, he said.

“He’s very pleasant,” he said. “An absolute pro.”

Another tidbit that Mulder gleaned from being on the show is that the show’s longtime announcer, Johnny Gilbert, is in his 90s. He will turn 92 next month.

“He’s known for saying, ‘This… is… Jeopardy!'” said Mulder.

Mulder taped his segment last March. He received a call from the show on a Wednesday night to see if he could appear the next morning after someone else couldn’t make it.

He had to scramble to get ready and let his employer know he wouldn’t be at work.

“It was a whirlwind,” he said.

His wife and Anna were able to sit in the audience. At age 7, Daphne was too young – “and she didn’t care anyway,” Mulder said.

Anna thought it was cool though, he said.

“We watch it at home together and she was able to answer a music question that I didn’t know,” he said.

Music is one of his weaknesses. His strengths are history, sports and pop culture.

“Jeopardy!” isn’t Mulder’s first game show appearance. In 1999, he was on “Win Ben Stein’s Money,” which was co-hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. Mulder wrote an essay for the Independent about his experience. Mulder used to work in the summers in the sports department of the Independent.

“I would write about the Milroy Yankees – this and that – whatever was needed,” he said.