When Dorothy Dutra and Edward “Tiny” Alconcel finally got their spin at “Wheel of Fortune,” they both came to the same conclusion: It’s not as easy as it looks.

Their appearance last week on a taped episode of the national TV game show was a money-maker for the Kaua’i residents and their siblings who teamed with them. Nerve-wracking, too.

“Oh, yeah, you’re nervous. Only half your brain works,” Alconcel said. “At home on your couch, you think there’s nothing to it. But it’s totally different up on that stage, in front of the crowd and with (hosts Pat Sajak and Vanna White) there.”

Dutra learned that “you have to concentrate and not get distracted by the audience.”

She and her sister, Alice Walters of Honolulu, concentrated really well. They walked away the winners with $44,880 in prize money, half apiece.

“Exhilarating. Magical. Exciting. Hilarious. It was all those things and more,” said Dutra, who’s been reliving the experience for her customers at Kaua’i Government Employees Federal Credit Union in Lihu’e.

After learning that “Wheel” was coming to Hawai’i for a week’s worth of shows, Dutra and Walters and Alconcel and his brother, Arnold, who lives on Oahu, applied for and were invited to auditions in Waikiki. They made it through two tryouts, which Alconcel said were more relaxing than playing the game for real.

“They told us the looser we acted, the better our chances of getting onto the show,” said Alconcel, who split $13,000 in winnings with his brother once they got there.

Sajak and White “were nice — very down to Earth” despite their celebrity, Alconcel related.

Alconcel, an electronics salesman for the Sears store at Kukui Grove Center, and Dutra were regular watchers of “Wheel of Fortune” before their appearances. Now they’re even bigger fans. And Dutra has the TV game-show participant bug.

“I’d do it again,” she said. “There’s Jeopardy. And Hollywood Squares.”

Editor Pat Jenkins can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 227) and mailto:pjenkins@pulitzer.net