If you can find a home board-game version of your favorite game show, buy it and play it with your family and friends. You can also get a computer game version of Jeopardy. Sure, you might be able to ace your favorite game show when you're sitting in your easy chair, in front of your TV set in the comfort of your own home. But when you're standing in front of a live studio audience, under bright, hot lights, with a camera pointed in your face, and 10 million people watching your every move, the adrenaline starts flowing, and it's a whole other story. Be sure to speak up, producers hate it when people mumble or speak so softly that they can't be heard clearly.
All producers love happy contestants who look like they're having a good time.
Most of their contestants come from L.A., and the producers realize that these Los Angeles residents can always come back at some later date to be on the show - so they tend to take locals for granted. But they'll go out of their way to accommodate a visitor from another state so that they can get the widest representation of the nation at large. Getting to L.A. is up to you. Read the rules on the contestant application form when they give it to you. Study these rules, and stick to them.