By Charlotte Underwood
LAFOLLETTE, TN. (WLAF)- LaFollette’s local Jeopardy! Champion Brian Henegar has started up his own game-show entertainment business Ceramic Dalmatian Entertainment and is available for bookings at church parties, conventions, corporate events and “really any type of place or event looking for a “game show style of entertainment.”
So, if you are looking for some unique fun entertainment this summer, give Henegar a call and book your next party or event.
Henegar said he has already done several paid gigs for the Elks Lodge in Knoxville and hopes to grow and expand his business, especially here locally.
Since he was young, Henegar has eaten, slept and breathed gameshows and gameshow trivia. That all panned out for him, having not one, but two Jeopardy! appearances. Henegar appeared on the 39th season of the popular trivia game show in April 2023 and eventually became a 3-day champion. He also participated in the 2024 Tournament of Champions, advancing to the semifinals.
His experiences and passion for gameshows have led him to start his own business to share that love with others.
“I got started doing this because ever since I was a little kid I’ve always loved game shows and always wanted to be a gameshow host. But my plan for all of this actually began in 2016. That was when I went to the trivia championship of North America in Las Vegas and met a bunch of my friends in real life for the first time,” Henegar said.
Through that experience and his own competition experience on Jeopardy! Henegar began hosting events at his work office.
He also said his “sister Katie has encouraged him the whole way, telling him that he could do it.”
“I started hosting Jeopardy events at work as parties and that led to me starting up Ceramic Dalmatian Entertainment. We did our first gig at the Elks Lodge in Knoxville in 2024, and it has been a success ever since,” Henegar said.
The name of his business, Ceramic Dalmatian Entertainment, is actually, sort of an inside joke in the gameshow world, according to Henegar.
“If you used to watch Wheel of Fortune back in the 1980s, you know that you didn’t actually win money. The score that you had, you used to purchase prizes at the end of each round, so you would say like ‘I’ll take the dinette set for $685’. Well, one of the prizes offered a lot was a ceramic statue of a Dalmatian. It’s sort of became the unofficial mascot of the Wheel of Fortune crew, and it’s always on the set of the cameras, apparently, they’ve named it “Sheldon”. Well, it’s sort of became a running gag among us game fanatics, and so the ceramic dalmatian is one of those iconic game show prizes that has taken on the life of its own among us game show nerds,” Henegar said.
He got to actually see the iconic ceramic Dalmatian up close and personal when he was at Sony for the Tournament of Champions. They have one under glass in a small museum at the Wheel of Fortune studio.
If you book Ceramic Dalmatian Entertainment for your event, Henegar will come to your place and with the equipment that he has, and he will “set up a live game show experience.”
“Thanks to friends of mine who have been helping me, I have access to a bunch of different game shows that I’m able to host and the beauty is I can tailor the game to whatever it is you’re looking for! If you want general knowledge trivia, I can do that, if you want stuff that’s just related to music or TV trivia or sports. I can provide that as well. Every event that I’ve hosted, people have been raving about it saying how much fun it is and how it really feels like a real game show. I can do events at conventions, corporate gatherings, church, meetings, or private functions,” Henegar said.
You can get in touch with Henegar by texting him at 423-912-0430, or you can email him at BrianH_J@yahoo.com.
(WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED 6/6/2025-6AM)
