Comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer would make for a lousy guest on her new game show, "I've Got a Secret."
She can't keep a secret.
"I tell everything. People are always like, 'What's the one thing our readers would be surprised to know?' 'Nothing,' " she said on the eve of taping the first of 40 episodes of the show, which the Game Show Network is resurrecting. "I don't have that filter. I don't hold back very much at all. I am absolutely raw-skinned onstage."
But Westenhoefer is confident she'll make a fine panelist along with the three gay men tapped for the show, which begins airing in April.
When the producers went searching for panelists a year ago, they initially wanted all gay men.
"Then someone said there should be a lesbian. Then they came and got me. I'm the go-to lesbian," said the 44-year-old who was one of only a few openly lesbian comedians when she launched her career on a dare 15 years ago.
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"The whole point in having four permanent panelists is that, much like back in the '70s when you watched, like, Charles Nelson Reilly and Brett Somers, Richard Dawson and Fannie Flagg laughing on 'Match Game,' it was because they had a certain camaraderie. And that was just as much part of the show as the game."
The panelists will be trying to guess a contestant's deep, dark secrets. If they fail, the contestant goes home with a cash prize.
The original "Secret" ran from 1952 to 1967 and featured Garry Moore as the moderator and Steve Allen as the host. It followed a short but growing line of TV game shows, including the popular "What's My Line?" from which it took its biggest cues.
The Game Show Network is a natural home for the revised "Secret." The low-ratings-grabber cable station is devoted to all things game, from black-and-white gems to reruns of more recent shows.
Westenhoefer, who comes to Tucson's Rialto Theatre Friday, said she is hoping the show will shove open Hollywood doors that normally are opened only from the inside. Ever the realist, Westenhoefer believes success in Tinseltown is all about whom you know, not the talent you possess.
"It's usually very little about what you're doing. It's usually because somebody on the other side of that door has heard of you, or is your cousin, your lover," she said.
But lest you think she's all about eyeing the bigger prize, she quickly demurs that she's doing the show because "it's fun. It's a game."
Of course, her mother worries that Westenhoefer's very appearance on TV will incite war.
On the day after each of Westenhoefer's two other big TV appearances — 1991 on the "Sally Jessy Raphael" talk show and in 2003 on "The Late Show With David Letterman" — the United States went to war with Iraq.
Her mom phoned her after the second war broke out.
"Look what happens? Every time you go on television!" she chided her daughter.
"It's not me. I'm a huge pacifist," Westenhoefer responded.
Quick Take
Suzanne Westenhoefer in concert
When: 8 p.m. Friday
Where: Rialto Theatre
Tickets: $20-$25 through the Rialto, 740-1000
Family call: It's an all-ages show, but the language and topic matter are more adult-oriented.
