Posted by Todd Schiele in Community

Deal or No Deal.  Dave Atherton, a piper, a Master Bagpipe Maker, a professional guitarist, a body builder, a Bob Dunsire forum member, a New Yorker.  Now the holder of the title ”highest paid piper for a single performance”?

Probably.  I had heard about his appearance on the show last week on the Bob Dunsire Forums, but forgot to watch from the beginning, because I don’t usually watch it.  I ran across it last night, right at the point where Dave was being offered $81,000.00 for his selected briefcase.  That was probably the most intense 3 or 4 minutes of television I’d seen in a long time.  He fought hard with the decision to take “the deal” and go home with 81,000.00.  As it turned out, Dave had picked the 1,000,000.00 briefcase and “could have” won it all….but he’s happy with the results.  From his comments on the BD Forums, he literally had $48.00 in his savings account when he left home to go tape the show last February. 

From Dave on Bobdunsire.com:

“Everything you saw was real there is no script or anything like that.  As for the ending ……
I have no idea what cases I was going to pick.  Anything after the button gets pushed isn’t reality. Had I gone on and knocked out even one more high amount the offer was going to drop. Had I knocked out the million, it would have plummeted. I had zero intention of going to the end, as most who do wind up with bupkus. It was a very tough decision but the right one for my wife and I.  When my wife and I left New York for California to do the taping, I had literally $48.00 in my svaings account. You don’t tempt a poor man with 81K….I’ve seen the game turn sour real quick and I was determined not to go home broke!  81,000 dollars WILL change my life dramatically, and in the end that’s all that matters.
      When I first came out on stage I got a standing ovation so you could barely hear the pipes and I couldn’t either.  They gave me literally about 3 seconds to tune up and start walking. Luckily the pipe was going great.

A trip to California, 81 grand, and the title of “highest paid piping performance of all time”, ain’t too shabby.”

What a genuine character, he did a beautiful job representing the bagpiping community, and reportedly played the Deal or No Deal theme song on his bagpipes as he entered the stage to HUGE crowd reaction. Congrats to him for his success!

Some more info from this story in the Iowa Globe Gazette:

MASON CITY — Dave Atherton may be breaking new ground on tonight’s showing of NBC-TV’s game show, “Deal or No Deal.”

You see, not many contestants show up in a kilt.

Atherton, husband of former Mason City and Charles City resident Niki Mead Atherton, will be one of three contestants on the popular show. It will air at 7 p.m. and run two hours.

…
On the show, hosted by Howie Mandel, a contestant is presented with 26 sealed briefcases, each representing cash in amounts ranging from 1 cent to $1 million. The contestant picks one but the amount isn’t revealed.

The contestant must eliminate remaining cases, which are opened and the cash value revealed. With successive openings, the contestant must consider an offer of cash for what might be contained in the contestant’s briefcase.
…
Dave Atherton, said Crooks, is also a respected electric guitar player who has recorded two CDs.

Dave’s website is here: http://www.davespipes.com/

He’s featured on this guitar CD as well:  “The Gods of Shred” 

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