Reilly’s Monopoly on Cockiness

Listen up, all you starving actors waiting for that big break: Mike Reilly has some advice for anyone tired of the old adage, “You just have to be in the right place at the right time.”

“You get so sick of hearing that,” Reilly commiserates. This is a guy who knows of what he speaks. A month ago, the 26-year-old actor from Florida was waiting tables in Orange County. Tonight, he makes his national TV debut as host of ABC’s Merv Griffin-produced “Monopoly”--a classic big break, which even Reilly calls amazing.

Reilly’s rise to potential game-show stardom came about after he appeared as a contestant on “Jeopardy!”--presumably to bolster his waiter’s salary. “I won Lee Press-on Nails and a canned ham,” he jokes. “No, actually, I took home some lovely parting gifts.”

Worth more than the camcorder and Nintendo set, though, was the impression Reilly made on the show’s producers, who asked him to come back as a contestant for the “Monopoly” pilot.

Reilly said he wanted to play host.

“To tell you the truth,” he says, “when Merv let me host the show that first time, he wanted to hang me because I was so cocky.”

Apparently, though, they liked Reilly’s cockiness and sense of humor. “If you give people the right energy, you can infuse the room with a mood,” he says of his ability as a host. “Of course, if we need an icebreaker, I can always drop my pants or something.”

Reilly insists that the events of the last few weeks haven’t changed him (“Don’t be deceived,” he says. “I was always cocky”), nor does he fear for his future or the future of the show. “With all the support they’re giving the show, it’s like playing for Notre Dame,” he says. “The only variable is me--I’m the only one who can screw up.”

As for that advice to other starving actors? “It’s true,” he says. “You just have to be at the right place at the right time.”