X Almost Marked the Spot

It’s been years since I performed on the Music Circus stage but I got a chance to get up there and own it again for about 60 seconds.

On a whim, I auditioned for Simon Cowell’s X-Factor. Well, it was actually a local promotional contest, a preliminary audition of sorts, for a chance at winning a paid trip to Seattle for the real auditions. I’d only heard about it the day before so needless to say, it was very last minute. I chose a song that I had in my back pocket since there wasn’t much time to prepare. Coming from a musical theater background, knowing that the auditions were being held at Music Circus, and knowing that showtunes are/were my strength, I went with High Flying Adored from the musical Evita. I figured someone from Music Circus would likely be a judge on the panel (I was right).

I admit, when I arrived, I almost decided to turn back. I hate long lines. And this was a huge cattle call. 200 pre-registered contestants were guaranteed an audition and the rest of us would have to wait in line to see if we’d have a spot. The organizers were expecting 1000s to turn out but one look at the line and I could tell there were only a few hundred when I got there. So, what the hell? I stuck around and got in line.

There were a bunch of interesting people in line. They were all very nice and their egos were surprisingly in check. No bigger-than-life divas. Of course there was the one guy, you know that guy, who kept singing his song over and over and over again and over some more and mugging for every camera.  But even he was a nice guy just trying to enjoy himself.

On a side note, I have to give a big shout out to the guy who works at Starbucks across the street from the Wells Fargo Pavilion. He came to our line and took orders from everyone who needed a coffee or tea. He didn’t even take your cash until he brought your order. He showed initiative and business sense. It was a chilly early morning, people probably didn’t even have their coffee yet, and we were a captive audience. Starbucks probably made at least an extra $500 that day because that guy brought the product to us . If that guy’s not already the manager of that location, he will be soon. And if he ever moves on from Starbucks, something tells me he’ll do awesome at whatever job he lands.

Getting back to the audition process, there were basically 2 rounds. Round 1 determined whether you got a finalist pass. If you made it through, then you had to sing again in Round 2 with all the other finalists. From that finalist group, the 4 winners were chosen. 30 seconds into my song in Round 1, I received my finalist badge.  I heard that the woman who handed it to me was repping Music Circus.  Cool.

All the finalists then had to go up one by one and sing on the main stage of Music Circus for about 60 seconds or more.  The judges were actually very nice and professional doling out compliments to those singers who blew them away and constructive feedback for those who didn’t.  After hearing them give feedback to about 30 or so singers, I knew right away what they were looking for.  I got a nice little compliment but could tell they weren’t feeling the love for Evita.  I don’t blame them, musical theater isn’t exactly mainstream unless you’re a Gleek.  (Hmmm, guess I auditioned for the wrong show.)

Obviously, I wasn’t one of the winning 4 but there was so much talent in the finalist pool.  For the most part everyone who made it to the finals deserved to be there.  There was noone over-the-top horrible like you see on TV like on American Idol.  So if you were wondering whether Sactown was repped well, rest assured, it was.

The winners were really fantastic but I would’ve liked to have seen the judges balance out the diversity a little bit more in terms of ethnicity, age, and musical style.  All were ethnic with at least two of them being African-American and they were pretty young.  Bravo for choosing ethnic minorities but it would’ve been nice to have some different musical styles up there.  It was surprising to not see any white singers win!  I mean, that’s a first.  There were some good white singers there, too, young and old.  Plus there were some really strong Asian American singers there (and no I’m not just talking about me).

It was a fun time, though. The whole thing was run very well by the organizers and volunteers.  Big thanks to all of them for putting this together and running it like a well-oiled machine.  It was nice to know that after all these years, I can still belt out a tune.