Author: Mike Farley (Page 62 of 63)

Wow, how fast things are moving now that “American Idol” has shifted to Hollywood. Last week, 175 contestants began the second round of auditions and 76 were sent home. The 99 that remained had to do the thing that always separates the real talent from the wannabes: group competition. What this also tends to do is expose the jackasses, and this time around it was no different.

Jackass 1 and Jackass 2, otherwise known as twins Darrell and Terrell, were all over this show. Look, these guys can definitely sing, but the next American Idol is not going to be one that carries emotional baggage. These two have enough of said baggage to weigh down a 747. Terrell was all over his teammates, complaining to the camera that two of them were sleeping while he and one teammate rehearsed. Looked to me like they spent more time complaining than anything. Then, the two guys that were sleeping wound up going to the next round, and so did Terrell. Bear with me, it does get better.

So then later, his brother Darrell competes with his team and he is chosen to move on to the next round as well. Then, he decides to open up his mouth. “My spirit has been broken,” he said. “After how you treated my brother, I choose to leave the competition and go home to record with my brother.” Simon immediately said “Fine, go home.” Little did Darrell know that his brother had not been eliminated, so later on he had to go in front of the judges and eat crow. They eventually accepted his apology and let the jackass twins back in. But not before Simon let him know that he was “sick of the hissy attitude.” Simon and all of America, I can guarantee you that.

All night there seemed to be huge egos colliding. A girl named Tyra switched teams twice and seemed to cause trouble everywhere she went. But in the end, she made the right decision because the team she didn’t end up with kept forgetting their lyrics and were all eliminated.

Another hilarious bit was when cowboy Garrett and two of his cowboy friends were portrayed by the show’s producers as the cast of “Brokenote Mountain” and after they all were eliminated showed Garrett hugging his teammates and crying. Awwwww…..

Still shining through all the crap were three contestants I think everyone should keep an eye on. One is Paris Bennett….I think she’s only 17 but she has quite the pipes and a professional attitude to boot.
I’m predicting her as top 5 material right now. Mandisa (I don’t know if she even has a last name) can also belt it out, and I fully expect her to land in the top 12. Then my dark horse is that gray haired dude…..he’s got this Joe Cocker thing going on that just can’t be ignored.

The judges broke the remaining contestants into four groups, one of which was eliminated. So that left 44 contestants in all to compete for the final 24 spots–12 guys and 12 girls. And those will be determined tonight after solo acapella performances in front of the judges. Please please please judges, do us all a favor and send the jackass twins home.

We’re getting there folks…..it’s been a long ride already but it’s only just beginning to heat up. See you tomorrow….

“American Idol” finally made its way to Hollywood, as 175 lucky contestants from the grueling preliminary rounds across the nation reappeared and got to sing for Simon, Randy and Paula once again. But unlike the initial auditions, this time they had accompaniment in the form of a piano and backup singers. They also had to choose their song from a short list.

The first day, while half of the contestants auditioned, another half went sightseeing, so we got to see these folks walking around Hollywood and being awed by the Hollywood Bowl….I’m sorry, but BIG YAWN.

It was interesting to see how some of these performers fared on a bigger stage with backing musicians. Some of them excelled, while some left everyone (the judges, me, Mrs. Marley) wondering how they passed their first audition.

Kelly, the blond chick who was raised by her grandparents because her mom ran away and her dad is in prison, performed well enough to move on but wasn’t quite as dazzling as in her first audition.

Other highlights were the very young and very talented duo of Paris Bennett and Lisa Tucker…..watch these two, they are going to go really far in this competition.

Ladies man RJ got sent home, and so did the dude who hit on Paula in his first audition….both just didn’t have it this time. Ladies of Hollywood, you are now safe.

Taylor, the gray-haired dude from Birmingham, performed with Bo Bice-like power in his voice. This is another dude that can go far, but only if he makes it far enough for America to have any say. Simon clearly is not a fan of the gray.

The twins, Darrell and Terrell, made it to the next round but they were incredibly annoying for the remainder of the show whenever they got on camera. Um, dudes, we all know you were arrested recently so we know we’re not going to have to watch you much longer.

Also moving on to the next round was the “crying cowboy,” Garrett…..he got to see the ocean for the first time and when he got on stage to performed, proclaimed “holy crap.” He gets my vote just for that. He didn’t sing all that great, but I guess he was good enough to advance.

The show ended with “Crazy Dave”…..how this guy made it to Hollywood must have strictly been for ratings….either that, or Paula and Randy were drunk when they let him through. I distinctly remember Simon saying they were both nuts, and that was proven last night when he got sent home.

In all, 66 contestants were eliminated. We have a long way to go, but we’re finally separating the wannabes from the real talent. Next week things get interesting as the contestants have to perform in groups. That’s always fun to watch because there is peer pressure and the stakes are high.

See you next week….

Are you as tired of these “American Idol” auditions as I am? Seven cities, thousands of awful singers, a few good ones, and way way too much of Ryan Seacrest. Thankfully, last night’s Boston auditions were the final preliminaries before moving the party to Hollywood tonight.

Last night’s gems (that they showed anyway) included two basketball playing chicks. One is such a good athlete that she was awarded a scholarship to play at Boston College…..and she could sing too. Don’t you hate it when people have that much talent? Another basketball player moved on as her twin sister coached and cheered her on from the “sidelines”….the twin had ruptured a vocal cord and could not compete.

A chick with a mop on top of her head sang pretty good and kissed Randy Jackson’s ass enough to get through to the next round, despite Simon saying she looked like a “pet poodle.” Another kid that barely got through was 16 year old Kevin, a dorky looking dude who sang a lispy version of a Josh Groban song.

The ones that sucked were indeed the ratings grabbers again….it started with James, an Eminem clone who (get this) could not even pronounce the word “melodic.” Do some of these people go to school in someone’s bunghole? There was this chick immigrant who brought her vocal coach and claimed to be the “whole package”….always a red flag. She proceeded to begin a striptease while singing, errr, cracking her way through two songs. She was easily one of the worst singers any of us have ever heard.

This one chick sang Loverboy’s “Working For the Weekend” opera style. Enough said about that.

Another sang her own version of “M-I-C-K-E-Y”…..are you kidding me?

It only got worse though…..this dude named Kenneth sang Cher’s “Believe” and it was wrong on so many levels. For one, he took himself seriously and thought he was going to be the next Idol. Two, he sucked. Thirdly, he was a dude singing Cher and also admitted to singing Judy Garland songs. He then lashed back at Simon when Simon told him he should wear a dress and be a female impersonator. I mean, what did this jackass expect? Dude, you are not a dude in the sense of the word “dude”…live with it.

The final contestant they showed was a Clay Aiken look-alike who was annoying right from the start….he really couldn’t sing well, and then claimed it was because he had to pee. So they let the poor sap take a leak (cameras following him) and then he came back to sing one bar before Simon declared “ok, thank you.”

After a look back at the highlights and lowlights of the past seven episodes, the producers teased us with some of the Hollywood action that starts tonight. I’m just thankful that from here on out, the competition should heat up, as well as the love/hate relationship between all the judges. Oh, and of course more of that annoying Seacrest dude.

Readers, welcome to Hollywood.

Okay, so the sixth edition of the “American Idol” preliminary auditions were last night from Austin, Texas…..and with next Tuesday’s Boston auditions being the last of the first round, the end of this madness is finally in sight. From then on we will only get to see those with serious musical talent (okay, maybe not all of them have talent) and how they scratch and claw their way to continue on.

Last night started with a ballet dancer dude named Julian….need I say more? Yes, I need to….dude did a split right there and left me wondering if he might have a vagina in there….I mean, how could that not hurt???

Some of the other highlights were Jason, the funeral director who was surprisingly good….Ricky, who claimed “this is what I was meant to do” and actually backed it up with a solid audition….16-year old William, who looked like Fred Savage or a young Paul O’Neill….and RJ, who claimed to be a ladies’ man and who they showed flirting with chicks like it was his job. Lucky for RJ he had a good voice, but chicks in Hollywood, lock your doors.

The lowlights…well, how many weird things can we see that they haven’t shown us before? Plenty.
This chick named Paula was actually a Paula Abdul worshipper but looked like a hippie chick with a mouthful of metal…and the braces clearly affected her singing though she wasn’t good anyway.

There was this girl Alison from North Carolina who told everyone about her plane ride there….the plane had a defect and almost crashed, changing her whole outlook on life. Unfortunately for her, the experience didn’t mysteriously give her a voice…she auditioned twice (because the judges spotted her nerves) but wasn’t good both times.

Ashley, who is a “fit model”…meaning she tries on clothes before they’re sold in stores to make sure they are the proper size (or something stupid like that)……she had a very mediocre voice but it was clear that Simon thought she was hot. “I like you, but not your voice,” he said. A 2-1 vote got her through, and my wife was bitter about it. This is clearly someone who wont’ last long in the competition and who clearly will get hit on by that RJ dude.

There was a Randy Jackson look-alike who curiously sang a Phil Collins song and sucked…..and finally there was Tessie….she was extremely overweight and had these two thin hair braids coming down her face and was stuffed into these pink pants. She was a horrible singer, and when she didn’t move on told the judges they were making a big mistake. Uh, okay. Simon got the last laugh though, making this hilarious reference: “Can I get one more potato in that sack?”

These auditions are making me tired….thankfully Hollywood starts next Wednesday….till then, see you in Boston

Another episode of “American Idol” in the books, and this time they took the show to Vegas for the initial auditions. Seriously now, are these preliminary auditions ever going to end? The producers are getting good at showing us a few really good contestants and more of the crappy ones, which is really what we all want to see at this point, right?

Only 11 contestants made it to Hollywood this time…the ones they showed were 18 year old Mecca, a cute little belly dancer chick who had a great voice; Heather, a young black woman who sang “Redneck Woman”….a bit out of character it seemed, but she had a good enough voice; and Taylor, the dude from Birmingham who has been prematurely gray since he was 15, but had a killer gospel/blues type voice ala Ray Charles.

It’s always amusing to see the gimmicks people will come up with to get on the show….the first dude, Alexis a.k.a. “Dylon” was a rasta wannabe and as it turns out, a vocal wannabe.

Ryan, the kid who started his audition by saying “F–k Yeah,” was obviously just trying to get on TV…he sang/screamed Silverstein’s “Smash Into Pieces.” The best part was Randy Jackson impersonating him after the audition.

There was also Anthony, this very large man who said that he and his girlfriend take in stray animals, and currently have 75 of them. It wouldnt’ surprise me if he had 75 animals in his belly during the audition either. Oh, and he sang terribly.

The Pearson twins looked cute enough but their rendition of a Cranberries song was bizarre, turning their audition into what amounted to a bad Doublemint commercial.

Another of the strangest auditions ever was this Russian kid who was wearing an American flag shirt and sang “God Bless the USA”…..maybe he was happy to be here, but he sure was indignant after failing his audition, saying the judges did not make eye contact with him and that’s why he did not make it to Hollywood. He also claimed to have perfect pitch, which the judges set him straight on. Uh dude, you just plain sucked. Welcome to America.

Finally, the one I thought was good that the judges did not, was Jason, who has a day job as “Pepe,” taking tourists on fake Italian boat tours at a Vegas hotel. Randy, Paula and Simon…I’m sorry, that dude had a good voice…you just couldn’t see past his Pepe persona.

All in all, a bit uneventful compared to some of the other stops on the American Idol freak tour…..but just as I say that, I’m afraid of what tomorrow in Austin holds. See you then….