Hey everyone,
Just wanted to let you know how the American Idol auditions went in Cleveland. There's lots I could tell you about all of the crazy people there, but there's probably too much to say in one post. Let's just say, there were all kinds there. A lot of people could really sing, but there were quite a few hopelessly deluded types as well.
The line-up wasn't supposed to start until six in the morning the day before the audition, and I ended up getting there at about nine. There were already about 15,000 people in front of me. Apparently they lined up near the stadium days in advance. Anyway, it took until about 3:00 to get into the stadium. Then I finally got some lunch. Then we sat there for almost four hours while they tried to decide whether they would need to start the auditions that night, since they had about 20,000-25,000 people, the most they've ever had at a single audition. Instead, they told us we could go home if we wanted, (or camp out as most intended), but we needed to be back by 6:00 the next morning. I went back to my friend Jon's place and got some sleep.
I got back the next morning slightly before six, but it took forever to find parking. Then I had to park in a questionable space (which later netted me a parking ticket, but it wasn't too expensive). I sat in the stadium from 6:00 through 6:00 (12 hours), reading books, eating overpriced stadium food, and watching the thousands of people eventually get sorted through the auditions. There were 11 tents at the end of the football field, each with judges listening to contestants. It rained on and off through the day, but I was under the overhang below the upper section, so I stayed dry. I finished reading "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" and read most of "Ender's Game." I was incredibly tired, so reading was difficult. I kept falling asleep, but so did everyone else. At a few times during the day the mob got kind of angry when people started trying to sneak into the better sections of the crowd and audition early. That all got settled, though. Finally, after sitting until my bottom was both numb and sore at the same time (I didn't think that was possible), I got a chance to audition. I sang a section of "Desperado" by the Eagles. I sang it pretty well, although I was nervous. I was pretty happy with it. Unfortunately, I didn't go through to the next day's callbacks. They'd heard a lot of people that day, and they were sending through the super-amazing people and the totally awful people (makes for good television). Though we were all good singers in the group I auditioned with, they said the bar had been raised so high that they basically needed to want to go out and buy our albums right now, which unfortunately they didn't. They thanked us for coming, and that was that.
Overall, though, I had a really good time. There were so many interesting people at the auditions, and it was great to see what the show looks like from the other side. What's really interesting is that they are having some kind of audition right here in Iowa City later this month! It's a "regional audition" and not one of the big national ones, but somehow it still feeds into the regular competition (it might be harder to get through, though). I'm gonna try again, and this time I'm going to sing something that shows off my personality a bit more. Probably "Rubber Duckie."
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