S15.E03: Auditions #3

[MarkHB]

Ryan and the judges continue their search for talent as auditions continue in Philadelphia.

[rustyspigot]

Well, that last pre-audition story escalated quickly. Yikes.

 

Kind of boring otherwise. Quirky Drew Barrymore Jr. was alright, but that schtick gets old fast.

 

Guy with lecherous grandpa had a catchy song, but he was annoying.

 

Clay was... there.

 

Can that Bieber haircut just die already?

[Quickbeam]

I hate that weird young man's comb over they do. It looks so stupid.

Really poor use of Clay. He's pretty funny so let's just waste that opportunity.

I really liked the very fair haired girl who sang Radioactive. She did seem high though.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

And.....we start with two more 15 year olds. Great. Although I will give the first girl credit for not melisma-ing HOTRS to death. She more or less sang it straight with a good but not necessarily interesting voice.

Isaac Bieber can go. The freaking Chicken girl from last week had a better voice.

Sarah Sturm is bubbly, and not much else. Jenn sounded exactly like what I assumed a Brooklyn transplant nanny with a spacey personality would sound like. AI and her didn't let me down.

Original song kid reminded me of Nick and Grandpa Don from Amazing Race. His latin rythmns made me mildly intrigued to see him again in Hollywood which is saying a lot for tonight's episode...typical of many 60 minute auditions where the show seems to play their "talent" cards deliberately close to the vest, minus the final contestant.

Wow, what a tragic and preventable backstory on him. Has anyone seen him in Matilda? He has to be more than yet another WGWG, right?

Edited January 14, 2016 by PhD-Purgatory15

[mojoween]

I can't even come up with any superlatives for how much I absolutely hated Jenn with two n's voice.

I rocked out to Brenda K. Starr many a time in the ninth grade. Her daughter is way cute.

[LotusFlower]

"We were always extremely safe with the guns in the house." Apparently not. It's too bad he blames himself for his brother's death, since it wasn't him who kept loaded guns in a house with young kids. He looked and sounded too much like Nick Fratiani, which might be a good thing because Nick won last year, or a bad thing, since I had to look the name up online to remember the name of last year's winner!

[BogoGog24]

This had to be one of the worst, if not the worst, audition episode ever. I remember reading some months ago that the judges said Philly was very underwhelming in terms of talent. So many people went through in this episode simply to fill a quota, not because there was any real talent. 

 

My take on each person:

 

1. Daughter of Brenda K. Starr - Can we stop with the 15 year olds already? Most of them are nowhere near ready yet and I don't think they're going to become stars. This girl was decent and maybe deserved a ticket but she's not going to win. If her mother wasn't who she is, I don't think her audition would have even been shown.

 

2. Country Justin Bieber - He seems like a nice kid and has lots of potential... in a few years. Why did Keith say he wasn't ready but put him through anyway? They only picked him because he's teeny bopper bait. Daniel Seavey 2.0. He's going to get eaten alive in Hollywood. Harry needs to shut the hell up with this "You can't sing with an accent if you don't talk with one" when Keith is sitting right there. Dude is from effing Australia and sings with a twang. I agree with the sentiment but he literally says this to just about every country singer not from the south and it's highly insensitive of him to say it with Keith sitting there. Shut up!

 

3. Eggs Girl - She had a different voice than I expected her to and she was decent for being 17. But still not overly impressed by her. She's not superstar/winner material.

 

4. Quirky Girl - Her voice sounds naturally quirky like all those singer/songwriter chicks try to have but don't. Good voice but there's something seriously off about this one. Was she high? I'm surprised the judges didn't talk about it, either while she was there or after she left. She was definitely under the influence of something. 

 

5. Guy with grandpa - His original song is quite catchy but I didn't notice anything outstanding about his voice. And his personality could get old real quick. One of those guys who thinks he's hotter than he really is. 

 

6. Guy who shot his brother - At first I was like "So what?" about his backstory, thinking it was just another brother who died from an illness, accident, or whatever, then when he revealed how it happened, I just felt terrible for him. That must be such an awful thing to bear for the rest of your life. And while he wasn't absolutely outstanding, I didn't get the judges hemming and hawing over putting him through. He's clearly a professional, being a Broadway actor, and was easily the best of the night, and hello, an adult for once! He clearly would have at least the experience and maturity to enter this competition, did the judges seriously say they didn't know if he could compete with "the rest"? You mean the rest of the other crap you put through? I don't buy the whole "I don't know if he can transition from an actor to this", Adam Lambert was also a Broadway actor before Idol and he did just fine. Shut up. They did it for the drama and no other reason. 

 

The joke auditions were a fun throwback to the old seasons of Idol but also pretty stupid and a waste of time that could have been spent on actually talented people who made it through. Guy singing karaoke had no tone, was his family really surprised when he didn't make it through? The judges should have told him he just wasn't good, no wonder this dude didn't get it. And Lady Gaga guy, well no words for that. He was hilarious though. 

 

Karaoke dude not knowing any of the questions about Clay was funny. I wonder if they purposely picked someone who wouldn't know the correct answers? I knew all of them except the first one because I never watched that season. 

 

Hopefully tomorrow night is much better. 

[sinycalone]

In defense of my hometown, most of those contestants were not from Philadelphia or even the suburbs.  We'll see what the rest of the Philly auditions show us.  Has to be better than tonight.

[MarkHB]

We used to have an Eggspectations in my area... it was a pretty decent restaurant, quirky decor, 

 

The guy who shot his brother was heartbreaking.  Regardless of whose "fault" it was, you pulled a trigger and put a bullet in your brother and you get to live with that.  Wow.

[Misslindsey]

 

Guy who shot his brother - At first I was like "So what?" about his backstory, thinking it was just another brother who died from an illness, accident, or whatever, then when he revealed how it happened, I just felt terrible for him. That must be such an awful thing to bear for the rest of your life. And while he wasn't absolutely outstanding, I didn't get the judges hemming and hawing over putting him through. He's clearly a professional, being a Broadway actor, and was easily the best of the night, and hello, an adult for once! He clearly would have at least the experience and maturity to enter this competition, did the judges seriously say they didn't know if he could compete with "the rest"? You mean the rest of the other crap you put through? I don't buy the whole "I don't know if he can transition from an actor to this", Adam Lambert was also a Broadway actor before Idol and he did just fine. Shut up. They did it for the drama and no other reason.

I concur. I did not get the judges acting like he could not compete with the others they sent through, especially the others in this audition episode. I hate that they said that they did not know if he could transition from Broadway to Idol. Broadway has so much more to offer than the stereotypical Broadway musical. There are quite a bit of  different music genres represented on Broadway. Hell, at least on Broadway they know how to enunciate. I just did not get the judges hemming and hawing over him when they sent far worse through.

[Rick Kitchen]

Yeah, let's encourage graffitiists.  Not.

 

Don't remember Brenda K. Starr. "House of the Rising Star" was not very good.

 

Boombox boy was pretty bad.  I guess he likes running around with his shirt off, though.

 

A capella with a guitar?  LOL.  Not bad, though. Shall we talk, Harry, about how Taylor Swift, from Pennsylvania, sings with a country twang?

 

Ellis Banks, or Ellis Spanks?

 

Brooklyn Blonde was annoying as hell.

 

Harrison and his grandfather were cute.

 

I can't imagine living with having killed your brother at the age of eight years old. What was his name?  I missed it.

[Prairie Fire]

John Arthur Greene, the guy who shot his brother, appears to have come quite a ways in life since his tragedy, so I hope the show doesn't label him with that if he keeps going. I quite liked his audition, definitely better than Joey Cook's version of the same song last year.

 

I noticed at the end, when the judges commented on who they liked, Harry and Keith were able to ID their favorites by name, but J-Lo was all, "the country kid with the Bieber hair". That tells you everything you need to know about how much each of them actually cares about this competition (or not).

[Rick Kitchen]

Here's John Arthur Greene's Internet Broadway Database page:

 

He was in West Side Story starting in 2009.

 

http://www.ibdb.com/Person/View/483263

[GreyBunny]

"We were always extremely safe with the guns in the house." Apparently not. It's too bad he blames himself for his brother's death, since it wasn't him who kept loaded guns in a house with young kids. 

Agreed.  It's a shame he blames himself for his parents being careless assholes.  As professional as he is, I'm probably not going to remember him for long as his audition was just okay.

 

Country Bieber wasn't half bad, he needs to lose the hair and the twang.

 

Luna Lovegood was better than expected, I'm curious to see how she handles Hollywood Week...if she can figure out how to get there. 

 

I liked the lecherous grandpa kid's original song but I hope he drops the ladies' man schtick.  That already got old.

[Rick Kitchen]

There are LOTS of John Arthur Greene videos on YouTube. He also has his own YouTube channel.

 

Here he is leading the Jets with the Broadway cast.

 

[bluepiano]

So tired of the guys hitting on JLo. Especially the teenagers. Yuk.

 

The girl who sang "Rising Sun" would almost surely not have been put through without the "famous" Mom. (Who I never heard of). That performance was so dime a dozen. (On a song that's been done to death. Though Haley Reinhardt's version was amazing).

 

The guy who sang to the boom box ranks among the most deluded contestants ever. He actually thought he was good. No, not just good. Great. Completely delusional.

 

As someone else said, maybe the worst audition show ever. The judges got so desperate that anyone who wasn't terrible got three yeses. How else to explain them going nuts for the Utah to Brooklyn transplant. Her whole "I'm such a quirky, free spirit" act had me gnashing my teeth so loudly I couldn't even hear her sing. Please, can some of these quirky free spirits move somewhere else besides Brooklyn? Maybe start a hipster scene in Des Moines?

 

Instead of John Arthur Greene's parting words being "follow your dream," I wish he'd said "don't play with guns." That's a much more needed public service message.

Edited January 14, 2016 by bluepiano

[Lonesome Rhodes]

They finally decided to show us the goofball auditions and THIS is the best they can come up with?????

 

The contrast between the anointed Starr and the Broadway performer was ginormous.  Yet, HJC deigns to diss a truly professional audition and talent?  It would be one thing if I thought he really believed that Broadway dude wasn't among the best they saw.  That would be pretty bad.  What is unforgivable is that he played the stylistic game to trump up phony draaaaaaaaama.  Oh well, he gets his millions. 19E got their money's worth this day.

 

Jenn was altered.  No doubt.  It may be that this is her typical state and she is being medicated.  She has a talent.  But, pray tell HJC, just how is SHE supposed to survive the AI grind while Broadway dude, who has been through the wars already, will wilt?  

 

I loved Cohen's pop tune.  His Grandpa's advice was damn good - as J Lo said.  The minimal runs in his song evoked a Middle eastern vibe for me, not Latin.   I can totally hear a Synagogue/Temple influence.  It worked really, really, well.  I agree that his performance talent is not all that, though.

 

As bad as this ep was, how great was it that Sprinkles avoided traveling to Philly as he did Little Rock?  We at least had a chance at more music and less insipid prattle.  He does have an ability to keep a live-show train on the tracks.  He is a waste on anything pre-taped.

Edited January 14, 2016 by Lonesome Rhodes

[BogoGog24]

LOL. Yeah 15 year old Bieber kid and girl who can't find directions are somehow ready to compete for the big time in Hollywood but guy with years of stage experience, auditioning, and performing to audiences somehow isn't. SMH All that was really code for "You are too similar to last year's winner and are a threat to our 15 year old chosen ones." At least if he doesn't make it far, it seems he has a nice career to fall back on. It must be a grind but at least he's not going back to work at the dollar store or whatever.

[mojoween]

John's story was super tragic but I'm still trying to wrap my head around playing cops and robbers with actual guns. I grew up in a house with hundreds of firearms in it and would never once have thought to play with one as a toy.

[MarkHB]

The girl who sang "Rising Sun" would almost surely not have been put through without the "famous" Mom. (Who I never heard of). That performance was so dime a dozen. (On a song that's been done to death. Though Haley Reinhardt's version was amazing).

 

There was one other version I've really liked.  I've come to the conclusion that the only way to deliver that song is if you infuse it with something reminiscent of New Orleans.  Haley's was like beignets soaked in honey and bourbon.  The previous season (the other I really liked), Siobhan Magnus's version was full of voodoo.

[Primetimer]

As American Idol heads to Philly in Episode 3 of its 15th and final season, the world is left asking itself, 'I wonder what else is on right now?'

Read the story

[GoodEnough]

Wow, what a tragic and preventable backstory on him. Has anyone seen him in Matilda? He has to be more than yet another WGWG, right?

Two years ago, I took a group of kids to participate in a Broadway program where they met Matilda cast members and did a dance class and Q&A with them before watching a performance of Matilda. He was one of the cast members who worked with the kids. A really friendly guy with a dynamic personality and I recognized him immediately. It was awful to hear his back story and it's disturbing that he is willing to talk on national TV about it and basically use it to further his career. I suppose the PSA for gun control is there without any words.

[MelinaBallerina]

Every time someone says they're singing "House of the Rising Sun," I keep hoping it will be Dolly Parton's version.  It would be a totally different vibe, for sure.

[Padma]

I missed big sections of this and only saw Country Bieber and the (way too long) Boombox guy part (he was also the one who missed all of Clay's questions, wasn't he? I can't even remember now as the entire dragged out thing was so boring. (I couldn't believe that no contestant has ever brought a boombox to an audition before. The judges couldn't get over it!. I always assumed lots of singers brought pre-recorded music with them (the same way they perform back home) and were told to leave it outside. He was bad and arrogant about it too. Yes, guy. America's lost the chance to hear you again. Whatever.

 

After seeing Country Bieber styling his hair, he would have had to be GREAT to get me to want to hear and see him again. He wasn't. And I actually thought he -did- speak with a strange kind of pronunciation, maybe different from his singing "twang" but not necessarily better.  I really dislike it when Harry tells them to "lose the twang"...maybe it's affected, but has he ever heard Keith sing?  He does not sing at all with the pronunciation of his speaking voice and clearly tries to "country it up" intentionally.

 

As Keith himself seems willing to point out to Harry again and again. HCJ "You're not from the south." KU: "Neither am I." There was a lot more to critique about his singing than that. I agreed completely with Keith that he had some ability, but "wasn't ready". I guess Philadelphia screeners had just given them so little to work with (I really can't believe this was the best Philly had to offer), that they thought they'd pass "cute Bieber teen who'll never get far in this" on to Hollywood.

 

After reading about the ones I missed, I don't even want to watch the rerun on On Demand. Hopefully tonight will be better.

[mojoween]

I had the same issue with the floppy haired kid too though. The problem with his twang is it sounded SO FAKE that's all I could hear. Keith sounds authentic when he does it. That kid was a try hard. Maybe it would improve with age, but I wasn't interested in him enough to care to find out.

[Shades of Red]

So tired of the guys hitting on JLo. Especially the teenagers. Yuk.

 

This is an understatement if I've ever heard one.  Why hasn't Harry jumped in to say how inappropriate and gross this is?  He didn't seem to have any issues telling young girls when they were doing/singing something he felt was age inappropriate.  Double standard?!

 

Initially I thought the kid with the grandfather was cute but as time went on he started to skeeve me out.  The grandfather reminded me of all the dirty old men I've encountered over time.  If the kid is already like this as a 15 year old I shudder to think what kind of man he'll grow up to be ... I don't think it'll be nice.

 

I'm constantly amazed at Keith's musical knowledge.  He really does seem to have a knack for remembering songs/artists etc doesn't he?  At least once a show I'm surprised when he starts to sing along (which doesn't impress me) but he knows all the lyrics.

[Qoass]

 

Every time someone says they're singing "House of the Rising Sun," I keep hoping it will be Dolly Parton's version.  It would be a totally different vibe, for sure.

 

Every time someone says they're singing "House of the Rising Sun" I keep hoping they'll sing something else...

[snarkylady]

The minimal runs in his song evoked a Middle eastern vibe for me, not Latin.   I can totally hear a Synagogue/Temple influence.  It worked really, really, well.  I agree that his performance talent is not all that, though.

 

Thank you -- I was beginning to think I was the only one who heard Jewish music in there.  I liked the song, but not the personality.

[ari333]

I heard Arabic music in the original song from the kid. YMMV.

[viajero]

That was a complete waste of time.  I don't think any of the contestants who got through in this episode show much promise at all.  I thought the quirky girl who sang Radioactive had the best voice of the bunch, but I can't see her lasting very long.  She certainly doesn't even come close to a majority of those who got through last week.

 

The original song wasn't bad, but I already can't stand the kid who sang it and his voice was nothing special.

 

The biggest disappointment was John.  Being older and with all that Broadway experience, I guess I expected more than the thoroughly mediocre and lifeless cover we got.  His voice wasn't even all that good.

[rereader2]

I heard Arabic music in the original song from the kid. YMMV.

 

The various types of Mid-East music share a great many influences.

[bluepiano]

The various types of Mid-East music share a great many influences.

 

Yup, mainly the pentatonic scale, which has an instantly recognizable sound that you hear in music from a lot of different cultures - Arabic, traditional Jewish, Greek, Indian, North African, Russian etc. And it's been used very effectively in any number of western songs. "Paint It Black" by the Stones and "Kashmir" by Zeppelin come to mind immediately.

 

I think the reason Harry asked John if he was ready to handle the pressure was because they're planning to eliminate him in Hollywood week and want to start planting that seed of doubt about whether he's "Idol material." Though I have to say, for someone with a long Broadway resume, I wasn't impressed either by his voice or his performance skills. I was never a big Nick Fraddiani fan, and I thought he was not even as good as N.F.

 

So yeah, questioning if he can handle the pressure when they're putting through all these 15-16 year olds with no performing experience was completely asinine. But based on that audition, I wouldn't be sorry to say goodbye to John.

 

[Misslindsey]

 

So yeah, questioning if he can handle the pressure when they're putting through all these 15-16 year olds with no performing experience was completely asinine. But based on that audition, I wouldn't be sorry to say goodbye to John.

Oh I agree that he wasn't that great, but I thought he was better than a lot of the auditions that we saw last night and even some of the previous nights. I would not be sorry to see him go, unless he does something amazing in Hollywood, which is probably unlikely. Like you said questioning if he can handle the pressure while they are putting through 15-16 year olds is a bit much.

[sleepyjean]

Quirky Drew Barrymore Jr. was alright,

I didn't dislike her and I did like that she has an original quality to her voice. That aside, can someone explain to me why people bring a guitar into the audition if they aren't going to  use it? I stopped watching this show after season 3, so I missed when the instruments were introduced into the process.

 

Guy who shot his brother - At first I was like "So what?" about his backstory, thinking it was just another brother who died from an illness, accident, or whatever, then when he revealed how it happened, I just felt terrible for him.

Once I found out what his backstory was, I forwarded past it, so I never got past "so what?" myself. Call me a cynical bastard, but it was 20 years ago, so the tug on my heartstrings was minimal. Also, he makes some ugly faces when he sings, and that's a problem.

 

 

Boombox boy was pretty bad.  I guess he likes running around with his shirt off, though.

The whole point of all that bad acting was to get featured on the show. And because there wasn't much else of interest at that audition, the producers went with it.

 

I loved Cohen's pop tune.  His Grandpa's advice was damn good - as J Lo said.  The minimal runs in his song evoked a Middle eastern vibe for me, not Latin.   I can totally hear a Synagogue/Temple influence.

It sounded a little Latin to me until that run near the end, where he took a hard left right into the temple.

 

I had the same issue with the floppy haired kid too though. The problem with his twang is it sounded SO FAKE that's all I could hear. Keith sounds authentic when he does it.

I have never heard a Keith Urban song, and didn't know until just now that he is a country singer. But I have a hard time wrapping my mind around an Australian guy singing American country music with a Southern twang and it sounding authentic. How can it not be an obvious affect? I'll have to look him up on youtube. Meanwhile, my  problem with the kid wasn't that his twang sounded fake, but it sounded like he was mimicking the original artist.

 

Like you said questioning if he can handle the pressure while they are putting through 15-16 year olds is a bit much.

While I don't think any of the kids deserved to pass through, it doesn't really bother me. Somebody's got to be an easy cut in Hollywood, right? Plus they are worth some drama as we watch them struggle to handle the pressure - then crash and burn.

[Guest]

I don't think Keith affects a southern twang.  He sounds like himself when he sings, I think.  I also noticed that kid's twang affect.  (Swift is just a pile of autotuned affectation to me, so I can't really say what all she's channeling.)

 

Is it considered 'on Broadway' that Adam was in the ensemble and an understudy in an LA theater doing Wicked, when he auditioned?  

 

I too am alarmed that people will pimp out the death of a loved one for a televised audition.  It makes me appreciate David Cook, who left out the 'dying brother' story until very late in the season, if he brought it into the show at all.  

 

And I can't respect parents who keep loaded guns around with kids OR that let that guy believe (or say) that that accident was his own fault.  He was 8.  It's not his fault.