Tuesday, September 29, 2009

21 Days to Disney: This....is American Idol

(An actual picture of me on the show!)

One of the coolest experiences I had when I went in February for my birthday was that I was there when the newest attraction opened at Hollywood Studios; The American Idol Experience.

In a nut shell, it gives about 20 people a day a chance to sing and compete on a giant stage that's made to look exactly like the actual American Idol stage in Hollywood.

All kinds of celebrities were there while I was there. All of the American Idol winners. All of the judges. It was a big, big thing.

Then, on the day I planned to spend at Hollywood Studios, (the second day the attraction was open) I thought to myself... "I should try out! What else do I have to do?"

So I did.

I auditioned for 2 different producers, and then interviewed for a 3rd. Then...by some sort of miracle, I made it on to the show. The first performance of the day.

It was one of the most interesting performing experiences I'd ever had. They did a whole make-up thing. They had a vocal coach. They walked us through the show, telling us where to stand and giving us these GPS packs that told the automated lighting instruments where we were at all times so that we'd be properly lit. I sang "Go the Distance" from Hercules. There were 2 other people on the show too, and the general premise is that after all 3 of us singing, the judges ,fashioned after the judges on the show (A "hip" black dude, a friendly punny lady, and a sort of mean spirited foreign guy. ) would critique the performers, and then after all was done the audience would vote on these little pads.

It went by pretty quickly. They did little interviews from which they made video packages with. They did some really fancy editing jobs on us. The whole thing is really slick and amazing. I loved it.

I came in second to a guy who sang "Sweet Home Alabama", and could have been in a Skynard cover band. Dude was good, and deserved to win.

The coolest thing about it was that, because I was the first show of the day (and there were almost 2000 people there watching) that I was recognized and high-fived and given random applause everywhere I went in the park for the rest of the day. It was really fun. I was even recognized the next day (on my birthday) at a whole different park. It could have been really bad if I'd been bad, but I did pretty well, simply losing to a guy who was really good, so being recognized was a positive experience.

I thought hard about this being in my top 5, but it's still too new to make it up there. I'm considering trying out again this trip. If I do, and I get on... you can bet it'll climb in the rankings.

And now... The Disney Trivia Question of the Day

Question: Fantasmic Theater at Hollywood Studios seats how many guests?

If you think you know, please send an e-mail to blog@beefymuchacho.com

Everyone with the correct answer will receive a point. An incorrect answer gets 1/2 a point. The person with the most points will get a Limted Edition Pin purchased during my stay.

Standings are being updated daily at http://www.beefymuchacho.com/ on the "Contests" page.

I'll repost the questions with the answers at the end of the contest.

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