There have been a few changes to American Idol’s audition shows from the previous seasons. It’s more obvious who’s going to get past the first Hollywood round, because they do things like put together montages of their families and so forth. They start with someone worthy of the golden ticket and follow with a balance of losers and winners. And they keep showing us the people who are too old to try out but bring a bit of the mandatory freakiness with them.
Tuesday’s ineligible freak was a 39-year-old social worker with a desire to get his original song out on the radio to convince kids not to have sex before marriage (after hearing it, if I were a teenager, I’d go have a horizontal chat with a football team for spite). Last night, we were treated to the sight of 44-year-old Renaldo Lapuz. Wearing a feathered pimp hat, silver and feathered cape and white suit, he regaled the judges with an original composition that ran for only four lines. Despite being that short, he ended up with over five minutes of screen time. Paula started singing along. She started dancing along. She got up from behind the table to dance next to Renaldo. Randy joined her. Simon couldn’t stop laughing long enough to do anything else. And then Ryan got hauled in to join the party. What do you want to bet Renaldo showed up at about 8 PM on the last day of auditions?
Aside from him, however, the freak parade was kind of dull. The guy who was enjoying the new breezes he was feeling thanks to wearing a dress was worth a giggle, but Dallas just wasn’t as crazy as Philadelphia. But the compensation of an auditioner going into labor and giving the kid the second middle name of Idol was almost enough to make up for it. And I have to admit, the infant cap with the AI logo? Priceless (for now… the store’s just getting revved up). I do wish they’d shown us her audition.
Tags: Fashion, Music, Television
