American Idol Review: Negative, Ghost Rider, The Auditions Are Full

A special extra episode of American Idol aired last night and took us to America’s finest city, San Diego. Although everyone and their mother showed up, it seemed to be another two days of barely memorable auditions with a few pleasing voices and only one or two touching stories, as well as the comically absurd auditions we’ve begun to anticipate being practically in the negatives.

Idol threw us a meager bone, though, when first contestant, nineteen-year-old Jennifer, came out. The real life Amazon woman tried to put her best four-inch heels forward by singing a Jessica Simpson tune (unsuccessfully), but what had the judges more engrossed was her choice of patriotic wear. Simply being clad in spandex blue jean short-shorts and a red and white striped bikini tube top was not enough to divert attention away from her mediocre voice, nor compensate, despite the male judges’ ogling eyes. Yeah, that’s gonna be a big ol’ “no” for Jennifer.

Always trying to out-do themselves every year, the audition stage was set aboard the famous USS Midway aircraft carrier, which is actually very cool. It was the Top Gun movie theme song on constant loop being beat into our heads along with the sound of perpetual air traffic noise (the Midway is literally next door to San Diego International Airport) that became more than an annoyance. Luckily, a wave of harmonious voices rose up just in time to drown out the commotion of the harbor area. One of the more significant contestants was twenty-six-year-old single mother, Ashley. Her impressive rendition of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” was so concise that it was like listening to a carbon copy of the diva. This young lady clearly puts as much as she does into her voice as she does providing for her daughter (mentioning that she has worked as many as five jobs at one time to make ends meet) and those are the traits the next Idol must possess.

More folks showed up to amaze the judges with unexpected voices. There was Aubree, a twenty-year-old receptionist who covered a breathy but smooth version of a Michael Buble song. Kyle, the nineteen-year-old college frat boy and self-proclaimed ladies’ man, had us all a little nervous until he belted out an old Monica song dedicated to Miss Lopez that the judges began to wake up. He had been the best male voice the crew had heard in a long time and before he knew it, Kyle was on his way to Hollywood.

Two of the San Diego audition’s last contestants were the most energizing of all. Twenty-four-year-old waitress and mother, Jane Carrey, walked in with not just a stellar voice but also some feelings of nostalgia for Jennifer. Jane was there to find her own place in the world and come out from beneath the enormous shadow of her famous father, Jim Carrey. What was hilarious was that most of us had really forgotten about Jennifer’s fly girl dancer days although she remembered her early start along with Jim on the show In Living Color and even remembered a young baby Jane from back in the day. The American Idol audition was the first step for Jane to become more than just Jim Carrey’s daughter and her golden ticket will give her the opportunity to take it to the next level.

The last contestant to grace the Midway stage was Jason, better known as Wolf, the twenty-four-year-old golf course mechanic. Wolf’s gruff biker-like exterior was simply just the cover on this book because his strong, gravelly country sound took over and overwhelmed the judging panel. Armed with his git-fiddle, aka guitar, he roared out two tunes that earned him a golden ticket and a spot in Hollywood with the other fifty-two San Diegans that had been chosen that day.

American Idol continues to be off to a miraculously smooth start, but what goes up must come down, right? Next week’s auditions take place in Aspen where I expect to see the altitude take its amusing toll on the contestants and judges alike.

Season 11, Episode 3: San Diego, CA (originally aired January 22, 2012)

Images courtesy of American Idol.