photo: fox
Orlando
Original Air Date: Jan 20, 2010
Patricia Morris Buckley —Staff Writer
pmb@thetwocentscorp.com
With 31 Golden Tickets handed out, Orlando showed almost three times the talent of Chicago. And Wednesday’s episode proved far more entertaining as well. More good singers, one crazy who ended up in handcuffs and one pair of split pants (now that really fits the song “Pants on the Ground”).
On the first day, the guest judge was none other than Broadway and TV star Kristin Chenoweth, who has won an Emmy (Pushing Daisies) and a Tony (“You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown,” although she is best known for “Wicked”). As she recently guest starred in Glee, it makes sense they introduced her with that music — but wait, the song they used didn’t have her singing! How is it that she’s a guest judge, but we don’t hear her singing? What a screw up.
And there were quite a few screw-ups, not including the man in handcuffs. Like a singer attributing the song “Someone to Watch Over Me” to Frank Sinatra. Or another saying he would be singing Tony Bennett when he really meant Charlie Chaplain’s “Smile.” (Didn’t he watch Michael Jackson’s funeral with the rest of the world?) Or another saying he would sing “Rolling” by Tina Turner? The rest of us call that song “Proud Mary.”
As long as we’re pointing out screw-ups, who hired Chenoweth for just one day of the two-day auditions? That just felt wrong. But, she really didn’t have much to add to the proceedings (and I’m a big Cheno fan). Above Posh, but nowhere as good as Shania.
We started the evening with a crazy, complete with mirrored circles and feathers glued to his face and a huge cape-like scarf. Theo Glinton didn’t have a horrible voice, but wasn’t good either. Kara didn’t help by telling him he smelled nice.
Next came 28-year-old Seth Rollins, who has a 5-year-old high-functioning autistic son. He sang “Someone to Watch Over Me” beautifully. Simon said he was “an easy yes.” The same went for 24-year-old Jermaine Purifoy who sang “Smile” and the judges did. Purifoy had tried out in S7 and didn’t make it, but seems on track to at least make the Top 24.
The first female to get a Golden Ticket was 18-year-old Shelby Dressel, who has a muscle in the right side of her face that doesn’t work. Despite a fair job on “Turn Me On,” she felt like Hollywood fodder. The same goes for heavily made up sisters, Bernadette and Amanda Desimone and 24-year-old Cornelius Edwards, who split his pants in a dance move. If he hadn’t made the judges laugh so much, I’m not sure he would have scored a Golden Ticket.
Three women were featured in a one-minute clip — Jannell Wheeler, Brittney Starr James and Kai Bedford, none of which seemed to be a stand out (it’s hard to judge on a three-second sound clip) even though they are through to Hollywood.
Beat boxer Jay Stone, 25, split the group with his version of “Come Together,” although I thought he had a fair voice. Jarrod Norrell didn’t like being told that he sounded like a lawn mower, which he did (although he was on pitch, but his tone was amazingly annoying), and had to be handcuffed to get him to leave.
But Matthew Lawrence proved to be the brightest star in this episode. A Michael Sarver look-alike, he came in with a cowboy hat and told the story of how he spent four years in prison for holding up a bank with a BB gun at the age of 15. Now he’s trying to do his parents proud, which he did with a stirring and memorable version of “Trouble.” Simon said, “Brilliant. It feels like you could have written that song. That’s the easiest yes today.” Kara predicted he’d crack the Top 12.
Next week is LA. Did you see any potential winners in Orlando? Is Kara addressing every contestant as “honey” starting to drive you crazy too? Are you almost ready to skip ahead to Hollywood Week by now? Give us your Two Cents…
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