Do you have what it takes to get up in front of a huge crowd and sing karaoke? Fifteen of West Chester’s finest students did exactly that on Thursday night at the Emilie K. Asplundh Hall. The crowd let out roaring cheer as host Mark Cooper walked onto the stage. The name should sound familiar because he has been a stand up comedy as well as starring in the hit TV show “Hanging With Mr. Cooper.”
The Student Activities Council could not have come up with a better theme. They chose “I Love the 90’s” and made every song come from that decade. Mark Cooper started the event with some great comedic material. He made fun of everything from the airlines, to Britney Spears to steroids in baseball.
Joe Barthiaume got the night started off fantastically with an amazing rendition of “One Week” by the Barenaked Ladies.
As the first round came to an end, Amy Carroll, the team of Amanda Vitzakovitch and Sean Sanguinetti and the team of five males, including DJ Baker, Alex Proctor, Artie Leach, Nate Kennedy and Scott Decker, who went by the name Outta Spice, were still left standing. After a very close final round, Outta Spice pulled out the karaoke victory by singing a hilarious version of No Doubt’s 90’s classic “Don’t Speak.”
After two songs, the defending champion and crowd favorite, Dean Gentekos came out and sang a perfect Michael Jackson “Man in the Mirror.” The crowd rose out of their seats half way through the performance as Gentekos walked through the audience giving high fives and fist pounds to the crowd.
However the judges, who included Jeff Hyman (a talent agent), Terri Johnson (Karaoke title holder) and Gervase Peterson (from Survivor) were not as impressed. Hyman and Johnson each gave Gentekos an eight and then Peterson gave him a seven because he said that his pants were ripped too much.
The crowd was very unhappy and showed it by booing at the judge. After the show Gentekos said, “I was very disappointed with my score, but I come to these Karaoke showdowns to have fun, and this year may have been the best one so far!”
The final round could not have been more exciting. Amanda Vitzakovitch and Sean Sanguinetti placed third by singing a crowd favorite “I’ll Make Love to You” by Boys II Men. After the show Vitzakovitch exclaimed, “Sean and I were very nervous but we could not have been any more pleased with the way things went.”
Amy Carroll placed second with a perfect version of “Freefalling” by the great Tom Petty. Carroll did a great job with a song that is very difficult to sing. However the night belonged to the winners Outta Spice. The crowd couldn’t stop laughing as they sung No Doubt. Outta Spice added a little bit of humor to their performance, which helped them pull out the victory in the end.
Thursday night proved to be a great success. The seventh annual Karaoke Showdown proves that the event keeps getting better every year. If you think you have what it takes to sing karaoke, then come out and show your skills next year.