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| Adam |
I adjusted my trucker cap in the mirror, put the guitar strap over my shoulder and walked out towards the stage. I took a deep breath, held it for a second and let it out, trying to get rid of the tension in my body.
“You ready, man?”
I looked up at Lewis, who was the emcee for this open mic night. I nodded.
“Yeah, let’s get this over with.”
I saw him chuckling to himself, probably thinking that’s not what performers usually tell him. But I didn’t care. I was stepping out of my comfort zone and finding a way to show off my talent.
My Dad had always encouraged me to explore my talents as I got into playing guitar at a young age. He raised me by himself and worked extra hard to pay for lessons for me. And the guitar went everywhere with me. And I had always played for fun. Every now and then, on summer holidays or over Christmas break, I would find some peace and quiet to write a song. But I never fully took it seriously, more focused on getting a job and being independent.
Last year my Dad died of lung cancer. He was 55. It was a tough pill to swallow for me, leaving me with virtually no family but my aunt and uncle in Florida. But it also got my priorities straight. Life can be over at any given moment and since his passing I had been trying to live in the now as much as I could.
Doing open mic nights was definitely a part of that. So here I was in The Parlour in Providence, Rhode Island, having driven in from Smithfield. I was pretty much shaking like a leaf every time, but I was noticing a slight increase in confidence every time, motivating me to keep going.
Lewis went out on stage.
“Give him another hand! That was amazing right? Tom Scott!”
Tom shuffled past me to go backstage.
“Well done”, I said.
He smiled.
“Thanks man.”
Tom had just done a rousing spoken word. Now it was my turn. I took another deep breath in. And let it out.
“He’s going to sing a song he wrote himself, called ‘A Fantasy of More’. Please welcome: Adam Potter!”
One last exhale and I walked on. The lights were bright, I couldn’t immediately tell how many people were in the audience. But the applause was loud, which was a good sign regardless.
I sat down on the stool in front of the mic.
“Good evening, everybody!”
The crowd cheered. I felt like I was becoming a natural at this.
“So I wrote this song about a relationship that ended. The other person had to move away for work. And often I found myself thinking about how the relationship could have been, you know? That’s why it’s called ‘A Fantasy of More’. OK.”
I had rehearsed my intro to disguise the fact that the other person was a man. I wasn’t sure why, it just felt more comfortable to me.
I took my plectrum. And the second it hit the strings I went into autopilot. I sang it well. It was like I was at home. The audience was so quiet. It was a gentle song, so if they had been talking to each other, it would have been easy to hear. I remembered to open my eyes and look into the crowd every now and then, my eyes getting used to the light more and more.
“We both know we won’t see
The way it was before
That’s why it will always be…
A fantasy of more”
A moment of silence as I opened my eyes and I saw a woman in the front row. Tears were rolling down her face. It was so touching. The applause started soft and got louder. It was emotional. That was the first time I felt like I had nailed it.
“Thank you so much”, was the last thing I could say in the mic, afraid my voice would break.
I got up off the stool. People were still clapping.
“Holy moly everyone, that was Adam Potter! Check him out on SoundCloud!”
Lewis walked on stage and I waved to the audience and went backstage, passing the next performer Charlotte, who was also applauding me.
“Dude, that’s the best I’ve heard you do”, Tom immediately said as I got backstage.
“Thanks!”
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| Adam |
“OK, so I literally just heard this while you were singing. But there is some scout guy here. He wants to talk to you.”
My eyes must have widened.
“Shut the fuck up”, I said softly.
“No really. Can he come backstage?”
I wanted to say I felt like Lady Gaga in ‘A Star Is Born’, but I decided it would be too gay a reference for Lewis to understand. But before I knew it, I was backstage with a guy who didn’t look like what I had expected, but he still looked quite slick. African American guy, maybe ten years older than me so mid- to late thirties, plaid shirt tucked into khakis. Kind of sexy. He shook my hand.
“Frank Coleman.”
“Adam Potter.”
“Congratulations on that performance, that was amazing.”
“Thank you so much.”
He handed me his card. He wasn’t a music guy. He was a TV guy.
“So I am sure you are aware of the long, drawn-out talent competitions on TV?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“We are trying to reinvent the genre a little bit. We’re making a one-episode TV talent show. Singer/songwriters only, without previous releases, one from each state, competing for a record deal. Everyone presents one original song that they wrote themselves. Top 15 according to judges get to perform live on primetime. Viewing audience decides the winner. Taping in a theatre in LA. All live music. We’ll need you for a week, the week before Christmas. I would like you to represent Rhode Island.”
He talked so fast. My mind was racing. Just like that?
“With ‘A Fantasy Of More’, of course. That’ll be a hit.”
I smiled. But I was terrified. He smiled back at me.
“S-sure, yeah.”
“Great.”
Frank went on to explain more about how things would go and gave me some advice. His advice mainly focused on how I looked. No more hat on stage, maybe cut my hair short but keep the scruff. He said he would be there during my rehearsals to help me with making my performance look great.
“If you look into the camera, dude… those green eyes and that song could make you into a winner.”
I laughed.
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| Adam |
“Which state?”
“Rhode Island.”
“Awesome. We’ll take the shuttle once I have two more contestants. Wait right there.”
He pointed to his left where I saw two young women.
“Hey, I’m Adam”, I said.
The woman with the long black curly hair and the large rolling suitcase introduced herself as Lindsay.
“Finally a boy”, she said, in a slightly over the top way.
I chuckled.
The other woman had short brown hair and looked to have a keyboard with her.
“I’m Kimberly.”
“Nice to meet you both.”
I clearly had a guitar over my shoulder. Kimberly immediately wanted to know what my song sounded like.
“It’s a very low key acoustic guitar type thing.”
“Are you going to be using the orchestra at all?”
“No, actually, they get a few minutes off.”
“Oh wow… Maybe you’ll, like, really stand out.”
I asked Kimberly about her song and she said it was a happy up tempo song that she had written on piano.
“But for my performance I’m just singing, letting the orchestra do their thing. This is just to keep myself entertained for my downtime.”
She gestured to the keyboard in front of her.
“Yeah and rehearsing in your hotel room, right?”
“Late night jam session!”, she shouted.
She seemed like fun.
I asked Lindsay what her song was like.
“It’s a big diva ballad, of course”, she said as she flicker her hair back and laughed.
I chuckled.
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| Greg |
“So are you guys single, by any chance?”
Greg laughed, but looked like he was a little put off.
“Yeah…”
“What about you?”, Lindsay now addressed me.
“Yeah, me too. I’m gay though, so…”
Lindsay’s expression changed.
“Well, that’s a waste.”
I sighed and wanted to say something just as we were joined by a fifth contestant, Max, and we were off to the shuttle, carrying all of our stuff.
“Don’t mind her, she’s… something else”, Kimberly said.
“Thanks.”
In the shuttle, Greg and Max sat next to each other in the back. I was with Kimberly and Lindsay once again.
“So where are you from?”, Kimberly asked me.
“Smithfield, Rhode Island. It’s just outside Providence.”
“Aww, small state! How many people auditioned?”
“Auditioned?”
Kimberly looked confused.
“You didn’t audition?”
“I was approached at an open mic night.”
Lindsay suddenly laughed loudly.
“You didn’t sign up to do the show?”, Kimberly asked.
“I auditioned with over a hundred people to represent Arizona”, Lindsay chimed in.
“Being asked to do it is kind of more prestigious though”, Kimberly said to me, smiling.
I’m not sure why, but for some reason I already felt like I had no chance to make it to the live show. But I wasn’t worrying about it. A snippet of my performance for the judges would still appear on the TV show and be on the show’s YouTube channel. Most of these people were going to be more experienced than me and that was fine. I was in it for the experience and the exposure, I had no expectation to do well.
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| Adam |
A guy greeted us from behind a table with lots of paperwork. Next to him was a large TV screen that had Monday through Friday across the top of the screen with the names of states, performers and songs, some spaces still left blank.
“Hi, my name is Roscoe!”
The guy was very animated and possibly gay. He explained that we had to draw a lot from a glass bowl to determine when we would perform.
Lindsay eagerly went first and stuck her hand in the bowl. She showed us all. It said ‘TUE / 7’.
“You are in the Tuesday show for the judges, performing 7th”, Roscoe explained.
On the screen I saw ‘ARIZONA: Lindsay Hill – Better Off’ appear in the slot she had drawn.
“So from each of the five nights, judges will pick a top 3 to perform in the live Saturday show.”
I decided to let everyone else go before me. I saw ‘HAWAII: Greg Kamaka – Those Memories Never Fade’ appear on the third Wednesday slot. Max then put his hand in the bowl and soon appeared on the 9th Tuesday slot. That meant he would be Lindsay’s direct opponent. All of a sudden everything became real when ‘ARKANSAS: Max Clark – The Backseat Kiss’ appeared two slots below Lindsay.
Kimberly would be Greg’s direct opponent, performing right before him on the Wednesday. I only then learned she was representing Ohio with a song called ‘Obvious Feelings’. I was the only one from this shuttle group to land on the Thursday as my lot said ‘THU / 6’. Roscoe handed us each a schedule for when we were rehearsing. It also said that tonight there would be a welcome dinner for all 50 contestants.
“It all feels so pageant-y all of a sudden”, Kimberly said.
I laughed. We exchanged phone numbers and went to our rooms to chill from the trip. It was a very nice room. I took a shower, changed and unpacked. I laid down on the bed for a while to process everything. I couldn’t believe what was happening.
An hour before dinner I got a text from Kimberly.
‘Can I come to your room to hang out until we go downstairs? And check if your room is nicer than mine?’
I smiled.
She came to my room and said hers was exactly the same. She wanted to hear more about how I was approached at the open mic night. I told her the story and she was amazed.
“That’s just badass, man. I just applied online and did like a few audition rounds. It was weird.”
The more we talked, the more I realized that she was really hoping this would be her breakthrough. Her expectations were so much higher. And she had been performing and writing for so much longer than I had. It made sense. She wanted to do this for a living so badly. I did too, but not like her.
We went down for dinner. It was a massive room, and all of these young attractive people sat at large round tables. Kimberly and I sat at a table that was still empty, because we wanted to sit together. Lindsay found us and sat at the same table. She already looked like a star in a flowing dress and her hair up.
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| Matthew |
“Me too!”
He squeezed my shoulder. We talked for a while. He was representing Tennessee, so obviously he had a country song, which was called ‘Daydreams’. It was about how he would always think about his 4 year old daughter whenever she isn’t around. It was touching.
“I only get to see her every other weekend and it just hurts, you know.”
Matt was so very sweet and handsome, I wanted to cuddle him. He was probably straight though.
The executive producer of the show gave a speech, welcoming us all to LA.
“This first edition could be the first of many. We have so much trust in this group of talented artists to really make for an impressive first show. It would mean the world to us if not only the winner of the record deal, but several of you end up becoming successful singer/songwriters. Wishing you all the best of luck!”
At every table glasses were clinked before we took a sip. We got an extensive three course meal, which was so very good. I was excited and nervous.
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