ESCONDIDO – In a room behind the stage, hopeful stars mouth lyrics and stare at the ceiling. They tug at sequined outfits and tune instruments for the hundredth time. They take exaggerated breaths and blow them out slowly.
These people are tense.
They think that this could be it. The Big Break. Their chance at stardom.
That's why they have come to the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, on a Sunday morning, dressed for Saturday night, determined to outdance and outsing more than 120 other contestants.
"Good luck," they tell one another, smiling tightly as they are called, one by one, to the stage.
Each hopes to be one of 12 people chosen to perform here Saturday at "Apollo Theater Amateur Night." The top performer at that show – and top talents from 39 other metropolitan areas – will win $1,000, a trip to New York and a chance to perform at the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem and be judged by its famously discerning, and merciless, audience.
It was the Apollo that launched the careers of such stars as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, James Brown, Stevie Wonder and Lauryn Hill. So the stakes of this contest are high, and are irresistible enough to persuade a peculiar mix of would-be stars to bare their souls to a poker-faced judge in an empty theater.
"I'm looking to see if they have confidence and conviction within the first 30 seconds," said Vanessa Brown, who judges the contestants and is the show's producer. "People are nervous, as they should be. We want to give everyone an equal and fair chance."
Auditions were held in Riverside last month. The audition dates for Los Angeles have not been set.
Unlike "American Idol," the television series in which a contestant field of thousands was whittled down to one singer to win a recording contract, this contest has no age limits. It is open to dancers and musicians, too.
So the talent here is decidedly more mixed. Among the contestants are the young, pretty women who would love to be the next pop diva. About four of them sing Alicia Keys' "Falling," with at least one wearing a fedora, a hat the Grammy Award-winning singer often wears.
And there is a pair of middle-aged women identically dressed in bowler hats, leotards, tap shoes, who carry canes and dance to "That's Entertainment!"
There is the man in the wheelchair who tells Brown, the tour manager and others onstage to clap to his rendition of "Ain't No Stopping Us Now," which he dedicates to the victims of Sept. 11.
And there is the 30-something woman in pigtails and giant bell-bottoms who belts out "A Natural Woman" in a strong and clear voice.
Jim Davison, a 66-year-old retired gym and biology teacher from La Quinta, sings in musical productions in the Coachella Valley. He was taking his mother-in-law to a show at the arts center when he saw a notice for the auditions. He thought it just might be his chance.
For his audition, he selects a sport coat in sea foam green and the song "This Is The Moment" from "Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical."
Afterward, he says he did pretty well.
"I was a little uptight," Davison said. "But once I got out up there, it was all right."
A few auditions later, a young man takes the microphone. He wears a turtleneck sweater pulled up to the ends of his long sideburns, small hoop earrings and a corduroy jacket with a fuzzy lining that pokes out like a shearling coat.
"My name is Levi Strauss, and that's not a joke," he tells Brown as he waits for his song, "Walking in Memphis," to be cued up.
The women on the stage chuckle and Strauss begins singing, gaining momentum as he goes. As the song picks up, the women bob their heads to the music and Strauss sings through a smile.
At 26, Strauss was two years too old to try out for "American Idol." He's a karaoke host at the Filling Station on Miramar Road, and he's been trying to get his break for six years.
"I don't have the highest hopes," he said after walking offstage. "I have realistic hopes where everything is a stepping stone."
The next day, Strauss gets a call. He makes the cut. Brown tells him to sing the same song. Strauss knew it would appeal to anyone.
"It's a very biracial song. It's about a little white boy trying to find some soul," he said.
A few hours after Strauss' audition, two cousins who call themselves the 411 Boyz walk onto the stage. One is wearing an electric-blue suit; the other, a cream-colored, double-breasted suit with a matching hat.
The one in the hat has been dreaming of singing at the Apollo since he was a kid.
"I hope and pray we get a chance," Edward Gavin said after he and his cousin, Gary Allen, auditioned. "I just really, really want it."
Gavin, 40, put his dreams aside to raise his children after their mother died. Now that they're older, he's decided it's his turn.
Gavin had planned to perform with his son. They called themselves FAST, for Father and Son Team. But hours before the audition, the son had to back out; his wife was about to give birth. So Allen stepped in.
Hours after their audition, the cousins got into their car and began the drive back to San Diego. Because they prayed on the way to Escondido, they figured they ought to pray again, to thank God for giving them a chance.
"Less than 60 seconds later, my cell phone rang," said Allen, 38.
It was Brown, and she asked to speak to Gavin.
"She says, 'I just want to congratulate you and let you know you guys have been accepted,' " Gavin recalled.
"I said, 'Aw, it's really happening!' Oh my goodness. It was unbelievable."
"Apollo Theater Amateur Night" begins at 8 p.m. Saturday at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, 340 N. Escondido Blvd. The show is part of a 40-city tour in which Apollo personalities host the evening. In Escondido, Talent and Capone, who are New York Kings of Comedy/Def Jam comedians, will be hosts, along with Monijae. C.P. Lacey will be The Executioner, the one who escorts rejected performers offstage. And the Apollo's house band, Ray Chew and the Crew, will provide the musical backup.
Tickets range from $17 to $47 and can be purchased at the center's box office or by calling Ticketmaster at (619) 220-TIXS or (800) 988-4253.
Elizabeth Fitzsimons:
(760) 752-6743; elizabeth.fitzsimons@uniontrib.com
