Los Angeles Auditions - 1/26/10

and welcome to what I think is the final week of auditions before we get to Hollywood. Our first scene of the night opens up with cutie Ryan Seacrest at his usual position of radio disc jockey who is letting us know across town people are lining up to see if they can be the next American Idol.

We then see past scenes of Hollywood glamour and Ryan is telling us for the last 100 years or so many have come to glitter town to find fame and fortune. Hollywood is also the home of American Idol with 11,000 hopefuls showing up at the Rose Bowl. Kara and Randy are glad to be home with Simon already in the audition room feeding lines to a girl about how wonderful he is.

Our guest judge for this first day is young Avril Lavigne who had a big hit a few years back entitled "Complicated". I must say she really did not add much to the judges table but she is cute and Simon seemed to like sitting next to her. So without further adieu let's get to the contestants.


First up is geeky 19 year old Neil Goldstein who claims to have an IQ of 168. He has thousands of little hobbies and music is one of them. He loves to perform, loves to touch the lives of others, etc.,etc., etc. Definitely one strange guy he enters the audition room to perform "Rock and Roll Dreams Come True" by Meatloaf. However before he can do this he seems to be sweating profusely and is trying to get control of his nerves with some comforting words from the judges. His singing ability however is not good and Simon in a nice way tells him he is not suited for this competition. Neil is not taking the news well and demands that the judges send him to Hollywood. Simon then tells him he can leave on his own or with help if necessary. Finally, Neil gets the point and with final parting words says "try not to hit anyone else with the door". Seems Simon had exited the audition room earlier and bumped Neil with the door however Simon did say he was sorry. After this bit we see Kara saying she wanted to give this sweaty guy a towel and so did I to shove in his mouth. Next?

It is now 10 a.m. and so far no tickets have been given out. Coming into the audition room is worship pastor Jim Ranger who is 27 years old, married and father of 3. He sings an original song he wrote called "Drive". All the judges say he has a good voice however Avril points out that should he make it as a singer there is alot of time spent on the road so her vote is a no. Kara sort of echoes these comments but she along with Randy and Simon do give this hopeful the gold. Personally I think he will not make it past the Hollywood rounds as I felt his voice was just okay and frankly speaking he just does not have the look. Stranger things have happened so I could be wrong and maybe his dreams will come true.

Not so lucky getting tickets are Jayson Wilson, Jesse Chang and Martin Perez who are shown in the next scenes.


Next up is Damien LeFavor who is 26 years old and is a sandwich maker by profession. His first love is martial arts and he gives us demonstrations of this before his audition. He claims he is by nature a pacifist and is also not afraid to act like a fool by also demonstrating this briefly. He can not remember the title of the song he is going to sing by The Righteous Brothers but does get help from the judges on this. His version of "You've Lost That Lovin Feeling" is done pretty badly with him goofing up in one part and he comments "he can not believe he just did that". As you can guess he does not leave with a ticket.

Next we see lots of kids giving their opinions as Ryan lets us know that children sometimes have the biggest voices. Mary Powers enters the room and is the mother of an 8 year old who is also a big fan of Simon's. Mary sings Pat Benatar's "Love is a Battlefield" and gets 4 yeses from the judges. Her daughter also gets a treat by meeting her idol with a hug and kiss from Simon.

Filler time next as we see that several have tried in different cities to look like season 8 runner-up Adam Lambert. We get to see one such person up close whose name is A.J. Mendoza. Weirdly done he attempts to sing "Cult of Personality" by Living Color. The no's are coming and he wants to sing another song but the judges all agree he does not open his mouth right to sing. Sorry A. J. no Hollywood for you.

Day 2 is dawning with more contestants and a new guest judge in the form of Katy Perry who had a hit with the song "I Kissed A Girl". Some rant from me as I totally can not stand this woman either as a singer or person. She demonstrates her bitchy attitude by commenting that she thinks the judges arriving by helicopter is ridiculous (guess she came in a car). After this our other judges arrive and get seated for the first contestant of the day.

Nineteen year old Austin Fullmer thinks no one is like him as he is one sexy guy. No way! Anyhow this skinny lad works in the field of water treatment. He performs the song "Surrender" by Cheap Trick with lots of ugly expressions and weird dance moves. His singing is not so good and it is 4 no's across the board for him.

We then see lots of people who do not handle rejection well and the tears are a-flowing.

Finally an appearance by a decent singer by the name of Andrew Garcia who is 23 years old, married and is shown with his cute little son. Seems Andrew once lived in a gang area and his parents wanting the best for him and his siblings move to Moreno Valley with the hopes of giving them a better life. Side comment here: I have lived in California and Moreno Valley at one time was a nice area however in today's life is sadly now infested with gangs. Back to the show, we see Andrew's dad crying alot before Andrew finally takes his place in the audition room to perform. He does impress the judges who give him his ticket. I actually liked this guy also.

It is now 4 p.m. and so far none of the ladies have impressed the judges. Maybe minister by night Tasha Layton will have some luck. Indeed she does as she performs "Baby, Baby, Baby" originally by Joss Stone. It is 4 yeses and off to Hollywood for her. I liked this girl also.

Yuck, yuck, yuck is all I can start off with as we see the next contestant who is 21 year old Jason Green who thinks he has talent and believes in magic. His whole demeaner borders on sexual as he tries to put the make on all the judges with his rendition of "I Touch Myself" by the Divinyls. This girlish acting nut makes all the judges feel dirty and it is a big no to him. In his parting scenes he offers Ryan his phone number with the response from Ryan "in spite of what you may have read I think this is who you should give this to" which turns out to be a big and burly bald man.

It is now 6:15 p.m. and both Kara and Katy seem to be getting on each other's nerves as we see lots of bitching from both as many hopefuls are turned down. I have to say I kind of felt sorry for Kara having to deal with Katy during these clips.

:( The next contestant's story made me feel sad as we hear about 25 year old Chris Golightly telling us he grew up in foster homes. He has felt so alone with no one really to share any of his talents with as he grew up. Music makes him feel most secure and he does a nice job performing "Stand By Me" in front of the judges. I was glad this young man had a good voice and was also happy he got the gold. Sure hope he does well in Hollywood.

So now our time has come to an end in L. A. and our next and last stop will be in Dallas, Texas. We are told 23 got the gold from L. A. Lots of the never-ending previews are shown of Dallas as we bid farewell to this night of auditions. Be back later with my re-cap of Dallas. Until then........

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the re-caps CC. I ended up babysittling for my daughter last night and missed the L. A. auditions. After reading them I see I really didn't miss much. Although, it would have been fun to see some of the "weird" talent the judges had to put up with. LOL And I missed Katy Perry. (a blessing in disguise)
Hopefully I'll catch tonights auditions. I hear there is a little cutie who could win us over. We'll see about that.

I have been watching the Auditions with no real hope of finding another Taylor or Kris or so it seems so far, I did like that Chris Golightly, thought he was very good and his sob background story sounded sincer and he seems to have delt with his past and wants to move to the future..

I did not like either of the guest judges, thought they were a bad replacement for Paula..

Yeah, L.A.'s guest judges were not my cup of tea, either.