Lucille Ball played the part best; the person who thinks they can sing and perform, but who is terrible at it. She would constantly pester Ricky into letting her perform in his night club act, or find some other way to squirm her way into “show business.” The worst part (about these people, not Lucy) is that they don’t know they’re terrible, and they consistently subject other people to their mediocre skills and off-key performances.
Nowhere is this more evident than in small bars and clubs with “open mic” nights. These nights occur to allow anyone to perform and (most of the time) make a fool out of himself (or herself). Most people who come to open mic nights are people who want to be professional singers/performers, but are just so terrible that the only time they can get a chance to perform is when they are able to get their name on a list to do it voluntarily with a captive audience. These people also are the ones who you hear singing at the top of their lungs in their apartment, or in the shower (I used to live in a place with very thin walls and a LOT of neighbors who thought they were stars).
These kinds of open mics nights give a stage to those people who obviously can’t sing or perform, but it makes them think that they can. These people need to be told they can’t. They need to be told to pursue something else and stop infecting the world with off-key, off-the-wall, off-kilter performances. It’s not only an affliction with singers. There are people who think they can dance, play instruments, act, do stand-up who are so bad, but they don’t know they are, and they continue to do it. What’s worse is that people in these places, viewing these spectacles of ineptitude, clap when the performance is over. What are they clapping for??! the performance was an atrocious show, why is it not acceptable to “boo” someone who is horrible?!? This polite clapping is just encouraging them more and making them think they have talent!
The recent rash of talent competitions on televisions around the world has also given rise to people who think they are talented and who get offended when they’re told they are not. Some of the poor judges of these competitions have been pestered, chastised, yelled at and cursed by some of these contestants who think they are great, but who are actually quite terrible. It’s refreshing to hear some of the comments that come out of Simon Cowell’s mouth to would-be performers. It makes me happy when Pierce Morgan tells people how horrible they truly are, or when three X’s quickly appear. Programs like X Factor, ______ Got Talent (insert country name), The Voice, American Idol, and So You Think You Can Dance have given a new generation of talent-less wannabes hope of breaking into an industry where they have no business being.
There’s something to be said for passion and sticking to something that you love. I’m not saying these people can’t EVER perform. There is a time and place for them to do it….it’s at home, alone, when nobody else is affected. Sometimes (many times) America (and the world) DOESN’T HAVE TALENT!
365 Things That Annoy Me! 