#23: Sing Karaoke at CityWalk's Rising Star

Pre-singing dinner at Margartiaville with my very tan best friend Aynsley and 7 other friends! 

For those of you that didn't know, when I was growing up, I was very sure that one day I was going to be an actress. I'd watch movies like Girl, Interrupted with Angelina Jolie playing the crazy sociopath Lisa, and would then stare at myself in the mirror for hours perfecting my own version of crazy sociopath for the day that a casting director would stop me in the mall (because of course that's how it always happens) and proclaim that I was his next big star.

As a teenager, I actually took a step in the right direction by getting involved in my high school's drama troupe (4992!). As a sophomore, I played a cockney in My Fair Lady and had one line, which was the absolute highlight of my year. I followed that up with minor roles in my junior musical (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) and senior straight play (The Miracle Worker), while also competing in district and state Thespian competitions. I had the time of my life, made great friends, and realized how to satisfy my truly introverted spirit by becoming "characters" that were outgoing or totally different from me.

The entire time I was in theater, however, singing was Achilles heel. I could carry a basic tune all right, but had a very restricted range, no control and extreme nervousness that restricted me from displaying a single ounce of talent. I pushed through my weakness, making it into my school's musical theater group more so because I was a decent dancer (and there were fewer good dancers than  good singers), but I was always relegated to ensemble numbers or non-singing parts.

Then something happened. I woke up one day my senior year of high school and, crazy as it sounds, all of a sudden I could sing. It was like Flowers for Algernon where in the blink of an eye I had gone from a dying cat to a melodious bird. Granted, I was still no Sutton Foster (for non-Broadway folks she is one of my idols when it comes to belting), but somehow things magically started to sound good. This transformation lead to the most impactful, memorable experience of my lifetime thus far -- being cast as the lead in my senior musical 42nd Street. And while I had several solos as part of the show, and for all intents and purposes carried them as decently as could be expected, I was still never confident in my singing abilities. After graduating from high school, the sad part of Flowers for Algernon unfortunately happened to me too. Little by little, my vocal instrument was used less and less, and by the time I graduated from grad school, almost all of my once promising talent had retreated, leaving me with that hideous dying cat sound once more.

I've posed this very long introduction in an attempt to explain my reasoning for choosing #23: Sing Karaoke at CityWalk's Rising Star. As I've mentioned before, I tried to compose my list with a balanced combination of things I've always wanted to do and things that scare the crap out of me. This item falls into the second camp. I think I sort of wanted to test my abilities, and see if somehow the magic from high school would come back and I'd be able to blow the audience's socks off. I also get a kick out of forcing myself to do horrifying things -- something about it just makes you feel so alive! And who knew? Maybe my casting director was sitting in the audience and this was my big break? With an impending birthday, I decided this would be the perfect venue to host a celebration of year 27.

Apropos liquid courage of choice

For those non-Orlando folks who may not know, Rising Star is a karaoke club at Universal's CityWalk where you sing on a stage with a live band and back-up singers. It's an elevated experience from standard karaoke mostly due to the swanky ambiance and 400-seat audience. Intimidation is high! Not to mention, I chose to sing the very ambitious "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele -- because there is a live band the song list is fairly limited, and I wanted to choose something that I felt comfortable with, but would allow me to actually sing versus just speak the lyrics.

We arrived at the bar just before 9pm, and the place was significantly less full than the bouncer told me it would be by that time (I was told that by 9pm on a Saturday the place was standing room only...so not true!). After ordering a few drinks, I filled out a card indicating my candidacy for the spotlight and was slotted to sing fourth. To be honest, the nerves that I was so accustomed to feeling when I knew I'd have to sing solo in high school were nowhere to be found. Not sure if this was thanks to the black feather earrings that I donned especially to prove to onlookers that I was a real rock star, because I had 11 friends in the audience, or because I knew that if I screwed up there were only about 40 people in the audience that would boo me. Needless to say, I walked up to the stage pretty damn confident and ready to tackle my song.

Then out of nowhere, the nerves reappeared. I think it happened right as the band started playing and I realized that there wasn't a very long intro for me to find my groove and prepare. So, I took a breath and started to sing, only to realize that the mic I was using was one of those where everyone in the audience can hear you perfectly, but you can't actually hear a single note of yourself singing. For anyone who has ever performed, you know this is a nightmare. It becomes almost impossible to know if you are on key or singing well -- hence the reason most real musicians use those little ear plug thingies (it transmits their voice into their ear so they can self-correct). Of course this made me even more nervous, which resulted in that throat constricting, dry-mouth, out-of-breath feeling. This was not going as planned!

Here you can really tell I am a rock star

The good news is that I made it through the song and my friends were all kind enough to lie to me and tell me I did great. The second piece of good news is that my "videographer" friend Kyle accidentally forgot to push the record button until I was walking OFF the stage, meaning my performance cannot actually be published to this blog. Oh well! The only bad news is that because of the video mishap, I can't actually play back my performance and see if I was as horrendous as I thought I was. Not a whole lot lost, if you ask me.

Regardless, I am a Star because they stamped it on my hand

The rest of the evening was much more relaxing, as we sang along to other folks' karaoke as a group and laughed when a 40-year-old man who called himself "Bad Tony" performed Jump Around. That was almost as funny as the Ice Ice Baby man, or the two geeky "we're here for a bachelor party" guys singing Don't Stop Believing. All in all, a good night for sure, and a place I'd love to check out again sometime in the future.

Before I sign off, I just want to make sure I thank Aynsley, Betsy, Kyle, Katie, Denis, Dana, Reid, Rachel, Chris, Cara and Paul for coming out for my birthday. You all helped make my night so special and I appreciate your support! :) Til next time -- au revoir (and yes, this is me practicing my budding French -- another one of my 30 Things!)!

#27: Go Fake Skydiving

This particular item on my "30 Things" list has unequivocally received the most wrath from those that are following me on this journey. "FAKE skydiving?" they ask. If your aim is adventure, challenge and conquering fears, why on earth would you decide to go fake skydiving instead of pushing yourself to experience the real thing?

Well folks, that's because I'm chicken s**t. I value my life and would very likely be haunted by nightmares filled with parachutes that fail to open, giant birds that appear out of nowhere and crash landings into shark-filled waters should I decide to actually attempt jumping out of a plane. The contradiction here is that part of me really, really wants to experience it, and thus I discovered a happy medium that a) was affordable thanks to Groupon, b) simulates the feeling of skydiving and c) offers minimal risk of bodily harm. The compromise came in the form of none other than iFly Orlando, a tourist trap conveniently located on International Drive and home to a 130 mph wind tunnel.

My partner in crime for this adventure was my sorority sister and almost-lawyer Alex (P-S: Good luck on the bar!), whom despite not seeing me since college graduation, so kindly responded to my request on Facebook for a tag-along. The two of us met promptly at 1pm for our reservation and were swiftly shepherded upstairs to the "observation" deck where you can sit and watch other people take part in their "flying 101" class. It's all a little bit comical to be honest -- those observing are positioned on one side of a giant plexi-glass-framed wind tunnel with 8-10 people donning embarrassingly blackmail-worthy "flight suits" sitting on the other side. One by one they get up and enter the flight tunnel, only to flail around like a fish out of water as an instructor pulls and prods them in an attempt to help them take flight. For a moment, you feel sort of like a spectator at a zoo. Here you are sitting in front of this glass tube and laughing to yourself as people contort their bodies every which way and make incredibly "flattering" facial expressions thanks to the wind. It's all very funny until you realize that very shortly this will be you!

After about 20 minutes of watching others in the observation deck (and intently studying the body position of those who were "successful" at flying versus those who were not), we were taken upstairs for our flying class. This wasn't much of a class, but rather an opportunity to meet our instructor, Adam, watch a short video about what the experience would be like and then learn about the body position we were supposed to mimic (arms bent at the elbows and held up by your ears, legs bent at about a 45 degree angle, back curved at the hips to create a gentle U shape, chin up). From there we were given our very own flight gear -- a jumpsuit, helmet, goggles and ear plugs -- and corralled down to the wind chamber to await our turn at flight.

At this point, I feel that it probably makes sense for me to share the video of my flight experience, as well as Alex's. Please excuse the incredibly amateur editing and crappy quality, but at 4 minutes in length, I had to reduce the quality to make the video compatible with this blog. Commentary will resume below...

As you can tell from the video, my flying skills were less than stellar -- Alex did a much better job than I did! Apparently I was bending my arms too much and my instructor kept telling me to relax, which was weird considering I felt totally relaxed! The weird thing is that as much as you think your body will just assume the right position once inside the wind tunnel, when you actually get in there for the first time, the experience can be incredibly disorienting. Not to mention you have just 60 seconds to get it "right" (the experience includes just 2 minutes of flight per person, 1 minute at a time), so there is pressure to figure things out quickly so that you can actually experience the sensation of flying. Luckily, I caught on eventually, and my second go around I had a complete blast during the 30 seconds that the instructor grabbed on to me and literally flew me up and down, spinning in circles throughout the tube.

Once everyone in the group has had their two turns, it's back upstairs to return your flight gear, get your certificates of flight, pick up your DVD (hence the reason I was able to share the above footage) and see some photos of yourself in flight (they charge $3.95 just to E-MAIL you one photo, but c'mon, if you don't have someone on the other side taking pictures for you, how can you NOT buy at least one?). And with that, you're done!

In all honesty, I left the experience a heck of a lot closer to considering going REAL skydiving someday (the instructor assured me that the feeling is almost 100% replicated by the wind tunnel and that there is no actual feeling of falling), although unfortunately, my bravado has since faded the more I have time to actually use my brain to think about the situation. At the end of the day, part of me still really wants to push myself and just go for it -- I think I may regret it when I am older if I don't -- but in the meantime, I still have to work on squashing the paralyzing fear that has prevented me from doing it thus far!

Stay tuned for a new blog post in about two weeks as I tackle yet another item on my list -- singing karaoke with a live band and back-up singers at CityWalk's Rising Star (I'm heading there for my 27th birthday, ya'll!). Video evidence will be in abundance, so it will be a sight worth seeing!