Dr. Dreiz is back and ready to share his comedic adventure at the American Idol Experience. After you read be sure to head on over to Mouse Tales and tell him we said hello. Have a magical day!
Well guys I know it has been a long, long time but we have another addition of Dr. Dreiz’s Disney delights today. Since my year end review a lot has gone on in our household. We now have a beautiful 3-month-old baby and if you go over to mouse tales on Facebook you can see pictures of her in Disney outfits updated frequently. We also have moved homes. With all this going on it has been difficult for me to keep my blogging up. This is one I have wanted to talk about for a very long time here. It’s a little bit of an embarrassing story from Disney’s Hollywood’s Studios from October 2011.
In October 2011 Stacey and I were in Walt Disney World for our biannual trip and we found ourselves in the midst of a 2 day monsoon. There was one afternoon where Stacey had enough of the rain and needed to go back to the hotel room to start drying out and Dr. Dreiz decided to explore the parks alone, which is always a fun time. I found myself at Disney’s Hollywood’s Studios in the middle of the afternoon. I did my usual stuff at DHS (which is ride the Tower of Terror, Aerosmith’s Rock ‘n Roller Coaster, Star Tours, Tattooine traders, etc.). I was killing time and was a little bored. I found myself walking by the American Idol experience, which in several trips to the parks we have never paid any attention to before. There were some recruiters out front asking people if they wanted to try out. They stopped me in the rain and asked if I wanted to come try out for the American Idol experience. What the heck, I had nothing else to do and this was probably a fun little karaoke thing right?
Now anyone who knows me knows that I have many talents and a gifted voice is not one of these; not at all. Who cares though, right? This is Disney World; this is just for fun right? I was sure that it would be a little karaoke thing that would be fun and make it seem like it was on American Idol and we will have a good laugh and then I would leave.
They have me come in and walk down the hallway where there are people in side rooms warming up their voices in a very serious fashion, like they are about to go on stage in front of a full packed house. What exactly had gotten myself into? Who were these people?
They led me into a room and it is just me and one other person and then they shut the door. This is a very small room. The person looks up with me with a pen and paper and says “hello welcome to the American Idol experience”. I smile and say “I do not really know what I am doing here. I’m just killing a little time was by myself and trying to have some fun”. She then explained what this was. It was not what I thought it was. It was not just something anyone and everyone can go into just to have a little fun and act like they are on American Idol. No, this was not that at all.
I was informed that I was to sing 30 seconds a capella of a song of my choosing. I embarrassingly explained to her that I thought this would be a karaoke where I would choose a song that they would have music and lyrics for me. I told her I was probably in the wrong place and that I thought this was just kind of like a ride and something for fun and I was not too serious about it. I do not even sing in the shower. I only sing in the car when the music is so loud that I can’t even hear myself. I told her that I am a physician and have no musical ability in my body at all. I cannot carry a tune and I do not play any instruments. It appeared all the people in the hall were very serious about it. I also explained to her that there is no way I can come back later in the day for a follow-up if somehow she did go to get past the screeching that was my singing. She assured me everything was okay and told me to just sing 30 seconds of a song. I then explained to her that my singing can make alley cats squeal in a high pitch and break glass. So here I was stuck inside this room with a lady I do not know who is waiting for me to sing. This is like something out of one of my nightmares.
I completely froze. I could not think of any songs. I have no idea what to sing. I kept trying to think but no lyrics or songs were coming to my head. Earlier in the morning we had just been in Mickey’s Philharmagic and the only song I could even think of was a Whole New World from Aladdin. I try one last time to get out of this and tell her she really does not want to hear me sing, yet she persists. I can feel my hands trembling as I take a deep breathe in and start belting out “I can show you the world, shining shimmering splendid……..”
I kind of blacked out at that point. I do not really remember what happened after that. All I remember is I finished and looked at the lady, waiting for her ears to bleed. She smiled and applauded and told me “I have got to be honest here I was really, really expecting the worst. You’re pretty good. You’re actually really good you just don’t have a lot of tone training”. She was being very, very nice.
I have relived this horrific 30 seconds of my life many times since this took place. What other song should I have done? How could I have made this better? Am I really that tone deaf? I have practiced in my car over and over again in anticipation for my next trip to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I have gone back and forth on the songs that I would sing the next time I going to do this.
All in all it was an interesting experience. I’m glad that I did it and saw what it was all about. Would I recommend this for everyone? Well know first is that it is a little more serious than going on there and singing karaoke. You need to have your song picked out and ready to go without any music or lyrics at all. I was completely caught off guard by this. It is not the “ride” or themed activity that I thought it was going to be, but for people with a better voice and mine I am sure it is a good experience. Apparently if you do not make the cats squeal they invite you back in the evening to sing with other good singers on stage. I would not know that.
Thank you guys for joining me again here on Dr Dreiz’s Disney Delights.. Hope to see you again real soon!
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