Students turn out for first open mic night of year
9/25/2009
By Stephanie Tahtinen
Copy Editor
Student Ben Holmquist reads original poetry.
Friday night the RSC Concourse was the place to be as an estimated 150 students attended the year’s first Open Mic Night.
“People were coming and going,” said Yellowjacket Activities Crew (YAC) Advisor Allison Gerland, who estimated at its peak there were 175 people present, “but at any given time there were 150 people. This was the most well-attended event this year.”
“[It was] unbelievable,” said YAC member Mickey Holewinski, who was in charge of the sound and technology for the evening. “It was twice what our best was last year.”
Besides just a large audience, there were 20 acts that performed in the two-and-a-half hour long event. Participants began signing up an hour before the show and had a ten-minute time limit for their performance.
The performances varied from comedy, singing, playing the violin, playing the ukulele, rapping, and even a math and philosophy lesson.
For some students, it was their first time performing at Open Mic Night. Such was the case for Theresa Raab, who had to perform for an academic project. Raab is a teacher’s assistant for a first year experience class, and the class had to do something they were scared of doing, so she sang “Drops of Jupiter” by the group Train.
“It went pretty good,” Raab said after her performance. “I got a little lost, but [the audience] helped me it, so it was good – very supportive audience tonight.”
With such a large audience, many first time performers were understandably nervous. The atmosphere was very welcoming, though, and the audience shouted out encouragement to the nervous or struggling and clapped and sang along.
If you missed the show on Friday, there are more Open Mic Nights ahead. YAC has planned one a month. The dates of future Open Mic Nights can be found in the activities calendar, which can be picked up at the RSC information desk.
“People were coming and going,” said Yellowjacket Activities Crew (YAC) Advisor Allison Gerland, who estimated at its peak there were 175 people present, “but at any given time there were 150 people. This was the most well-attended event this year.”
“[It was] unbelievable,” said YAC member Mickey Holewinski, who was in charge of the sound and technology for the evening. “It was twice what our best was last year.”
Besides just a large audience, there were 20 acts that performed in the two-and-a-half hour long event. Participants began signing up an hour before the show and had a ten-minute time limit for their performance.
The performances varied from comedy, singing, playing the violin, playing the ukulele, rapping, and even a math and philosophy lesson.
For some students, it was their first time performing at Open Mic Night. Such was the case for Theresa Raab, who had to perform for an academic project. Raab is a teacher’s assistant for a first year experience class, and the class had to do something they were scared of doing, so she sang “Drops of Jupiter” by the group Train.
“It went pretty good,” Raab said after her performance. “I got a little lost, but [the audience] helped me it, so it was good – very supportive audience tonight.”
With such a large audience, many first time performers were understandably nervous. The atmosphere was very welcoming, though, and the audience shouted out encouragement to the nervous or struggling and clapped and sang along.
If you missed the show on Friday, there are more Open Mic Nights ahead. YAC has planned one a month. The dates of future Open Mic Nights can be found in the activities calendar, which can be picked up at the RSC information desk.
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