JAY — Lip syncing competitions are not for the faint of heart.

“I can’t feel my throat,” stated Kaylin Beck, minutes after finishing her first number. Beck is a student at Spruce Mountain High School in Jay and a second annual contestant in the Lip Sync Competition held last week. “I’m actually doing two this year. I’m also doing Do you want to steal a TARDIS? Which is a Do you want to build a snowman? parody.”

Beck, in a bright blue blazer and spiked red hair, informed me that a TARDIS is a time machine from the science fiction show, Dr.Who.

I had no idea.

“We have people dressed up like hillbillies. It’s going to be an interesting show for sure,” Beck continued. Which were my thoughts exactly.

The show had 15 acts all together, five of which were exempt from the judging. Instead of being a part of the competitive side of the show, the five exempt acts were students acquiring class credit. The class is called “Broadway Bound” and is “less of a performance class but more of a history class,” explained Kymberli Bryant, teacher at Spruce Mountain and organizer of the lip sync contest.

“It’s really a Broadway appreciation class. These kids might not be professional singers but they love the music,” Bryant continued before the rushing off to help the next group prepare.

With students of the class emceeing, whoops from the mostly high school aged audience and the National Honors Society selling grilled cheeses at the back, the whole event had a real community feel.

But as I said, lip syncing competitions are not for the faint of heart.

“Act two got the axe. Just kidding. I don’t know what happened to them.” Caleb Beaudoin told me back stage, or I should say next to stage, through the cafeteria doors in the hallway. Caleb is a sophomore at Spruce Mountain and is also in his second year of the competition. “Last year was awful. It was a learning curve for sure.” He went on to tell me about his number for this year’s show, a group act called What Women Want.

“But it’s not what you think it’s about. It’s not masochistic. You’ll see.”

And it wasn’t. A spoof song about what it takes to impress ladies by learning air guitar and buying a saxophone at a yard sale- it was a perfect lip sync contest song. The boys rocked it and came in third place in the overall contest, winning $25. The cash prizes were mostly gathered from the $3 entrance fee and all proceeds from the event were donated to the Cathy Nichols Fund.

The second place winner, deemed “scary and almighty Jillian” by a nearby friend, did a rendition of Tiny Tim’s Tip Toe Through the Tulips complete with ukulele and weirdness.

You should go Google this song right now because it is strange, creepy and incredibly interesting.

Jillian Buote is not strange or creepy, but was incredibly interesting to talk to and a performer at heart for sure. When asked about her predications for the winnings she simply said “Whatever happens, happens. There are some really awesome people doing really awesome things tonight. If I win anything I’ll be happy.” Which she did and she deserved every dollar of it.

But the least faint heart of all was Emma DiPompo. In overalls and steel toe boots DiPompo nailed it. Her lip syncing skills were unmatchable and with a song like ‘Mississippi Squirrel Revival’ it’s a good thing her skills were so sharp. A four-minute song with hardly any repetition, DiPompo had her hands full; but she hit every word with facial expressions, gestures and even a small theatrical piece to match. DiPompo pulled in first and won $100 for her efforts.

By the end of the night the whole audience was doing what the Broadway song ‘You Gotta Have Heart’ said to do. “Sung” to us by four grinning high schoolers doing the Grapevine in unison, we were all “so happy we were hummin’.”