Milwaukee auditions start Wednesday morning for singers between the ages of 15 and 28 who've registered to try their luck in front of the "American Idol" casting folks.
While the registration process is cut and dried, the audition process at the Bradley Center is the first hurdle wannabe "Idol" singers have to get through.
It's clearly more than just a singing competition, so how do you break through and get a shot before the judges? And what happens when you're actually facing the judges -- even though the toughest, Simon Cowell, has left Fox's top-rated "reality" competition.
I turned to five people who have some insight into "Idol" to answer those question. Before their Summerfest concert, I asked winner Lee DeWyze and runners up "Big Mike" Lynche, Siobhan Magnus, Katie Stevens and Andrew Garcia for their advice on how to succeed in the auditions.
DeWyze told me that when he started in the competition, he didn't even have his eyes on the "Idol" crown.
"When I started, it was just to see how far I could get," he said. "And I just kept going. Really, that's what happened."
Here are some tips for Wednesday's Milwaukee auditioners:
- DeWyze: "Don't be afraid to risk everything to do what you love, whether it be 'American Idol' or anything else, just get out there and do your thing the best you can without any worries. And it's gonna seem really scary at first... Really, it's not as bad as it looks, just sing, and don't worry about the judges. Just relax."
- Lynche, who came in fourth place: "Go in and just be yourself ... If anything, don't try to look the part. Wear what you normally wear and focus on your talent ... Don't let nerves stop you from reaching your dreams, it's very easy to get nervous in those situations. But you've got take that, and really take every audition as this is my one chance, every audition."
- Magnus, the sixth-place finisher, had some specific advice for young singers, with the age limit lowered to 15 this year: "If you're that young and you think you want to do this, have a really good think about it first. They might not know what they're getting themselves into. It's a very very intense process and it's not something I would recommend for a 15-year-old to go through. If you're a minor, you still have to go to school while you are on the show. It's a lot of work."
- Stevens, who came in eighth and auditioned for the show at 16: "Just go out there and do what you love, be confident ... Just don't lose sight of what you want, and don't think that you can't do it, because that's what's going to make you sidetrack, is if you sit there and say, 'everybody's so much better than me.' Just do what you love, and that shows. And that's what's gonna make you stick out."
- Garcia, who ended up in ninth place: "I want them to go in there remembering always, at all times 'It's music, this is what I love doing no matter what the judges say...' Don't give up because the judges say something bad. No, keep doing what you wanna do. If you love it, if you wake up thinking about it, if go to sleep thinking about it, that's what you wanna do and that's what you're gonna do."
You can register to audition for "Idol" at Milwaukee's Bradley Center through 8 a.m. Wednesday.
Details are available at the Idol Web site.
By the way, "Idol" host Ryan Seacrest tweeted Monday night that he's on his way to Milwaukee: "headed to Milwaukee wed. for @americanidol auds...who is coming out to see us?"
There's no tweet yet from Milwaukee's "Idol" finalist, Danny Gokey. But word is he'll be here Wednesday as well.
So long, Milwaukee: Channel 12 morning news reporter Kyler Burgi took to Twitter and Facebook to announce his imminent departure from the ABC station.
Writes Burgi: "Next month I'll be starting law school at the University of Denver. Law school has always been something I've wanted to do, and at the ripe old age of 25 I felt like this was the right time to make a change.
"Denver is a nice city I'm looking forward to exploring. But don't be surprised to see me back here eventually."
Burgi, a Marquette University graduate, started at Channel 12 in September 2008, coming from Green Bay's WGBA-TV.
His last day on Channel 12 is Friday.
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
