Crap, I had a rant title. by Kara
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 9:41 AM

Got comped tickets last night to see Spamalot at Chrysler Hall, as some of you know. Was curious to see it on tour in America a year after I'd seen it in London -- check out the differences and also go with people who'd never seen it. Excellent, not that that surprised me. There were a handful of changes, some of which weren't expected. Enjoyed myself immensely anyway, but those nice little surprises made it even better.

Now. Something a bit more serious.

The Co-Writer with the Longest Hair, Brakus (doer of karaoke/AMVness at cons), and I were called upon to judge karaoke at Nekocon last weekend. There was a pair of gentlemen who were unmistakeably excellent and took first place. We remembered one from last year, so we weren't surprised at his talent, and he ended up giving the trophy to his equally talented friend.

I thought we did an excellent job of judging. Until, that is, this was pointed out to me on the Nekocon forum:

The. same. guy who won last year who played 'the fan card' by singing an uber-romancy song (so it sounded) WON AGAIN by doing nearly the same thing and had another guy with him.

He won two years in a row? Are we prone now to reward singers who have fangirls who scream their bloody heads off the minute they pull off a nice note or simply have the "bishie" presence? It's bad enough that I enjoyed the song but I have to put him down because he's won in two years in a row. It's as if the very fact he entered...NOBODY ELSE HAS A CHANCE OF WINNING.

G-Goodness. I hadn't thought of this. I mean, he's right, you know. Rewarding people with talent does sort of take away the chance for less talented people to be rewarded, doesn't it? I mean, fangirls cheer for anything, quite honestly, so write that out as any sort of factor. Only one of us judges knows a hell of a lot about the show it even came from, so 'the fan card' is out. And as for 'uber-romancy,' two of us were guys and the third one was me, so write that out, too.

I guess that leaves talent, and I forgot that we aren't meant to praise people with talent because that means less talented and less accomplished people will feel bad.

I've learned my lesson. Next year we'll be sure to ignore the good, deserving singers and give trophies to people who really want them very much indeed.

(Incidentally ... who is John Galt, anyway?)

If you have been, BLOW ME.