Article by Kristina Velpel, Marshal Wiegand, Zach Nabers, Zibo Dai
Friends. Singing. Dancing. What’s not to love right? Right! One of the events that has been put on on multiple occasions so far this semester is karaoke night in the black room café. Upon entering the black room café, the energy starts to build. You see everyone anxiously waiting for the sign up sheet to be placed on the circle table by the door. You can hear the buzz of all the people in the room trying to figure out what song they want to sing and if it will be a solo or their friends will join in. The great debate begins about who will go on stage first and open up the night.
TKT has been the leader of these events along with the tremendous help of Jeremy Whisenton. The night starts with our fearless hosts: Peyton Bates and Ben Schuette. The lights go down amongst the crowd, and the stage lights become brighter with the thrill that something is about to happen. You can hear our hosts announcing who is the starting line-up for the night after they give us a clever joke or two to get everyone in a happy-go-lucky mood. The first act is up! The tv screens around the room start to play a song, and as soon as the tune starts, everyone in the room cheers for the upcoming song about to be performed. The room is instantly filled with claps, cheers, and whistles from the crowd. You can see the confidence of the performers build as the song reaches its peak.
After the first performer has ended, the hosts regain the focus on stage. Peyton comes in hot with another dad joke to do with karaoke. The audience looks around and laughs with one another as the next performer takes the stage. This cycle continues as the night goes on with different genres of music being sung. Music ranging from showtunes to rock and some other bops sprinkled in between.
This event in particular on campus brings out the most joy in me personally. I have grown up loving to sing, dance, and be on stage, so this event lets me have all those things. I have performed at karaoke night both times that the black room café has hosted this semester. The first performance was done with my friend Jordan Peebles, where we sang a song from the Disney movie ‘Frozen.’ The second performance was done with my friend René Espinosa, where we performed “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk the Moon. My friends and I love being there for the energy that enthralls the room as well. While the events take place later in the night usually, you would never be able to tell because of the way time passes so fast and people that come have fun. I guess it is true what people say: time flies when you’re having fun. At the last karaoke night, Jeremy Whisenton had the amazing idea to host a kiddie (aka non-alcoholic) cocktail bar for the event, which was a huge hit! Each event gets better and better with more and more talent that presents itself.
As our time in the Blackroom Café comes to an end, our hosts return to the stage once more to announce the final performance of the night. This performance is usually the most hyped one yet as the crowd doesn’t want the night to end, so we make the most of the time we have left. After it’s over, our hosts thank us for coming out and for making the night a great one. The lights come back on and people begin to grab their things. Everyone clears out of the Blackroom Café, but not without reliving the performances with their friends as they leave, and some reenacting them too.
If you and your friends are looking for an on campus event, I highly recommend this one! It will leave you singing the night away and yearning for more.
