Why “The Big Stage”? It’s the talent

"The Big Stage" is a contest for vocalist surrounding the Western Region of the United States. I personally fashioned it to provide a platform for local singers interested in cultivating their craft and overall marketability of their craft. Moreover, I also created it to provide its winners a monetary award large enough to afford them an opportunity to invest heavily in themselves. Since I owned the venue that hosts "The Big Stage", I believed that I could turn it into a nice source of revenue on my off revenue nights. The truth is, while I was able to fulfill most of my initial objectives, I constantly lost money in large sums during the first two phases of the contest. There just did not seem like there were enough assessable vocalist for me to turn the idea into profit. Nevertheless, it has become increasingly more fun than ever. When I think about it, I realized that the fun part of "The Big Stage" had to be, in part, one of the reasons I created it.
Presently, I believe that the reason I am having so much fun hosting "The Big Stage" at "The Palmer Room" is perhaps two fold. For one, I have been amazed at some of the talent that has performed on the stage thus far. In fact, during the last finals, I decided that I would edit the videos that we typically shoot for the pleasure of both the artist and my company. While editing, I came across an amazing singing exposition that had been written and performed by a finals contestant named Diondre Jermaine. At first, I could not believe what I was hearing. It was like I was touched by something so special, so unusual, that it affected my entire being. I could not shake it. Here I was running an average vocal contest, when suddenly; the likes of a Michael Jordan stepped across the stage. He was young, youthful, confident, and had a great look. He was wearing a suite, bow tie, tennis shoes and an Afro pick stuck in the back of his head. It was sort of Urkel meets flava flav. And as he began to tell a story in prose, I found myself caught up as if in a trance. Then this Diondre Jermaine began to tell his story with a kind of melodic and passionate clarity that almost seemed as though he was intimately sharing his special world with me. If that was all, if he had done no more than whale about his broken heart, I would have embraced him as a gifted artist whom I would have loved to book at the club again. But hold it. He was not finished. The story was not over. Suddenly he arrived at a crossroad, and the tragedy began to unfold. Unbelievably to my surprise I felt he was re-living something terribly painful. As I hung on to each and every penetrating word, I was drifting deeper and deeper into an experience that was inexplicable, ineffable but effective. Then came the scream, a controlled melodic scream. It was magic, his music was magic, and perhaps I was changed forever.
Wow. "The Big Stage" had now become something more than I had first intended it to become. It had become something that I was unaware that it could become. It had become something special. Magic, real magic had come and I do not believe that anyone who heard Diondre that night, I mean really heard him, none of them could ever be the same. It was the kind of talent that changes you. It was the kind of talent that seems to make us better; better humans. It was magic. The reason I know it was magic is because I did not hear Diondre Jermaine that night. I heard him on the night after his performance. I was so busy running around that night that I hardly heard anything from any of the performers. Oh, but I had the cameras running and that's the second thing that makes this project fun.
Yes, I had the cameras running, and they captured magic that night. No, I can't stop putting on "The Big Stage" I can't stop filming "The Big Stage" because just like there was nothing like seeing Michael Jordan defy gravity and just like we could not get enough of watching his gift at work, so too I can't stop filming nor can I stop hosting "The Big Stage". It's the talent, it's the potential talent. It's the magic that might re-appear and I can't take the chance that I might miss it. I can't take the chance that I might also miss sharing it with you.