Two weeks ago, I was supposed to attend the live taping of Lucky Break, a local talent show filmed at the Lone Butte Casino. Our friend, Jeff Lowy of Encore Creative, is a judge. Out of the blue, he called that day to ask if H or I wanted to be a judge, one of the three judges called in sick. “I’ll do it!” I said.

We got to the casino and I was impressed. It’s not bad for a local casino. (Although I haven’t been to any of the others.) But it was nice. I found one of the Lone Butte contacts and he explained the rules of the show.

Three judges give a contestant between 1-7 and the highest score could be 21 – get it, it’s a casino.. We should be aware what we are scoring and not unintentionally create a tie. We should not talk to contestants. It was pretty basic.

The other judge showed up – it was Tom Anderson, who owned a Scottsdale hot spot called Anderson’s Fifth Estate for several years before recently converting it into a gay club called Club Forbidden.

The host was the DJ of a local radio station named Chris Parker. He was pretty good at keeping things moving. We then saw ten contestants sing to Kareoke.

When Chris introduced me, somehow he labeled me a “virgin” judge which got a few laughs. Later when I messed up the name of the show – and the casino, I reminded everyone that I was the virgin. I felt like a ditz but oh well.

The music was all over the board – country, Madonna, rock, etc.

At the end we almost had a tie between a hot girl and a really talented male singer but the singer won out.

We could blow airhorns if people were really really bad. Well, one time Jeff just took it upon himself because he thought the performer was so bad. She was a really sweet, pretty girl.. with not such a great voice. And then one of the last performances was so bad that all three of us blew the airhorns. I tried to explain to the guy that it wasn’t him, it was the song.

So, all in all, it was a very exciting night! I laughed, I cried, and I really felt for those contestants. I couldn’t do it – get up and sing karaoke and be judged in front of a crowd. But, who knows, maybe someone will call in sick again and they’ll think of me.. Thanks, J for the opportunity!