Karaoke Coloring Night!

I don't remember exactly how we decided to put karaoke and coloring together. I know karaoke first started bouncing around because someone asked what kind of activity would get me there.

The thing is, I never went to single adult activities before. I appreciate them now, but once I am no longer on the committee, I may return to that pattern. It's not personal, but I am so busy all the time that I don't seek out additional things to do.

That's not true for everyone though, and if I am going to be involved I am going to do a good job, especially with karaoke. It can be hard to get people to participate. Outside of church activities that reluctance is usually being broken down by it being late at night with people drinking. That's not going to happen at a church activity.

I have been very familiar with the benefits of coloring; singing has some compatible benefits. I decided to frame things around that. Sing. Color. Play. Do the things that you used to do all the time without even thinking, but somehow getting older slowed you down. Maybe that's why these things are so good for you. Maybe they take us back to a time when we were younger, and more vibrant. More free.

Then it became a matter of thinking of all the things that could go wrong, and trying to fix them. They initially wanted to combine it with a dinner. That's a horrible idea. Getting people to go through the song lists, pick songs, get up and sing while eating a full meal, and get us out of there at a reasonable time is not going to happen. Karaoke food is finger food. Since we were focusing on color and good for you, the refreshments were colorful fruits and vegetables: strawberries, baby carrots, pineapple, kiwi fruit, and purple grapes. (Blueberries would have put me over budget.) Plus M&Ms!

Tablecloths would not be a good surface for coloring, but the tables at the church are a little bumpy too. Okay, we will put butcher paper across the tables. It is smooth, people can draw if they want, and it adds to the color, as we had tables that were red, orange, yellow, and blue.

One of the committee members had a karaoke machine and some music. Would it be enough? Initial e-mail attempts to get a list failed. It required a phone call, a hand off, and typing up the songs myself. It was not enough songs. That's okay; I ordered a 5-CD set. We only needed about two hours of music, but being able to find a song you like matters. That did mean typing up another hundred songs.

Would we have enough turnout? There are people who will be turned off by karaoke, associating it with late nights and alcohol. Also, they might be scared to sing. You can color without singing, but would that have enough appeal? I contacted several people directly to try and get them out, or at least make a case for why they should consider it. We didn't have as much turnout as I hoped, but we had some new people, and they may come to other things. In addition, those contacts were good, even with those who didn't come.

I wish I'd had a better idea of how many would have come. That would have solved the budget issue of both getting blueberries and being able to have 64-count instead of 24-count boxes of crayons, because I had eight tables, and we could have made it with four. But each of the eight tables had eight each of three different coloring sheets at various levels of difficulty. Oh, and there were colorful Life Savers to act as lozenges.

One thing I knew was that I would need to be willing to go first singing, I would need to have other people ready to go, and any other thing that could help loosen up people would be good.

I took some tips from the Sing Along Sound of Music. A coordinator there had warmed us up, singing one line and having the audience sing the next. We did that. I gave some tips (choose a song you love and own it, don't worry about your voice). We practiced giving a hearty round of applause, because anyone who came up was going to get one. This was going to be a supportive environment.

We also had group sings. Songs we had everyone sing together (with me leading) included "Sing" in the style of The Carpenters (easy chorus, very familiar), "YMCA" in the style of The Village People (familiar and hand motions so it really loosens people up), and "Stand By Me" in the style of Ben E. King (that was our closer). On my own I sang "Tainted Love" in the style of Soft Cell and "You Spin Me Round" in the manner of Dead or Alive. At the request of one friend, I was a backup dancer on "Fame".

I would have liked more people there, but I am so happy for everyone who did come and sing. I know it was hard for some people - it took some time and encouragement - but then it was good for us to share it.

And everyone colored well. More on that tomorrow.