Laurie Meier commanded the stage at Elder Citizens Recreation Association with his banjo in hand and won the crowd over with his quick strumming and yodeling at the first ever Seniors Idol contest on Saturday night.
The centre was packed to the point the
organizers ran out of tickets.
"We weren't expecting this many people. We only printed 80 tickets and there are way more people in here than that," said organizer Odelia Kranz.
Originally, the singing competition was going to pit all the seniors centres in town against each other to see who would reign as the best singer, but when those plans fell through Kranz decided to put on the show anyway.
"Because it has become an ECRA only event, I guess that means we are all winners already," said Kranz, who played double-duty as the emcee.
Pam Kranz, a singer in the White Spruce City Chorus, Allan Thorp, a local accordion and harmonica player and this reporter played the parts of Idol judges Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell and
Randy Jackson for the night.
The judging criteria was separated into three categories: sound, originality and
showmanship.
Coming in second place was Gerry Deboer, who plays with the Mud River Band and third place went to Joe Fugle, a late addition to the contestant roster who came from Fort St. James to compete.
Meier has been mastering the banjo and his yodeling skills for many years and is known around town to walk down the street while singing.
One of the highlights of the evening was when, after the awards were handed out, all 10 contestants returned to the stage and jammed together playing everything from Johnny Cash to Elvis Presley.
"At 10 p.m., I had to tell the musicians they could do one more number; I think the crowd would have stayed there all night," said Odelia.
"What a great night - the talent was superb and such a great variety," said Pam Kranz.
The other contestants were: Gordon Dorish, Scott Barron, Ron Theil, Margaret Keibel, John Rogers, Mae Wallin, Marlene Bernier.
The tickets for the sold-out show were $8, with the proceeds going back to ECRA.
ECRA plans on hosting another Idol
next year.
