Karaoke has long elicited the ignoblest form of jokes from the west coast movie makers. They have ignored the facts and the numbers and perpetuated the karaoke stereotype of a Cameron Diaz in "my best Friends wedding. Karaoke is the second largest participation sport in this country and quite possibly the world. 34 million people sing karaoke on a regular basis, second only to bowling which boast 52 million. Karaoke nights in bars outnumber live music nights 4-1, 20 1 in Southern California. So it befuddles me as to why it took a small group of independent filmmakers in Orlando to finally paint karaoke in flattering light.
The Karaoke King is a love story/coming of age (albeit a little on the late side) movie set in America's first karaoke bar. Lil's in Orlampa Fl. is not only a karaoke bar, but a strip club and pool hall. The characters in Lil's are as abundant as ad libs in a Robin Williams movie and most they are equally as funny. The writers did their homework. I frequent karaoke clubs all over the country and these people exist. They exist in mass they frequent the night.
The directors made good use of the talent and the characters showing us both the good and bad singers much like you would see in a real club. They held true to karaoke's number one moniker. Karaoke does not discriminate; by race, creed, color, sex, gender, age, or species. It has its stars and it has its celebrities. It has its jokes and it has its moments of passion and its moments of grace.
The story revolves around two singers from the same town, Eddie Bowman (Ken Wilder) and Rupert Goldfine (Anil Kumar). Rupert leaves town and competes in American Icon and Eddie stays to rule as the perennial "Karaoke King." There is weekly competition at Lil's to crown the karaoke king and the winner gets the coin, allowing them to sing the last song of the night. When Rupert returns to give Eddie some real competition an to attain the won prize he never had, he forces Eddie to reexamine his position in the bar and his life.
The central story is nicely inter-cut with a series of vignettes around the other singers. A flamboyant show tune singer played by Brian T. Vernon. Billy a college dropout/country hick played by Aaron Kirkpatrick and the Kingmaker Devon played David Knoell. They only thing you're missing in the theater is the alcohol and the smoke.
I like this film. Not only because it's true to karaoke, but because it is an original film which is hard to fit into the typical formulaic Hollywood film classification. It would be a shame if this film didn't get picked-up for general distribution. The "Karaoke King' is more than good enough for the karaoke singing public to rally behind and call their own. This film could elevate the perception of karaoke much like what Urban Cowboy did for country dancing.
I give the film thumbs up on it's own merit and a huge thumbs up on the way it paints karaoke.
Bart Loiacono
.. www.nitelife.org
