Cory Winget of Oak Harbor is, understandably, nervous.
Saturday night, the 19-year-old “Boombox Kid” could get his big break when he takes the stage for “Showtime at the Apollo On Tour” at the Paramount Theater in downtown Seattle.
Winget and 14 other acts – including the Breaking Point Dance Company of Edmonds, a formidable opponent – will face one of the rowdiest, most critical audiences around. They’ll also try to please The Executioner, played by comedian C.P. Lacey, the syndicated late-night TV and stage show’s flamboyant master of ceremonies.
“It’s extremely exciting,” said Winget. “This is my biggest thing I’ve ever done and it’s scaring me.”
All 15 finalists (selected at auditions last month) will have about three minutes to win a trip to Amateur Night at the world-famous home base of the show, the Apollo Theater in Harlem, N.Y., “where stars are born and legends are made.”
Billie Holiday, James Brown, Chris Rock, Celine Dion, Britney Spears, Busta Rhymes and many others have all made stops at the Apollo.
It’s more than a little intimidating for Winget, whose talent is beat boxing, also known as vocal percussion. Breathy clicks, clacks and booms – as well as a shockingly convincing imitation of a Jetsons-style spacecraft – are all part of Winget’s self-taught repertoire.
He hopes his uncanny knack for turning beats into a musical flow without an instrument will give him an edge.
“I want to take my stuff on tour and I want to make music. It’s a huge chance,” Winget said, adding that, despite his fan base, he fears the wrath of the audience, which helps determine the winners.
“They’re the most notorious crowd ever,” he said. “You’ve got to make sure you’re keeping them happy. They don’t care how old you are, they don’t care what you look like, they will boo you if they don’t like you.”
Winget dreams of taking his act well beyond Whidbey Island and Washington to someday become an artist-producer guru, perhaps the next Kanye West.
Winget’s routine Saturday night will alternate between beat boxing and singing, featuring Outkast’s “The Way You Move.”
“I’ve got the lyrics and the beat,” Winget said. “It’s pretty cool.”
“Showtime at the Apollo On Tour,” now in its fourth year of visiting Seattle and its fifth year overall, has gleaned talent from 16 cities since 2002, including Leah LaBelle from Seattle, an “On Tour” finalist in 2003 who later placed 12th on “American Idol” in 2004.
LaBelle, according to the Internet Movie Database, has been doing well since then. She signed a contract in 2005 with Sixthboro Entertainment and also recorded a demo with Grammy-winning producer Andreao “Fanatic” Heard.
Seattle’s 2005 winner of “On Tour,” Elisha Myers, went on to appear live at the Apollo Theatre, where she was highlighted as a young artist to watch.
Saturday’s show – featuring a jazz saxophonist, numerous male and female vocalists, percussionists and rappers – is also immensely important to the Breaking Point Dance Company, which has a studio and three performance groups based in Edmonds.
“This is so huge for the group – if we win and we go to New York,” said 27-year-old co-owner Anna Matuszewski, who dances and teaches at the company along with co-owner Wade Sugiyama, 23, who dances and teaches, too. “It’s just a new door, a new avenue that, hopefully, will lead to something.”
BPDC’s choreographed routines feature an eclectic mix of hip hop moves, break dancing, street jazz, popping and krumping, a new fast style of street dancing featured in the 2005 documentary “Rize.”
“We try to incorporate as much wow as possible to get the audience going,” Matuszewski said, adding that fans can expect to see the group of 12 doing a fully choreographed dance performance with formation changes and “lots of texture.”
| 8 p.m. Saturday, The Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St., Seattle. Tickets $15 to $28 (plus service charges) at www.theparamount.com, the Paramount and The Moore Theatre box offices and Ticketmaster outlets (www.ticketmaster.com or 206-292-2787).on |
Matuszewski and Sugiyama founded the company in 2002 and have since performed at a variety of venues and events, near and far, including the Northwest Folklife Festival, the Experience Music Project and the Seattle Children’s Museum.
BPDC members have also performed at the Microsoft Xbox holiday party (twice), the Liquid Lounge in Los Angeles and the R&B/Hip Hop Conference Awards in Miami.
“Usually when people get to this level, they all move down to L.A. and get agents and they try to get into videos or whatever,” Matuszewski said, looking forward to being the only dance group in the lineup. “We are so excited. It’s really inspiring.”
Reporter Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037 or sjackson@heraldnet.com.
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