Not too long ago, Blake Lewis was the kid who hammed it up with friends in his Bothell neighborhood, shooting hoops while doing imitations of comedian Jim Carrey.
Even just a few weeks before he made the cut for TV’s “American Idol,” he was singing at Tommy’s in the University District for a tiny cluster of a dozen people, including close friends.
Since then, the world has forever changed for the beat-boxing musician who went by the name Bshorty.
Blake Lewis is now a hunky heartthrob and a household name in millions of homes across the continent as one of the finalists on Fox Television’s singing competition.
“It’s made him famous,” said devoted dad Dallas Lewis, who showers his son with hugs while the nation smiles. “He’s not just popular. They know him all over the world.
“It’s almost unimaginable, but extremely exciting.”
Bothell is buzzing with excitement for Lewis. His fans here and across the country worked hard to propel Lewis to the show’s finale.
He will sing one last time in competition against Jordin Sparks of Glendale, Ariz., on Tuesday.
The sixth “American Idol” will be crowned Wednesday.
Many peg Lewis’ success to a legion of young girls who “power vote” for the rising pop star hundreds of times an hour.
Though he’s already a superstar, his fate on the show comes down to Tuesday’s performances and more voting by fans across the country.
If past weeks are any sign, there will be a lot of intense voting. And voting. And voting.
“We all support him and vote for him,” said neighbor Jessica Hochstrasser, 16, an Inglemoor High School student like Lewis was before her. She and her mom vote for Blake hundreds of times every week.
Lewis grew up in suburban Bothell in a house filled with music, Dallas Lewis said.
Dinah Lewis is a talented rock singer and guitar player, and she sang to her son while she was pregnant, Dallas Lewis said.
Dallas Lewis is his son’s biggest fan. He’s downloaded all of his “American Idol” studio recordings and listens to them as he drives around town.
“Just listening to him gets me emotional,” said Dallas Lewis, a construction supervisor.
Lewis has a long stretch of musical training.
He took piano lessons around age 8, and joined the Columbia Boys Choir in junior high, where he sang until his voice changed.
Then he joined school choirs and performed in high school musicals.
He started beat-boxing – mimicking electronic drum and record-scratching noises – in high school after hearing the band “m-pact.”
Coincidentally, m-pact singer Rudy Cardenas made the top 24 on this season’s “American Idol” with Lewis.
Later, he performed for a few years with the a cappella group Kickshaw.
Lewis had a normal run of jobs – McDonald’s, busing tables at Outback Steakhouse – but once he started jobs at Circuit City and Guitar Center, his paycheck went into music gear and new CDs.
“Everything he made went into music,” Dallas Lewis said.
Lewis spent years perfecting his techno and beat-boxing sound in his home recording studio and at gigs, where he is a one-man band.
Since 2002, he has performed solo in clubs, including Everett’s former Jet Deck and in Fremont at Nectar and ToST.
He eventually quit a construction job to focus on music.
“Being faithful to his music and his dream got him where he is,” Dallas Lewis said. “I’d wake up in the middle of the night, 3 or 4 in the morning and hear a little thud” of the drums in the studio. “It didn’t bother the neighbors much.”
Family and friends say Lewis has always been down to earth and levelheaded.
On TV “he hams it up a little bit,” said Maureen Rommel, 24, who has been close friends with Lewis since childhood.
Then again, Lewis was always working to be funny. “He was always entertaining, always the center of attention,” Rommel said.
And the look he gives the TV camera?
“Sultry,” Rommel said, laughing.
“Like Ricky Nelson!” said her mom, Cynthia Treharne.
But once he’s back home, it’s like old times.
“When he’s on the block, he’s Blake,” Treharne said. “He’s a really great guy. That’s really who he is. He’s playing himself.”
Some of his neighbors a few blocks over watch the show just proud to know Lewis is from Bothell. They didn’t have a clue that Lewis lived so close until May 11, when a limousine and police escort brought him home.
“He used to go to my school!” said an excited Julia Howard, 11, a student at Lockwood Elementary School.
When she found out he lived up the street, she put flowers from her garden into a water bottle and tied them to the Lewis family’s fence with a sign: “Blake you rock! From a Lockwood Leopard – and your parents are cool.”
Dallas Lewis once scooped a dead possum off the street, winning the neighborhood’s thanks, Howard said.
Sam McKeeman, 22, lives down the block from Lewis, and the two have been friends for 17 years. Lewis calls him his “little brother.”
The two played with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and video games, and McKeeman tried to follow in Lewis’ footsteps – plastering his room with glow-in-the-dark stars and joining school choirs.
The two are still close and keep in touch through MySpace pages even while Lewis is in L.A. filming the TV show.
“I think he has a long and fruitful career in front of him,” McKeeman said. “This is basically the beginning for him.”
All about Blake
Age: 25
Born: Redmond, raised in Bothell
Graduated: In 1999 from Inglemoor High School, where his classmates voted him best dancer and awarded him second place for class clown and second place for funniest student
Favorite foods: Pizza, hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies.
Favorite song: “816” by 311
Favorite decade of music 1980s
Favorite past American Idols: Kelly Clarkson and Katharine McPhee
Favorite movies: “Labyrinth,” “The Cable Guy,” “The Saint,” “The Fifth Element” and “Pee Wee Herman’s Big Adventure”
Favorite television shows: “Project Runway,” “Lost,” “Family Guy,” anything on Comedy Central, “Nip/Tuck” and “South Park”
Source: fan site Blakergirls.com
At clubs, Lewis mixes his vocals and rhythms with a $299 Korg KP2 Kaoss pad digital effect controller, a Boss loop station to repeat drum and other sounds he makes and the Line 6 green delay/looper.
What’s next?
“American Idol” finalists Lewis and Jordin Sparks of Glendale, Ariz., will face off one last time at 8 p.m. Tuesday on KCPQ 13 Fox.
Viewers will vote at the end of the show. The voting results will be announced Wednesday at the end of a two-hour finale from 8 to 10 p.m. on KCPQ Fox 13.
Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.
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