The Gong Show

One of my favorite local hangouts, the Karaoke Café, hosted a "Gong Show" Night last week. Some good friends and I took part together and had a great time stepping up to the mic to sing songs hand-picked by the K.J. randomly as "challenge" songs. If anyone in the audience didn't like what they were hearing, they could "gong" you, and if you received three "gongs" during a song, you had to quit singing.

If you, however, made it through the song before being "gonged" out, you won a prize. I was challenged to Prince's "Purple Rain" and made it through without being "gonged" to win a free dessert. I later was challenged to the Barenaked Ladies' "One Week," a real tongue twister, and was "gonged" twice during the first voice but somehow made it through the rest of the song to win a toy . . . which will be given out to some lucky niece or nephew.