Folk you, Elvis

I think Jeremy and I share an equal amount of mediocrity when it comes to our musical talents.

Where he often fails, (ahem, singing on key), I pick up the slack (not well mind you, but on key nonetheless). Where I fail, (every ukulele solo I’ve ever attempted) Jeremy shines!

This mediocrity, along with our awesome band name (the buddymollys, of course) has taken our talents internationally – all the way into the hearts of audience members in Vilseck, Germany.

After numerous jams in our living room, we decided to audition for a talent show. We weren’t expecting much, just a way to overcome our stage fright and bring the sound of the ukulele into the hearts of strangers. And what better way to do both than to share a stage with those who can’t cut in the big bad world of music either. Ahhh.

Come to find out - it’s much easier performing to the audience of one Sky dog in your living room or singing with a choir of liquored up friends in the local pub.

Sitting on the cold, vast stage leaves you calling for the warm embrace that only your mama can provide. (Where were you Linda?!)

Saturday, the night of the talent show, snuck up on us a bit. The morning of, we practiced our two songs again, messing up in various places, forgetting the words, but shrugging it off … not much we could do about it now.

In the talent show line-up, we were sandwiched between intermission and an Elvis impersonator. After nervously peeing collectively 9 times the first hour of the show, we were as ready as we were going to be to play in front of the 300 folks in the auditorium.

When our queue song (appropriately Joan Jett’s “I love Rock-n-roll) came on the loud speaker, Jeremy and I walked slowly on stage, our ukulele’s tucked under our arms.

After announcing to the audience that we were going to “Folk their world,” we started our folky uke version of “Ice Ice Baby.”

I’m pretty sure the crowd was stunned and it took them a few lines to realize I was, in fact, singing Vanilla Ice. The cheers came and as we ended the song with an appropriate “word to your mother,” the crowd gave us a standing ovation.

This gave us the confidence we needed to rock out to Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA” for our second tune. When Jeremy belted his line that “the Jay-Z song was on,” the crowd sang along.

I can honestly and bipartisanly (I’m aware this isn’t a word…) say, we were the first contestants to get the crowd rocking.

The cheers continued as we sauntered backstage to hang with our groupies and sip Cognac. We rode the wave.

The next act, Elvis, rode a wave as well - ours. Oh Elvis. Let’s talk Elvis. Elvis (not his real name) had a great voice, he sounded somewhat similar to the actual Elvis (his real name, yes). Elvis look-a-like was dressed in flashy clothing and held (although did not play) a guitar while gyrating his hips. His entourage gathered around the stage in awe, cheering. He had talent, but arguably not his own.

Alas, the buddymollys were no match for aforementioned gyrating hips, as Elvis took home the gold, (and the Ipod, damn it).

After the decision, the judges mentioned how they almost came to blows in the back while deciding between us and Elvis. How Elvis pushed his way in front is still a mystery. But we snuggle up to second place, happy, yet I-podless, still.

The highlight and redemption of the night came a few moments after we ho-hummed back to our seats to collect our instruments. Two young high school hipsters came up to us, shook our hands and said, rather calmly, “Folk yeah.”

Folk, yeah, indeed.