I don’t know why I keep doing it but I somehow always seem to find myself dragged in front of the TV when The Voice, X-Factor or one of those “reality” talent shows are on.
Now don’t get me wrong. I have no trouble with talent shows. My earliest memory of TV Talent Shows goes back to New Faces on Channel 9 with Bert Newton or Pot of Gold with Tommy Hanlon Jr. and Bernard King .. The original Kyle Sandilands arsehole judge.
Now I will save my thoughts on the current crop of TV talent shows for another time but the thing that makes me yell at the television is the crying and the bloody sob story that comes with contestants.
OK.. The kid tells us a story of misfortune, heartbreak and misery. What would be even more heartbreaking is if after all of that, they’ve got no talent after all.
I should also add that My Kitchen Rules and Masterchef have the same sook segments too. “It would me a lot to me (sniff) to win… I live for food (sniff)”…
WE ALL LIVE FOR FOOD! Now COOK!
Now before I get accused of being harsh, allow me to add some perspective to all of this.
Did the audiences in Hamburg in the early 60’s know or care that John Lennon was being looked after by his aunt because his beloved mother was run down and killed by a drunk, off- duty police officer? Did they care how he had been a troubled child knowing his dad had run off and he had lost his Mum?
Did Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles or Jose Feliciano let their blindness get in the way of their music? Did you ever see them give a sob story on TV?
Roy Orbison lost his two sons in a house fire and lost his first wife in a road accident and he grieved as we all would have and he kept going.
Beethoven was deaf… Enough said there!
The list goes on. In fact, heartache and misery are what makes many artists who they are. I would rather see someone get up and say “I’m here putting it on the line and ready to sing and I’m not letting my baggage stop me”.. No crying, no sympathy vote, just up front confidence and courage and allowing their music to tell their story instead.
Susan Boyle, god love her, came out on stage, got mocked and judged because of her appearance and stuck it up everyone’s collective arses when she started singing. There was no sob story on the night. Her voice did the job and it transcended everything else. It was later that we learnt she had a learning disability, was bullied as a child and was unable to keep a steady job as a result.
I’m now middle aged and many musicians and entertainers I work with, are in the same age group. Many of us are taking drugs to help keep us alive as opposed to the stuff we took in the 70s that nearly killed us.
We don’t go on stage and tell our audiences before we start that we have heart conditions, are being treated for cancer, coming off rehab, a divorce or that our kids are giving us grief etc. All we’d get back is “get on with it”.
We get out there and do what we love and more often than not, do it to forget about all of that baggage for a while.
So forgive me if I’m being a callous bastard, but at the end of the day, we all have our issues. I wish we could all live in an ideal world and be free of the shit life throws at us. At the end of the day however, when you stand up and say you have something to offer, don’t let your life’s baggage get in the way of what you have to show us. Let your talent speak for itself.
