Mary Roach
Psychodiva Mary Roach (aka Mary Guilbeaux and sometimes written "Mary Roche") was the final contestant shown on last night's show. Basically she acted a little strange (a bit Canadian, if you ask me) and did some standard awful singing, self-described as "pop rock meets broadway meets jazz and R&B".
The judges then hand it over to Simon to explain to her that she is one of the worst they have ever heard. This prompted Mary to later say "The fact that they said that . . . that doesn't make me want to pursue any kind of singing career." I really don't think she understands that this really was their goal.
I always watch the bad singers with a healthy amount of skepticism because sometimes it's hard to distinguish the merely attention starved from the sincerely oblivious tone-deaf. When you get the opportunity to find them, it's really quite a treat. Check out the video of Mary's audition here.
I love the bad singing in the auditions, which is precisely why I only watch the audition episodes. I would much rather that Fox left it at that, because people will watch these episodes for exactly that reason. They don't have to be told why this is fun. What bothers me is that Fox is all too willing to attempt to cash in on the William Hung phenomenon once again. William Hung and all that jazz was simply awesome, but Fox has tried to cling onto that phenomenon too much. Not only did we have a show bringing back the worst of the worst last season, but now we have to hear Fox pimping Hung's name left and right. I really don't want to hear the phrase "Who will be the next William Hung?"
From what I saw in the first episode, there were no William Hungs there. William Hung is unique in that he is filled with an overwhelmingly enthusiastic naivete. Not only does he clearly love to sing, but he clearly doesn't let obstacles such as horrible voice quality get in the way. Nothing has compared to that yet.
Just let the new batch of horrible Idol-wannabes sing for themselves.
Update: Idle Idols was fortunate enough to interview Mary Roach about her American Idol experience. To read the full interview, check out Mary Roach's Interview.
Update: Finally, the full Mary Roach audition video is available online! If you still want to watch the snippets from the official Idol site (no singing, mind you), check out Mary Roche Speaks.
