American Idol: San Francisco Auditions

Hello everyone and welcome back to another edition of Idol ramblings! Thankfully not much to report tonight from the San Francisco auditions (Gotta love the 1 hour episodes!). Out of the 12 people that made it to the next round they showed us 4 in-depth and then a quick shot at 3 more. And you know what? I didn't see much that impressed me except Broadway guy (since they raved and raved about him being the best they had seen so far). But I guess since I have a few minutes we'll go through the normal audition exercise! Here's who we saw make it in:

The In-Depth 4

• Tatiana Del Toro - 23 - Puerto Rican girl who didn't want to audition in Puerto Rico. - This girl was just a trainwreck and I'm not quite sure how she made it through. Of course, they were trying to fool us with the editing into making us think she had an ego with nothing to back it up. But that laugh...the Idol editing team really overdid that annoyance. Her voice wasn't AWFUL, but it wasn't fantastic either. She was borderline crap and it makes me wonder about the talent we DIDN'T see get into Hollywood. They only let 12 in after all! Her psychic predicts top 12 for her. I predict 1st round Hollywood exit! I'm with Simon on this one!
• Jesus Valenzula - 29 - "I use my kids to get through to Hollywood, now take me seriously!" - I think I pretty much said it all already. This guy was definitely not good enough but he used his cute kids to win over the 2 female judges and Randy. Simon would've probably let him in too if he didn't already vote no. Again, he could hold a tune but that vibrato...it kinda reminded me of Christina Christiansen (forget exactly how to spell) from season 1. Now after watching that season on Idol Rewind a couple years back, I realized how bad everyone besides Kelly Clarkson and Tamyra Grey really were! Put that voice on a dude...and you have THIS GUY! No thanks!
• Adam Lambert - 26 - Hollywood, California - was starring in the LA tour of Wicked - This was the best of what we saw tonight and he screamed Broadway Star. Not necessarily a bad thing. You just can never tell. Clay got pretty far in season 2 trying to fight the Broadway stereotype. Where did he end up? Well in SPAM A LOT the Musical of course! I mean, if they ever made QUEEN - The Musical then I'd recruit ol' Adam to sing "Bohemian Rhapsody" in it without question! I'm going to keep the jury out on this one until I see more. I want to see him with a backing band and singing a song that isn't meant to be theatrical in the first place. (we all know Freddie Mercury was a one of a kind performer!)
• Kai Kalama - 26 - Musician by Night/Mother Care-taker by day - This was the sob story of the night. Kai has had to postpone his life dreams to take care of his mother who has a Seizure disorder. I can't make fun of it, it's actually a very noble thing! But I guess I can make fun of his singing right? Again, he's not awful, but I think he only got the press because he had a unique look (Adam Duritz-ish from Counting Crows but less dreads more curls) and had the story. Definitely needs work with the stage presence as the judges stated, but I guess..so did Carrie Underwood! By no means am I comparing ol' Kai to the Most Successful Idol! I just don't see this guy having the longevity for the Idol campaign, but he is a working musician, so maybe I just didn't like the song he was singing in the audition. We'll see.

The Quick 3
Not much to say about these 3 since we got about 5 seconds of each of them, so here they are!

• John Twiford - 27 - Music Teacher from Sherman Oaks California
• Allison Iraheta - 16 - High School Student from L.A.
• Raquel Houghton - 28- Waitress/Bartender from L.A.

As for the rest? Well, none of the bad were very funny tonight. There was the crazy lady who brought her notebooks on how to sing from muscles in the body that she invented herself (along with the awful songs she invented herself!). You always gotta love a contestant in denial! Randy's random comment about Paula wanting a baby was a stroke of editing genius. Rubix Cube Guy was a good time I guess. I can never figure those crazy things out! But then again, I can carry a tune and this guy couldn't! We'll call it even.

So that's it from San Fran! Tomorrow is Louisville, Kentucky. Don't forget it's also premiere night for LOST! So expect a blog of this length or shorter for Idol and don't forget to look for the LOST BLOG Thursday morning too (if you're a fan naturally)! See you then and good luck with all of your TV Management in the coming months! I know I'll need it too!