Aspen brought us our first two good freaks of the season on Idol. Tonight we met Magic Cyclops, the Spın̈al Tap-style singer in sunglasses and a bandanna who claimed to speak with a British accent because growing up he was so poor his parents could only afford PBS. I got a kick out of Cyclops (not to mention the fact that Jennifer Lopez seemed to catch onto his jokes a lot quicker than Randy did) and wasn’t very surprised to find out that in his spare time he’s more than just a guy looking for his 15 minutes of fame.
The other freak was the lady who beatboxed to “Stand By Me.” She was only on for a moment, but she made an impression.
Other than those fine folks, as with Sunday’s episode, we saw some irritating try-hards in addition to a couple of people who seemed talented without being grating. In the former category is Jenni Schick. I’m not proud of the fact that I judge a gal who has to choose her hemlines based on whether or not they show off her tattooed-on garter, but just like Lady Gaga, I was born this way. Schick just tried too hard to illustrate how edgy she was, from bragging about her attraction to Gaga to begging Ryan for a kiss. I really wanted her to suck, but the judges liked her rendition of “Heartbreaker.” But I would have preferred Larry David’s version, honestly. I also found Angie Zeiderman, the Gaga-worshipper who looked like Kathy Beth Terry, to be grating as well. I was happy that she sang a Roy Orbison song, but even if she could sort of sing, she seemed like she was working harder on her image than on her talent.
I very much preferred Haley Smith, the outdoorsy girl who took on “Tell Me Something Good.” Both the judges and I were charmed by the 18 year old’s self-confidence, not just in her choice of song but also because she didn’t seem to be selling us on her image. I feel like we’ve seen hippie-type performers on this show before who really spelled out how they want us to see them, but Haley seemed very natural. I was glad that the judges liked her so much: it made me like them more.