Calling entertainers: Sign up now for Suburban Chicago's Got Talent
Will musicians once again take the top prize for Suburban Chicago's Got Talent in 2016? Or will the winner be a rising comedian, magician, dance crew, slam poet or other performance artist?
It all depends on who enters the family-friendly summer talent competition, which takes online audition registrations beginning today at events.dailyherald.com/scgt16/.
The talent contest is co-sponsored by the Daily Herald, Onesti Entertainment, the Prairie Center for the Arts in Schaumburg, the Arlington Heights Chamber of Commerce and Valli Produce.
All online registrants will be reviewed and notified whether they have snagged one of 70 private auditions to be held Thursday, June 16, through Saturday, June 18, at the Prairie Center for the Arts. A full list of rules can be found at events.dailyherald.com/scgt16.
“I would say to anyone who is on the fringe of doing this competition or think that they might not be up to the challenge, put all that aside and go for it,” said Ryan Cooper, a Schaumburg musician who was named a co-winner of Suburban Chicago's Got Talent in 2015 after advancing to the Top 10 in the competition's previous two years.
“It definitely helped me and I wouldn't be the same artist if I hadn't gone for it,” said Cooper, who now plays in a few local bands, including Polysci and Flowtation, which will release an EP this summer.
“This contest really has become a jumping-off point for the winning acts,” said Eileen Brown, vice president and director of strategic marketing and innovation for the Daily Herald. “Last year, many of our Top 10 finalists opened for a major headliner at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, as well as getting other bookings as a result of their being in Suburban Chicago's Got Talent. The competition is fierce, but the talent we have seen has been amazing.”
As with many reality TV talent shows, finalists performing in the Top 20, Top 15 and Top 10 competition rounds benefit from instant feedback by a panel of judges. The judges' responses helped the Arlington Heights band Burke Valley, which shared first place last year with Cooper in the competition's first tie.
The judges' responses “made us realize what things we should be focusing on,” Burke Valley lead singer Laura Burke said.
Burke laughed while recalling that she and her Arlington Heights band mates Jason Edel, Ryan Gore, Alex Santilli and Mitch Klicki didn't have an official band name when they began the talent contest. “At the time we were just starting out, so we didn't know who we were.”
The top winner gets a “STARTER Kit” valued at about $5,000. It includes an opportunity to open for a national headlining act at the Arcada Theatre, career mentoring by Onesti Entertainment, and professional video and still photo shoots of a live performance and production.
But which contestant gets ahead in Suburban Chicago's Got Talent isn't entirely up to the judges. After each of the first three live competition rounds, performance videos of the finalists will be posted at dailyherald.com for the public to view and then vote on a Fan Favorite. The contestant with the most votes after each round is guaranteed to move on, and the act with the most cumulative online votes wins the Fan Favorite prize to be determined.
The winners of Suburban Chicago's Got Talent and the Fan Favorite prize will be announced after a free concert at the Taste of Arlington Heights on Saturday, Aug. 6.
“With every round, we pushed harder to improve ourselves,” said Burke, happy that Burke Valley recently released a three-song EP and will soon launch the band's own website.
“It helped boost my confidence to the point of networking and social media and putting myself out there,” Cooper said. “From the competition, I was able to get a sense of myself as a performer and how I came across.”