Lip Synching at Roosevelt University

By Karissa Martin

Every seat in room 232 at Roosevelt University’s Auditorium Building was filled on Tuesday evening.

The crowd shifted in their seats, stood up to stretch their stiff limbs, and chatted loudly, as they tried to drown out Kesha’s “Take it Off,” blaring from the loudspeaker. About an hour into the event, there had already been seven acts at the Lip Synch Competition put on to celebrate Roosevelt’s homecoming week.

The crowd awaited the final performance of the night, though not very patiently. The audience had already selected their favorites, apparently not needing to see the final act to decide the winner.

Annie Crews, 19, said that her favorite act was, “Robot Boy.” Her roommate, Katie Raginis, 19, agreed with her and said that Neo Sun’s performance of “Number One” was, “hilarious,” and, “very entertaining.”

But neither knew what was still in store for them.

The free event, sponsored by SPEED or Students Programming for Enrichment, Enlightenment, and Development, was one of a host of events held by students during homecoming week. The event was intended to be good old entertainment and also a chance for those on the homecoming court to introduce themselves and lobby for votes.

Matt Cooney, spokesman for campus programs for the Center for Student Involvement, said that since this event was successful last year, they decided to put it on again. He added, “We’re not going to try to reinvent the wheel, just try to improve on things that are already done, then try new things out.”

Finally, the performers arrived for the final act of the evening.

Channing Redditt, secondary education mathematics major at Roosevelt University, stepped into the room with a smile spread across his face as he ran up the steps of the small stage at the front of the room.

Redditt appeared jitter-free and right at home as the beginning beats of the song started.

“I’m actually comfortable on the stage,” he later said. “I sing and I play piano, so I’m used to being on stage, performing for people. So, this was just like another home for me getting up there.”  

The music started with Usher and R. Kelly singing, “Yo Ush. What up Kells? Wanna introduce you to this girl; think I really love this girl.”

Redditt nailed every word, and when the song got to “we messin’ with the same girl,” his expression was one of complete surprise and sheer horror. The audience roared with laughter.

The crowd graced Redditt and his partner with a standing ovation as, “the same girl, the same girl,” faded into the background. The audience had chosen their winner, with the enthusiasm of their applause and yells.

One of the judges, Cheytaya Brown, Roosevelt University’s residence hall coordinator, agreed with the loud audience. Her favorite performance was Redditt and his partner.

She said she liked, “the fact that they were so animated and they didn’t necessarily have props, but they used themselves, and they used their emotions and expressions.” 

According to the Lip Synch Competition scoring, Redditt’s act had the best overall score, which included criteria such as originality and creativity and ability to lip synch with the words to the song. In addition, the performers were judged on attitude, accuracy, teamwork, choreography, and audience response.

Besides deciding on the scoring criteria, there was a lot of behind-the-scenes work that went into putting on the competition. Before the performers worked on their “mad skills” at lip synching, SPEED was hard at work, preparing for the event.

“Planning for this starts in about May or June,” Cooney said. “We do a lot of our planning in the summer.”

“The board’s been working hard since they kicked into full gear starting in August, so they’ve been doing stuff for about two months straight,” Cooney added.

“They’ve been working hard non-stop,” he said, “and I can’t be more proud of them.”

All the hard work apparently paid off for the diligent students involved in the SPEED program.

“I think it was really well put together,” Brown said of the Lip Synch Competition.

Crews added, “It was very funny and entertaining.”

The boisterous applause and standing ovations from the general audience seemed to agree with Brown’s and Crews’ assessment.

“At the end of the day it’s all about the students celebrating their school, and I think that they did a really good job with that today,” Cooney added.