If you, like 45 other Boston University students, showed up to BU Central for Show’s sixth Open Mic Night this year, you would have been greeted by food, drinks and a huge array of performers.
Maybe your favorite would have been the performer who covered Regina Spektor, her luscious, warbling alto rising increasingly higher, extending the syllables of “Heart” over several bars.
Or maybe you would have preferred the hipster who strummed his guitar while casually insulting every member of the audience, making jokes about the Haiti earthquake and 9/11.
Maybe you’d like the ukulele player singing about losing old friends, or maybe the comedian joking about losing his virginity.
School of Education sophomore Amanda DoAmaral created these open mic nights through her club, BU for Show.
“I’ve been working here for two years,” said DoAmaral, explaining how the club was formed. “And I was sitting here listening to someone play the piano one day, and I was thinking how cool that was.”
Out of this moment, BU for Show was born.
To advertise for the show, club members stuck yellow post-it notes around campus yesterday, promising free food and live performances at BU Central.
At each open mic night, about 10 to 15 people perform on the BU Central stage, DoAmaral said.
The performers signed up on a list at the event and could spontaneously add their name to this list as the night progressed. What the performers did usually varied, and was sometimes odd.
“We’ve seen kids with guitars, comedians, rappers, poetry &- we had a guy in a kilt playing a violin,” said DoAmaral, who said her favorite act so far was a man who played electronic versions of popular songs.
“It’s good energy, good people and an open environment,” said College of Arts and Sciences freshman Evan White. “It’s all good. And everyone’s really supportive of each other.”
White performed a cover of City and Color’s “I’m Coming Home” in honor of Valentine’s Day, as well as an unfinished piece of his own.
While White said this was his third performance at BU for Show, other students performed for the first time.
“I just got this ukulele for Christmas,” said CAS senior Haley Cohen, who is a member of Barbershop Sweethearts, an on campus a cappella group.
Cohen apologized for a lack of polish before she played an original song called “Lost Friends.”
DoAmaral has seen performers make pedophile jokes and sing in five different languages, but what she says she is most pleased with the support the club has received from the BU community.
“The most surprising thing was our success,” DoAmaral said.
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