Local talent gathers for Elks'open mic night

Local artists gathered to show off their skills, Thursday evening for Open Mic night at the Elks Lodge.

Open Mic was born from an idea collaborated by local artists, Patrick Mcnabb, Fletcher Primm and Jimmy Kwangari, said Primm.

"I believe the first one was March 2015, it was originally an idea that came from Jimmy Kwangari. we just wanted somewhere that we could bring together all of the artists in and around town," Primm said.

Whether your a poet, singer, comedian, or just your average Joe, everyone in the community has a voice at Open Mic night.

"We have quite the variety show, poets, musicians, comedians, we even keep it as an open platform for anybody to come up and talk about anything," Prim said. "We have had people do Irish Jigs and one guy who read his Google search history."

McNabb and Primm said they have seen collaborations and bands form out of the connections made at the event over the years.

"It's this large idea of bringing together creative minded people for collaboration," McNabb said," and this ability to break boundaries."

It takes a courage to put your art out for the audience said Primm. "We have quite a few people that tend to plan on performing, and we'll maybe get three people in the crowd that get the courage to perform after seeing others do it.

"The audience tends to have a voice though, they'll chime in quite a bit, and we to do little trivia games where we pull people up from the audience," Primm said.

"The vibe is very positive," McNabb said, "we don't see any hecklers, everyone is pretty open to the artist on stage."

McNabb acts as the host for most Open Mic nights, telling jokes and "loosening" the crowd up before and during sets. He was also the master mind behind auctioning off donated by various artists in a segment he calls "rescue or destroy."

"The donated pieces of art go up for auction and the winner saves the piece from being destroyed or has the opportunity to destroy it themselves," McNabb said. "The crowd has a connection with the art and they don't want to see it destroyed."

Venues have migrated a bit for the event, it was first held at the Blue Rooster, then Serenity Cafe both located where the Coffee Corner is now. The event has finally found a home at the Elks Lodge in Sidney.

The Elks Lodge offers food, and non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages to event goers.

"We are very grateful to the Elks for letting us hold Open Mic here," said McNabb.

Open Mic is a donation based event, open to all ages said McNabb, he said the first two hours of the show is kid friendly and after 9 p.m. the show is a little more "open."

Elks lodge will be hosting Open Mic again on July 22 at 8 p.m., interested acts sign up for their time slot at the door.