What was the inspiration for “Art of Karaoke”?
One night I was sitting in a neighborhood karaoke bar with a friend (Grant MacDowell, who edited the film), and the place was pretty raucous, all these college kids drinking and singing. And then up to the stage came this little old man. Everybody was looking at him like, “Shouldn’t this guy be at Bingo Night instead?” But then he started singing. And he just blew the place away with this booming, pitch-perfect rendition of “My Way.” The bar went crazy! He got a standing ovation, girls came up to hug and kiss him, and he was beaming like a little kid. A couple of days before that, my friend Melora Hardin (an actor and director) had given me a pep talk on the importance of substance in filmmaking and how we, as directors, should strive to make films that have some societal merit or insight worth sharing with the people who’ve agreed to sit in the dark and watch our work. And so it was, a couple days later, with Melora’s words ringing in my head, I stumbled into that karaoke bar and saw
