100 Days of Gratitude - Day 74 - Karaoke

Marcus Eddie and David Rowyn sing. Me and Alex Rangel in the backgroundI am a horrible singer. Horrible. I can't carry a tune in a bucket.

However, I don't have a hard time fully committing to singing a song - no matter how badly I'm doing.

So today, I'm grateful for Karaoke.

Mostly because of the great times I've spent with friends singing and watching Karaoke.

The first time I sang Karaoke was at a little dive bar in Arlington, TX. I was on the road doing magic shows. Brian Brushwood was traveling with me along with my newly hired assistant Laura Cannon. The hotel we stayed in had a strip club and a karaoke bar in the parking lot. We opted for the bar that had Karaoke. I firmly announced to Brian that there was not enough beer in the bar to get me to sing. Besides I can't sing.

Brian proved me wrong... there was enough beer. I agreed after a bit of cajoling to sing "Rappers Delight" if they had it, and if Brian would sing with me. The buddy system always seems to work at Karaoke for some reason. They had it. I got on stage and instantly the performer in me came out and I fully committed.

It's been my "go to" Karaoke song ever since.

We host Karaoke parties at our house about twice a year. About once every 18 months - 2 years we'll host what we call "Epic Karaoke" where we have friends from out of town come in, set up a huge sound system, wireless microphones, intelligent lighting, lasers, color washes on the wall and invite about 70-100 people to the party.

Many stay overnight. The next day is always fun too.

We are currently looking at dates for Epic Karaoke V. You can see pictures from Epic Karaoke IV on Angel Rangel's facebook page . Angel took a lot of great pictures at the last Epic Karaoke party.

If you're a magician you'll see a lot of familiar faces, if you're a liberty hill friend, you'll know a bunch of the people too. You notice lots of smiles, laughing and singing.

It's just a great way to get our friends together, entertain, give common ground and do what we do best... laugh.

If you don't sing Karaoke, you should, you'll enjoy it. Trust me - I didn't want to do it either and now I love it. It's OK to be bad - most of us are - but don't let not being great at anything stop you from having a great time. Ever.