Open Mic Night Turns Sour

By Cate LeSourd

Open Mic Night seems like a great event … until no one shows up.

Acorn Coffee Shop hosted the event Thursday evening as a showcase for student performers. And even though nine acts signed up throughout the week to participate, not a single one came to the event.

It certainly wasn’t the turnout Eddie Talley, an Acorn employee and co-creator of the event, hoped for or expected.

“People write down names of other people and think it’s funny,” Talley said. “People do it as a joke.”

Todd Leonard, sophomore at Elon University, was unknowingly signed up for Open Mic Night, which is why he never arrived to perform.

“I found out, I didn’t voluntarily sign up,” Leonard said. “(Elon sophomore) Dave Stone put my name there. He wrote it down while we were in line and then I found out when I got up at the counter.”

When Leonard was told he had been added to the list of performers, he just laughed it off, he said.

“I kinda shrugged it off and I didn’t really think about erasing it,” Leonard said. “It seems like a laid back event that people just come to.”

And that laid back atmosphere serves exactly as the backdrop for Open Mic Night. Talley said it adds flair and excitement to Acorn.

“It gives the coffee shop more of a coffee shop feel,” Talley said.

Max Akhlaghi and Talley created the event during the fall semester and have had students come out to sing and perform at various events since the end of September.

“I’m not going to leave the sign-up sheet anymore,” Talley said.

He will implement a new system of having to submit information so students take it more seriously. He said he hopes that his radio show and other forms of media will help spread the word about the event.