Miranda Marches Into March

In honor of going to see Miranda Sings in concert tomorrow I'm pulling out a piece that I wrote last year for something non-blog related about Miranda's concert last March! So enjoy and go watch a Miranda video or better yet-go see her live!

Hysterical YouTube sensation Miranda Sings returned to the acclaimed Birdland jazz club this past week. The crooked smiled beauty performed her new club act. Miranda Marches into March to three sold out audiences, which included special guests Frankie Grande, Colleen Ballinger and Kory DeSoto. The event, which was filmed live for later viewing on a site to be announced featured a night of all genres of music, stories and in true Miranda fashion, a free voice lesson.

            Miranda Sings is the alter ego of singer Colleen Ballinger who began the character Miranda as a joke to mirror the hoards of YouTube videos that feature young girls singing acapella poorly in their rooms with cocky attitudes. What began as a joke skyrocketed to a YouTube phenomenon when Miranda’s free voice lesson video, which boasts over 770,000 views, was posted four years ago. “She’s a gem” says Colleen Ballinger of her alter-ego just before her onstage transformation into the well-known internet personality which includes a baggy collared shirt tucked into a pair of navy blue lounge pants that are pulled up high and her signature red lipstick smeared all around her lips.

            Miranda’s performances which are always filled with comedic stories, songs, skits and vocal lessons always bring her fans known affectionately as “Mirfandas” to their feet and this new club act does not disappoint following the others with just as much comedy and music packed into a eighty minute performance. She told the story of Easter with some revisions, challenged an audience member to a chubby bunny challenge face-off, and debuted her new skill as a writer with an original comedic scene about her first heartbreak. “I was crying the entire time!” says concertgoer Anthony  “I can’t even verbalize it. I had a smile plastered on my face the entire time.”

Miranda seems to have that affect on the audience as as of Wednesday night according to Colleen Ballinger, Miranda has performed 17 times at Birdland over the past four years. “She is funny and people can relate to her.” says Dale Anderson, manager at Birdland. “We have a series here called Broadway at Birdland and she just fit in well.”

Casting agent Jim Caruso agrees. He was the first one to ever book Miranda after seeing her free voice lesson video. “I saw the video and I emailed her asking her to come to my open mic show here at Birdland called ‘Cast Party With Jim Caruso’. I didn’t know if she was real or not but she emailed me back telling me that Miranda was a character and when she came to open mic night and performed with Daniel Reichard from Jersey Boys people who didn’t even know her went wild.” After seeing Miranda perform Jim reached out to Colleen again telling her that if she ever wanted to come and do a show at Birdland to let him know. “She emailed me back and told me that she would love to do it. She said she didn’t know what her show was but that she would figure it out.”

Once she started performing, the younger demographic started coming, wanting to translate the entertainment of Miranda, from the computer screen to a live performance experience lasting longer than just those few minute videos. “People asked me before I came tonight, ‘Why did you pay money to see her sing badly?’ It’s just so beautifully entertaining.” Said longtime Miranda fan Alexandra who along with Anthony mentioned above have both been following Miranda since the beginning, about four years. It is very clear that the younger, technology driven generation make up the majority of Miranda and for that mater, Colleen’s fanbase. Birdland, on a Wednesday night in early March where school is session the next day is packed with eager and excitable school-aged girls and their parents who throughout the course of the event scream like they are at a rock concert and yell famous Miranda lines. One young girl was so excited that during the show she began to cry into her hands after Miranda said she loved her!

Miranda’s audience tonight as stated earlier is made up primarily of young people. Miranda brings in money, press and attention from a younger demographic into a classy and typically more adult-oriented venue. “She’s a shot in the arm for jazz clubs.” Says Caruso. It’s an intimate venue that works well for the event as everyone gets a good view and the chance to interact with Miranda throughout the performance. At tonight’s performance she pulled an eager fan up onstage to do a Chubby Bunny Challenge face off with her where the fan gets the large marshmallows and Miranda gets the smaller ones guaranteeing her an instant win but to the fans it is pure comedy gold. They eat it up and most of the crowd is doubled-over in laughter as she takes the fans marshmallows fresh out her mouth and takes a bite, something that only Miranda can get away with. She dances awkwardly and with a stiffness (and on this night barefoot), something that would normally be a point of mockery gets Miranda cheers and applause.

 But why for Miranda, what do people like about her that keep them coming back to these shows at Birdland (I overheard someone say that they had come earlier in the week as well) and watching her videos over and over again? “Everyone knows someone that is like Miranda and everyone has a little bit of Miranda in them.” Says Ballinger outside after the show. Miranda is clearly a mockery of people and in a day and age where you can post anything online and be discovered in a Justin Bieber-esque way many have taken to what Miranda does except they take it seriously and truly believe that they are next big thing to hit the entertainment industry. They find Miranda and her act tonight funny as they all have seen those bad YouTube’s and American Idol audition clips as well as people in their everyday lives that mirror Miranda and posses the Miranda qualities that make her laughable. Maybe she’ll come back in the summer to another sold out crowd with her questionable methods (she says that scatting is what you do when you forget the words) and tell the crowd when they applaud “Obviously I’m really good, I deserve it!”

-XOXO

Bwaygirl828