VideoGreek Sing 1990Jul 11, '05 4:18 PM
for everyone
1990. Man time flies.

Every spring at my college the fraternities and sororities had a competition/fund-raiser called "Greek Sing" where each house would perform a 4 minute song-and-dance number. You may picture a bunch of clumsy drunk guys singing drinking songs...that would be before and after. These performances were taken quite seriously (by some of the houses) and were quite sophisticated.

Usually each house would pick a Broadway show and do a medley of its popular songs. This year my fraternity, Phi Kappa Theta, did a George M. Cohan medley. To put things in a little perspective, this performance was worthy of a 4th place finish among the fraternities.

I had a featured role this year as one of the 5 guys tap-dancing. During the first "tap" routine (see cover image) I'm at the front-left. Behind me is Dave Willis. Ed Garofalo in the middle. Front-right is Eric Teng. And rear-right, wearing his hat tough-guy style is Khaled Matar.

Although everybody had to invest significant practice the tappers had to put in double. First practice with the group. Then just the five of us with our tap choreographer, Christie Noll, who went on to acheive greater musical successes. I didn't as this was the pinnacle of my musical performance career.



Download the original: greeksing.wmv (9.2 MB)

bumgarner wrote on Jul 11, '05
That was awesome! You guys were great. I do remember that from my freshman year.
papayoung wrote on Jul 11, '05
Thanks! I was out that year, and never even saw a video. So long-overdue kudos to you and the others, and a special nod to Christiane.

FWIW, are you sure that's Ed in the middle? It sure looks like Bulebush.

- Aaron
cindy wrote on Jul 11, '05
Very impressive Michael! Great job!
canolle wrote on Jul 11, '05
Thank you for that!! That was so fun to see again!! You guys looked good!! I was so proud!. Hee!
Christie
toddys11 wrote on Jul 12, '05
Very entertaining. Thanks for sharing Mike!
jjbrown wrote on Jul 14, '05, edited on Jul 15, '05
A couple comment from a past Greek Sing Chair:

1. My first Sing.... It seems like we practiced forever for a show that was less than 4 minutes. And I wasn't even a tap dancer!

2. I went to a Greek Sing show a few years ago, and the level of performance has been moved up several bars. Our Beauty and the Beast performance of 1993 (fairly ground breaking at the time) wouldn't have even placed compared to today's standard.

3. Thanks Mike. It was good reliving old memories. I'll have to get my show up in a bit (Man of La Mancha).

Jason

bumgarner wrote on Jul 15, '05
jjbrown said
2. I went to a Greek Sing show a few years ago, and the level of performance has been moved up several bars. Our Beauty and the Beast performance of 1993 (fairly ground breaking at the time) wouldn't have even placed compared to today's standard.
Wow, that's saying a lot. I really enjoyed the Beauty and the Beast show. Sounds like they have definitely raised the bar!
kayt wrote on Jul 15, '05
You know, I think the bar wasn't raised so high when I was at CMU (or else I got too trashed before each show). I remember two Greek Sing performances that stood out, and those were two that probably were deemed terrible by the rest of the CMU community. PiKA did "I wish they all could be Pitt and Chatham Girls" to the tune of the Beach Boys one year (which was hilarious!), and then someone did the Muppet Show another year (can't remember who). I had the "Ma na na na" song stuck in my head for years. In fact, I think I still do. The rest of the performances kind of blend together for me.
dave wrote on Jul 15, '05
The best sing performance I ever saw was my freshman year ('86) when they did Fiddler on the Roof. I was a spring pledge, so I was too late to participate, but Adler, Larman, llama, Cowing, Kravchin, et all were amazing. Probably what got me motivated to participate myself the next three years.
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