Meet Keri Kelsey of Open Mic at the Gardenia in Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Keri Kelsey.

Keri, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
It’s interesting to sort of look back on my path. I haven’t done that in a while. I think I’ve always been on the same general path. My mother is a singer and my stepfather, a conductor. I took piano, violin, voice, dance and acting lessons. My earliest memories of singing and acting were in church productions.

And then my sixth-grade teacher cast me as the lead in John Steinbeck‘s ‘The Pearl.’::laughs:: Of all things, a bit heavy for sixth grade, but I remember having to cry and having a bit of an ‘aha’ moment of this feeling right. My teacher told my mother that I was an actress — no surprise to her since she had long called me Sarah Bernhardt.

Of course, I didn’t know who that was so when I first saw Sandra Bernhard I thought that’s who she was talking about! Everything I did and every hobby I was involved in always had something to do with the arts. Then on to be a Theatre Arts major, Communications minor, a brief stint in radio and then to California where I worked as a literary agent for a while. I was in all different forms of the business but still always entertainment.

Then one day we were at a hair salon, and my mother was reading an article about a style of performing called Cabaret. She said, “This sounds like something you’ve always wanted to do.” I only knew the play ‘Cabaret.’ I never knew it as a style of performing. I forgot to take the article with me, but a couple of weeks later I searched for it on the LA Times website. It was an article about Peisha McPhee (Katharine’s mother) and Mel Dangcil’s class.

I got in touch with her and auditioned for the class. I remember calling my parents that night after the first class and telling them how amazing it was. When we did our first showcase, I knew I was finally in the right place. When I was first asked to host the Open Mic Night, I literally had an almost out of body experience. It felt like someone else was doing it for me and I was watching. I thought, someone gave me a microphone — their mistake! ::laughs::

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I think the biggest struggle was not knowing what I was meant to be doing. For the longest time, whatever I did, while I loved it, I never quite felt like I fit. Classical music wasn’t right for me, and musical theater wasn’t quite right either. Then when I found what fit there were definitely some adjustments specifically musically for me.

When you’re trained classically and in musical theater, things are more about what’s on the page; it’s a little more rigid. When you’re going into the other styles of performance like Jazz and Cabaret, it’s more about what you bring to the song, your interpretation, not only of the lyrics but of the music. Also, because this genre tends to be a little bit more conversational because you’re really trying to tell a story with your songs, I needed to lower everything from my soprano range, and that’s a whole learning curve that I’m still on. ::laughs::

Then building the Open Mic Night, so that the crowds were big enough that it was sustainable. We have an amazing core group of “family,” but we needed to bring in more people. The regulars’ friendliness and welcoming attitude towards new people that came in made a huge difference. We changed the name, so it was just Open Mic, so people knew what it was.

Les Traub, president of Cabaret West, did a wonderful article about it in Cabaret Scenes Magazine and with people beginning to get used to using the internet and sites like OpenMic.org giving people a place where they could simply search and find Open Mics in town it became easier to find us.

I added theme nights that we have periodically and then we started a few other traditions like our annual toy drive for Spark Of Love where we have no cover in exchange for bringing unwrapped toys but the most important thing is that in addition to our fabulous pianists we have these amazing musicians that started coming and sitting in with us and the fact that they happen to be among the best musicians in town and everybody wants to sing with them has really contributed to the success of the night.

Open Mic at the Gardenia – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I think one of the things that sets us apart is consistency. We are the longest running Open Mic in LA and possibly in the country, and the longest running supper club in the country. The singers range from well-known actors in town working on their singing skills, people rehearsing material on their way to the Carlyle Room to the person walking down the street that sees the marquee and thinks ‘I’ve always wanted to be a singer!’ That makes for a VERY eclectic and entertaining night.

We have the best musicians in the city. It’s a rare opportunity to work with musicians of this caliber. Our pianists have played for Dionne Warwick, Burt Bacharach, Herb Alpert, toured with Alanis Morissette and Morrissey, played for ‘American Idol’ and the list goes on and on. We very often have multiple musicians joining us and will have a full trio or quartet. We also have a talented musician/sound engineer, Terry Cole, doing lights and sound for us. People have also booked their shows in the room by being heard at the Open Mic.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
It’s important for me to entertain people. If they leave the Open Mic or any performance, I’m involved in feeling happy, entertained and feel they’ve been able to escape their day to day problems for a short period of time, that’s success to me! The same thing holds true for me daily, if I can make somebody smile during the day, that feels like a great day.

Being able to offer the pathologist that looks at slides all day or the lawyer or the writer a place where for one night they can be a singer and feel that joy, that’s success!

Contact Info:

• Address: Gardenia, 7066 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood
• Website: http://www.kerikelsey.com
• Email: Dizzytalk@gmail.com
• Instagram: @kerikelsey1
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OpenMicOnTuesdays
• Twitter: @KeriKelsey

Image Credit:
Craig Levine

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