Lightning Ridge Breaks Patron Records with Talent Comp

Lightning Ridge Bowling Club in the New England Tablelands & North West region held the talent competition every Friday night from 26 January, hunting for the best voice in Lightning Ridge — with $3,350 in prize money on offer.

Club CEO Scott Bailey said the idea came to fruition after the Club began to struggle with the rising cost of entertainment and security, with the contest resulting in a bigger crowd at the Club week by week than any other Friday night.

“It was big; every week that we ran it was up by thousands,” Scott said.

“There were so many people turning up to enter the talent quest or support their friends.”

With one of the three winners from each heat based on audience pick — the person who got the loudest cheer — Scott said it was incredible to see the number of people getting down to support their mates, with the 300-seat auditorium hosting over 400 people for the grand final.

“An important part was giving the audience skin in the game right from the start, which is not normally what happens,” Scott said.

“Club-run karaoke contests normally all get judged, but having an audience participation where we just got an applause metre on a phone through an app really made a difference.”

The second part of this perfect recipe was cash prizes — first place receiving $1,500, second $500, third $250 plus $50 for the winner of each heat.

The third and according to Scott the most important, was the compere for the competition.  

“The compere is really important, you need a vibrant compare,” Scott said.

“We had an amazing compere which was the music teacher at the local high school, who's a great, gifted musician himself.

“Having the connection with all of the kids who are learning instruments meant the kids were coming down to watch or enter.”

Kessy Sovuai took out the competition belting out Celine Dion and Adele numbers on the night, with Scott adding that the humble winner couldn’t believe she had won.

He urged other clubs to follow suit and give a competition of this style a go to attract a new demographic to the venue.

“I would encourage them to give it a try. Make sure you've got a good set of rules — you can probably still find our set of rules online, so feel free to copy ours and just be really clear on what you're trying to achieve,” Scott said.

“We were getting a lot of people who wouldn't normally come to the Club, I was very happy with it.”