Stars to act out at cancer society Lip Sync Battle

It's a shame when someone has the pizazz and flair of Cher and a singing voice like James Earl Jones. Just because people can't carry a tune if it had a handle on it doesn't mean they're not born to perform.

It's the art of lip-syncing that allows them to really show what they can do and the local chapter of the American Cancer Society is giving local celebrities that chance with the ACS Lip Sync Battle on Saturday.

Lip Sync Battle, with two celebrities competing to see who can give the best, most entertaining lip-sync performance, has been a popular segment on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and as a stand-alone series on Spike TV. Since mining reality TV for fundraising ideas has been common in the nonprofit world for a while now (think the Children's Tumor Foundation's annual Dancing With Our Stars), it was only a matter of time before someone jumped at the chance to put celebrities on a stage, mimicking Bon Jovi and Mariah Carey.

"The show is relatively new. You don't want someone else beating you to the punch," organizer Danny-Joe Crofford says.

The first thing organizers did was line up their master of ceremonies, Craig O'Neill, whose quick-thinking improv skills and enthusiasm made him their main choice and, Crofford asked, "Who better else to emcee a lip-sync contest than the guy who's nicknamed 'Lips'?"

For the performers themselves, the goal was to get as many local stations involved as possible.

Crofford was involved in the early years of KABZ-FM, "The Buzz" 103.7's annual Christmas Karaoke competition, a local celebrity sing-off, and thought this different style would open the doors to even more high-profile participants.

"There will be people who've never participated in a karaoke contest because they are not very good singers," he explains. "This puts everybody on a level playing field."

Also, on-air personalities can't exactly go out and perform to support rival radio or TV stations but the ACS doesn't have a sponsor or close ties to any particular group. So, Crofford says the attitude was, "Heck, let's invite everybody!"

They did. And with the exception of KARK-TV, Channel 4 (its people were already committed to CARTI's Tux 'N Trees the same night), just about every big station has a representative in one form or another. There's Dawn Scott from KTHV-TV, Channel 11, Alyson Courtney and Jason Pederson of KATV, Channel 7, Stack 3 from KIPR-FM, "Power 92" and Bill Vickery of "The Buzz." There are also former Razorbacks and other community leaders.

Not all the celebrities will be on the stage. Some familiar voices and faces, including Lisa Fischer from KURB-FM, "B98.5" and Tom Wood from KHKN, 98.5 "Tom FM," will be at the celebrity judges' table. None of the judges will have co-workers performing, so there shouldn't be any whiffs of favoritism.

As for the competition itself, they've tweaked things a bit from the TV show. Rather than the performers going head-to-head, one-on-one, they'll perform in a lineup order determined by random drawings.

Almost anything goes when it comes to the performances: costumes, props, video screens, even pyrotechnics if they can figure out how to do them. And they're encouraged to go all-out because they'll be judged on originality, crowd reaction and lip-syncing ability.

Crofford doesn't anticipate a tie, but if one should occur, the tied parties will perform another song of their choosing, on the fly, with no costumes or extra flair. Thanks to Poolboy's DJ service, they'll have access to any song that might come up.

Competition should be fierce because, other than bragging rights, the celebrities will be duking it out not for a run-of-the-mill trophy but for a real WWE World Heavyweight Championship belt, like the belt awarded on the TV show. Thanks to a sponsor's donation, they were able to order the genuine article, complete with a plate saying "2015 Lip Sync Battle." There's no Honorable Mention trophy or ribbon here. It's winner-take-all.

"We wanted to have something big," Crofford says. "It's ginormous."

Because all the food and drinks have been donated by Ben E. Keith, all of the proceeds will go directly to the cancer society and tickets are tax-deductible.

Weekend on 11/19/2015