Now we can all go back and do what we do best; entertain. There will be a lot of discussion about this as time goes on but as some judges say, the decision was made and that's that. EPE has to live with their decision and well, was it a big surprise?
God bless every one and let's keep the image the way it should be; pure.
USA Today did an online poll on who everyone thought, of the 10 finalists, did a good job tributing the King of Rock and Roll. The link, http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2007-08-13-elvis-contest_N.htm, had a little different feeling on turn out of votes.
So I guess the age old problem was again proved on August 17th, 2007: What do the judges know (if there were any judges at all).
I do believe that after Mr. Carlini's comment on "Next Best Thing" concerning being better than the King didn't help in the decision in his favor, it did get great press coverage afterwards. But I will always remember a conversation with another ETA when he said Carlini told him that contests were rigged and he did not have time for them. But I guess going from the International Hilton Hotel to the rollercoaster driven Sahara, contests don't look so bad. As for Brandon Bennett, Bennett has always, and will be, the image of Elvis (though vocals still lack the punch) on and off the stage. Meeting Brandon in 2001 for the first time and then again in 2006 at the Stardust, Brandon's attitude has not changed. As for Donny Edwards, personal comments will stop here. After watching the videos provided by USA Today, again did not help the vocals for Shawn Klush and, as an opinion only, Elvis was not opera.
I guess now Carlini knows how Al Gore felt after winning the popular vote but losing to the "other side". Never thought politics would filter into the ETA World (tongue in cheek).
This Butch guy is a real idiot. Trent is great but won online because his 20 seconds being shown were better then the rest. I was at the contest and Klush was the best and had the best applause from the fans by far. You are so bitter Butch
Thank you, Mr or Ms. Anonymous. Must be another scarf chaser who who does not understand the word "opinion" and judging from his/her comment, is a Shawn Klush fan. Believe me, it's a free world and you can support whoever you want. I've been called worse and this won't be the first time. Have a blessed day and hope your gonads grow back soon.
I don't know about you but as far as butch's comments it seems to me he has abit of the green envy monster showing. I think that anyone who has decide to become a performer should be applauded. Not many people have that guts to get in front of strangers let alone try to perform a tribute to one of the greates entertainers of all time.If you do this for the fame Butchthen i beleive you are missing the point. It in my opinion is for the love of what you do and the individual person whose life you touch.Would Elvis complain as much as you if he didn't win?
To bring you up to speed, Mr or Ms. No Name, on November 16, 2006 (as witnessed by the moderator of this blog) I was totally against Elvis Presley Enterprises doing a stupid ass contest, as I have witnessed many others in the last seven years. And I received many endorsements from other ETAs on my thought pattern of why ETAs would support such an organization that, for 29 years, thumbed their noses at the ETA. Endorsements that actually came from contestants who were actually in the first round of the finals in Memphis, though they begged me not to publish their responses because "you know it would hurt their career" (like they had one to start off with). And for your information Mr or Ms. No Name, I will introduce myself to you...Butch Dicus - The King of Hearts and you are more than welcome to cruise on over to butchdicus dot com and scan my schedule for 2007. I have no room to be jealous, just concerned for the ETA themselves who are actually being taken for a ride at their expense. I have to ask you, are the ETAs getting paid to perform at these so-called contests? NO. Free entertainment. But I also have to ask you, what does winning get for the individual? How many of the previous Images of the King winners have 160 shows this year? Bitter? I don't think so though that seems to be the "buzz" word for many who really don't know about the goings on in this business and frankly, if Elvis knew what was going on he would have put a stop to it long before now. Any other beef you may have with me concerning personal issues, I would, as the moderator probably would, appreciate emailing me instead of showing true colors. Thank you.
I have seen your act and you are decent but not on the same level as a Klush or Carlini. When you ask what they get for winning well I have seen Mr. Klush on the news at least 10 times since he won the EPE contest and that certainly can not hurt his career.
Butch, i've seen you perform in Branson and I think you are good and I also love reading your comments, keep them coming I think you are right. I was in Memphis all week for Elvis week and thought I would go to the Images contest for the second time, I was very disappointed they said the judges were in the audience sitting around in different places so I thought I would go looking for them, but guess what? I never seen a judge, I don't believe they have any. there were 3 people that didn't make it to the finals and I couldn't believe it, a Brad McCrady and Jim Holmes and a kid or I guess I should say a young man named Tyler James that boy got 2 standing ovations and he was good and Jim got 1 too.getting to the EPE contest How could Justin Edwards win 3 times (first place) and then not be in the finals. thanks for listening. If you happen to know Tyler James I would love to hear him again and jim Holmes too.
Thank you for your nice comments (definitely a switch from my other two anonymous comments). I have said enough about contests but I will say, I pray one of these days ETAs will finally wake up and realize they are being taken advantage of (though some will disagree and just say I'm sour grapes but always remember the best wines are made of sour grapes). As for Tyler James, I have also tried to convince him to just do his own thing and leave the contests to the "contest kings" but God bless him, he's young and I remember someone else who first came into this business thinking everyone was truthful and found out the hard way...me.
Was anyone as surprised as I was that Brandon Bennett didn't make into the top three? Shawn Klush deserved to win - beautiful performances. I have no problem with that, but I felt like Brandon Bennett was as good or better than both Trent Carlini and Donny Edwards!!
When all of this started and we knew who the finalists were going to be (with the exception of the very last contest which Klush made it) I had $200.00 riding on Brandon to win. But the minute Klush won the regional, all money was off due to the fact of the prior EPE relationship they possessed. Not saying anything is going on (LOL...LOL), but when Klush, Edwards and Cass performed for EPE last year, there was not secrets. I don't know Shawn Klush and the only thing to really go on is the 20 second video presented by USA Today (which was sponsored again by EPE) I really believe Carlini had the best video. But again that is an opinion but will probably get the neck ripped off by Mr. or Ms. Anonymous but they are faceless anyway....LOL.
For anyone else reading nothing that Butch has said has proven to be correct from previous blogs. If what you are saying now holds any weight that why did Cass not make it to the top 10 and why did Donny come in 3rd after Carlini. Carlini did have the best video and thats why he won the online poll. I am sure you will find a reason to say that was fixed at all or stir something up in the ETA world rather then admitting that this contest was a great thing.
Brian, thanks for your comment and I can see how things would look to someone who isn't in the business. I'm kind of curious about the usage of "stir something up". It seems the only thing stirring up is your emotions and believe me, that is the last thing I would want to do. I guess discussing the Kennedy conspiracy or how Elvis faked his death is out of the question also?
I don't think anything is going on conspiracy-wise with EPE about the contest. I know too much of the inside stuff to believe that.
I just know that over the course of Sunday's prelims and Friday's finals, Brandon Bennett outperformed, outlooked and out-entertained Trent Carlini and Donny Edwards and the judges blew the top three.
As for Shawn, he won it all the way - with or without help!
I wonder if EPE is going to have this contest every year or if it was a one time thing? You know if they have it every year the winners will just go down the line as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners was this year so why would everyone compete again and spend thier money trying. I really wish that everyone would lay off Butch he's entitled to his opinions just as you and I or anybody is. Lord knows I like to say what I think and I should be able to, it is freedom of speech.
THE IDEA IS TO CELEBRATE AND REMEMBER ELVIS...NOT FIGHT WHO IS THE BETTER ETA...NEXT TO ELVIS WE ALL SUCK...WE SHOULD SUPPORT EACH OTHER LEARN FROM EACH OTHER AND REMEMBER WHAT WERE DOING HERE...SHAWN..WAY TO GO..WELL DESERVED...LETS ALL CELEBRATE EACH OTHERS VICTORYS AND THANK ELVIS ALONG THE WAY...STEVE MITCHELL..
The issue everyone is missing here on this certain item is not, who won but how it was won. If you have been an ETA (whatever an ETA is) for very long you know what goes on in this business and you can't say you don't. I frankly don't care if Shawn Klush won, if Donnie Edwards won or Ben Ladin won. But unfortunately, for seven years I have been banging my hard ass head against the wall of unfairness for the ETA themselves. And ya know what, I am not doing it no more. If an ETA is stupid enough to think that going to a contest is going to get them instant fame, more power to them. If the ETA thinks the organizer is their biggest friend, more power to them. But for seven years I have hollered "foul" to everything that has happened to the ETAs in this world and well, I have become the joke. That's because the organizer has declared that and made their certain ETA robots think "this guy is crazy", here perform for me some more so I can make more money off of you. Until an ETA can go out on his/her own and stir up their own business and leave the contests to the losers, I have no respect for any of you because God knows, the organizer of the contests need more lambs for the slaughter.
I will emphasize again, if I had any hard feelings against Carlini, Bennett, or even Johnny Thompson about winning a stupid ass contest, I would not have sent a congratulations email to each one like I did. And oh by the way, they went unanswered, except one from Scott Norton in Florida. Now that shows you exactly who the classy ETAs are.
This is really the big problem on competition such as this, you rely on what the judges proclaimed and that seems to go against the majority rule most of the times if not all the times. In my opinion no competition is fool proof and perfect and the winner does not always necessarily represents the best of the crops that is why we have all these debates and arguments. It is a pity indeed because everyone is entitled to his own opinion.
yes, Jarred your right but to cheat to get what you want is another. In real life people will make a fool out of thiose who do. People are smart and can see through it.
It is obvious. If the guy really had it all to win. He could have and should have ethically went to another contest. But then it wouldn't have been a guarantee now would it? Come on. The Williamson County Fair hired his Band and manager and the Jordanaires. Then Ray Walker of the Jordanaires kept calling him and urging him to come to the contest. Everyone knows it was fixed. The whole industry knows Dan Lentino is Shawn Klush's manager and the band was his own band. That gives an unfair advantage to Klush against a guy who has never worked with the band before. So...Don't hand me this crap he deserved to win.
Because he d#$@ sure does not. He cheated and so did those involved. HE KNEW IT WAS HIS BAND. We are all not stupid. And am tired of being treated as such. It was a fixed contest. It is not fair to all the others who put their time and money out to try and win when there was no way they could have with those odds against them.
All I can say is, "Business must be pretty slow in Las Vegas" for all of their entertainers having to go on TV and enter contests. Living in Las Vegas and travelling to East Texas for a contest just doesn't sound right, considering there was a closer one in San Diego but then again. Just like in the good ole days, ETAs travel around in packs. It's almost like WWF or NASCAR, in a way. And it depended on whether you belonged to a certain organization. Now, you will also observe old alliances, who at one time hated each other, are now joining forces again (letting bygones be bygones as explained to me) and others who once entertained with each other, are now breaking off and building new alliances. It is really all hilarious. Seriously, as with the WWF, everything is done with smoking mirrors but hey, I guess that's why they call it "Entertainment"...LOL.
23 Comments:
Now we can all go back and do what we do best; entertain. There will be a lot of discussion about this as time goes on but as some judges say, the decision was made and that's that. EPE has to live with their decision and well, was it a big surprise?
God bless every one and let's keep the image the way it should be; pure.
By
Butch Dicus, At
11:06 AM
USA Today did an online poll on who everyone thought, of the 10 finalists, did a good job tributing the King of Rock and Roll. The link, http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2007-08-13-elvis-contest_N.htm, had a little different feeling on turn out of votes.
1. Carlini (surprise, surprise)
2. Bennett
3. Edwards
4. Klush
So I guess the age old problem was again proved on August 17th, 2007: What do the judges know (if there were any judges at all).
I do believe that after Mr. Carlini's comment on "Next Best Thing" concerning being better than the King didn't help in the decision in his favor, it did get great press coverage afterwards. But I will always remember a conversation with another ETA when he said Carlini told him that contests were rigged and he did not have time for them. But I guess going from the International Hilton Hotel to the rollercoaster driven Sahara, contests don't look so bad. As for Brandon Bennett, Bennett has always, and will be, the image of Elvis (though vocals still lack the punch) on and off the stage. Meeting Brandon in 2001 for the first time and then again in 2006 at the Stardust, Brandon's attitude has not changed. As for Donny Edwards, personal comments will stop here. After watching the videos provided by USA Today, again did not help the vocals for Shawn Klush and, as an opinion only, Elvis was not opera.
I guess now Carlini knows how Al Gore felt after winning the popular vote but losing to the "other side". Never thought politics would filter into the ETA World (tongue in cheek).
By
Butch Dicus, At
11:27 AM
This Butch guy is a real idiot. Trent is great but won online because his 20 seconds being shown were better then the rest. I was at the contest and Klush was the best and had the best applause from the fans by far. You are so bitter Butch
By
Anonymous, At
10:37 PM
Thank you, Mr or Ms. Anonymous. Must be another scarf chaser who who does not understand the word "opinion" and judging from his/her comment, is a Shawn Klush fan. Believe me, it's a free world and you can support whoever you want. I've been called worse and this won't be the first time. Have a blessed day and hope your gonads grow back soon.
By
Butch Dicus, At
12:06 AM
I don't know about you but as far as butch's comments it seems to me he has abit of the green envy monster showing. I think that anyone who has decide to become a performer should be applauded. Not many people have that guts to get in front of strangers let alone try to perform a tribute to one of the greates entertainers of all time.If you do this for the fame Butchthen i beleive you are missing the point. It in my opinion is for the love of what you do and the individual person whose life you touch.Would Elvis complain as much as you if he didn't win?
By
Anonymous, At
5:42 PM
To bring you up to speed, Mr or Ms. No Name, on November 16, 2006 (as witnessed by the moderator of this blog) I was totally against Elvis Presley Enterprises doing a stupid ass contest, as I have witnessed many others in the last seven years. And I received many endorsements from other ETAs on my thought pattern of why ETAs would support such an organization that, for 29 years, thumbed their noses at the ETA. Endorsements that actually came from contestants who were actually in the first round of the finals in Memphis, though they begged me not to publish their responses because "you know it would hurt their career" (like they had one to start off with). And for your information Mr or Ms. No Name, I will introduce myself to you...Butch Dicus - The King of Hearts and you are more than welcome to cruise on over to butchdicus dot com and scan my schedule for 2007. I have no room to be jealous, just concerned for the ETA themselves who are actually being taken for a ride at their expense. I have to ask you, are the ETAs getting paid to perform at these so-called contests? NO. Free entertainment. But I also have to ask you, what does winning get for the individual? How many of the previous Images of the King winners have 160 shows this year? Bitter? I don't think so though that seems to be the "buzz" word for many who really don't know about the goings on in this business and frankly, if Elvis knew what was going on he would have put a stop to it long before now. Any other beef you may have with me concerning personal issues, I would, as the moderator probably would, appreciate emailing me instead of showing true colors. Thank you.
By
Butch Dicus, At
8:40 PM
Butch,
I have seen your act and you are decent but not on the same level as a Klush or Carlini. When you ask what they get for winning well I have seen Mr. Klush on the news at least 10 times since he won the EPE contest and that certainly can not hurt his career.
By
Anonymous, At
9:55 PM
Butch,
i've seen you perform in Branson and I think you are good and I also love reading your comments, keep them coming I think you are right. I was in Memphis all week for Elvis week and thought I would go to the Images contest for the second time, I was very disappointed they said the judges were in the audience sitting around in different places so I thought I would go looking for them, but guess what? I never seen a judge, I don't believe they have any. there were 3 people that didn't make it to the finals and I couldn't believe it, a Brad McCrady and Jim Holmes and a kid or I guess I should say a young man named Tyler James that boy got 2 standing ovations and he was good and Jim got 1 too.getting to the EPE contest How could Justin Edwards win 3 times (first place) and then not be in the finals. thanks for listening. If you happen to know Tyler James I would love to hear him again and jim Holmes too.
By
Anonymous, At
1:26 AM
Dear Anonymous,
Thank you for your nice comments (definitely a switch from my other two anonymous comments). I have said enough about contests but I will say, I pray one of these days ETAs will finally wake up and realize they are being taken advantage of (though some will disagree and just say I'm sour grapes but always remember the best wines are made of sour grapes). As for Tyler James, I have also tried to convince him to just do his own thing and leave the contests to the "contest kings" but God bless him, he's young and I remember someone else who first came into this business thinking everyone was truthful and found out the hard way...me.
Again thank you and keep the memory alive.
By
Butch Dicus, At
9:51 AM
Was anyone as surprised as I was that Brandon Bennett didn't make into the top three? Shawn Klush deserved to win - beautiful performances. I have no problem with that, but I felt like Brandon Bennett was as good or better than both Trent Carlini and Donny Edwards!!
By
Anonymous, At
1:11 PM
When all of this started and we knew who the finalists were going to be (with the exception of the very last contest which Klush made it) I had $200.00 riding on Brandon to win. But the minute Klush won the regional, all money was off due to the fact of the prior EPE relationship they possessed. Not saying anything is going on (LOL...LOL), but when Klush, Edwards and Cass performed for EPE last year, there was not secrets. I don't know Shawn Klush and the only thing to really go on is the 20 second video presented by USA Today (which was sponsored again by EPE) I really believe Carlini had the best video. But again that is an opinion but will probably get the neck ripped off by Mr. or Ms. Anonymous but they are faceless anyway....LOL.
By
Butch Dicus, At
2:05 PM
For anyone else reading nothing that Butch has said has proven to be correct from previous blogs. If what you are saying now holds any weight that why did Cass not make it to the top 10 and why did Donny come in 3rd after Carlini. Carlini did have the best video and thats why he won the online poll. I am sure you will find a reason to say that was fixed at all or stir something up in the ETA world rather then admitting that this contest was a great thing.
Brian Matthews,
New York, NY
By
Anonymous, At
3:31 PM
Brian, thanks for your comment and I can see how things would look to someone who isn't in the business. I'm kind of curious about the usage of "stir something up". It seems the only thing stirring up is your emotions and believe me, that is the last thing I would want to do. I guess discussing the Kennedy conspiracy or how Elvis faked his death is out of the question also?
Again thanks for your comment.
By
Butch Dicus, At
10:39 PM
I don't think anything is going on conspiracy-wise with EPE about the contest. I know too much of the inside stuff to believe that.
I just know that over the course of Sunday's prelims and Friday's finals, Brandon Bennett outperformed, outlooked and out-entertained Trent Carlini and Donny Edwards and the judges blew the top three.
As for Shawn, he won it all the way - with or without help!
By
Anonymous, At
10:52 AM
And of course, we all like corndogs don't we?
By
Butch Dicus, At
12:54 PM
I wonder if EPE is going to have this contest every year or if it was a one time thing? You know if they have it every year the winners will just go down the line as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners was this year so why would everyone compete again and spend thier money trying. I really wish that everyone would lay off Butch he's entitled to his opinions just as you and I or anybody is. Lord knows I like to say what I think and I should be able to, it is freedom of speech.
By
Anonymous, At
2:26 AM
THE IDEA IS TO CELEBRATE AND REMEMBER ELVIS...NOT FIGHT WHO IS THE BETTER ETA...NEXT TO ELVIS WE ALL SUCK...WE SHOULD SUPPORT EACH OTHER LEARN FROM EACH OTHER AND REMEMBER WHAT WERE DOING HERE...SHAWN..WAY TO GO..WELL DESERVED...LETS ALL CELEBRATE EACH OTHERS VICTORYS AND THANK ELVIS ALONG THE WAY...STEVE MITCHELL..
By
Anonymous, At
8:22 PM
Steve,
The issue everyone is missing here on this certain item is not, who won but how it was won. If you have been an ETA (whatever an ETA is) for very long you know what goes on in this business and you can't say you don't. I frankly don't care if Shawn Klush won, if Donnie Edwards won or Ben Ladin won. But unfortunately, for seven years I have been banging my hard ass head against the wall of unfairness for the ETA themselves. And ya know what, I am not doing it no more. If an ETA is stupid enough to think that going to a contest is going to get them instant fame, more power to them. If the ETA thinks the organizer is their biggest friend, more power to them. But for seven years I have hollered "foul" to everything that has happened to the ETAs in this world and well, I have become the joke. That's because the organizer has declared that and made their certain ETA robots think "this guy is crazy", here perform for me some more so I can make more money off of you. Until an ETA can go out on his/her own and stir up their own business and leave the contests to the losers, I have no respect for any of you because God knows, the organizer of the contests need more lambs for the slaughter.
I will emphasize again, if I had any hard feelings against Carlini, Bennett, or even Johnny Thompson about winning a stupid ass contest, I would not have sent a congratulations email to each one like I did. And oh by the way, they went unanswered, except one from Scott Norton in Florida. Now that shows you exactly who the classy ETAs are.
By
Butch Dicus, At
9:35 PM
Butch,
What is the best way to get hired to do some shows? Should an ETA hire an agent? If not from contests , then where?
By
Anonymous, At
2:11 AM
Anonymous,
Please email to TCBWFLSH@JUNO.COM and let's talk.
Thanks.
By
Butch Dicus, At
2:20 PM
This is really the big problem on competition such as this, you rely on what the judges proclaimed and that seems to go against the majority rule most of the times if not all the times. In my opinion no competition is fool proof and perfect and the winner does not always necessarily represents the best of the crops that is why we have all these debates and arguments. It is a pity indeed because everyone is entitled to his own opinion.
By
Unknown, At
11:23 PM
yes, Jarred your right but to cheat to get what you want is another. In real life people will make a fool out of thiose who do. People are smart and can see through it.
It is obvious. If the guy really had it all to win. He could have and should have ethically went to another contest. But then it wouldn't have been a guarantee now would it? Come on. The Williamson County Fair hired his Band and manager and the Jordanaires. Then Ray Walker of the Jordanaires kept calling him and urging him to come to the contest.
Everyone knows it was fixed. The whole industry knows Dan Lentino is Shawn Klush's manager and the band was his own band. That gives an unfair advantage to Klush against a guy who has never worked with the band before. So...Don't hand me this crap he deserved to win.
Because he d#$@ sure does not.
He cheated and so did those involved. HE KNEW IT WAS HIS BAND. We are all not stupid. And am tired of being treated as such.
It was a fixed contest. It is not fair to all the others who put their time and money out to try and win when there was no way they could have with those odds against them.
Even if he was the best...HE CHEATED TO GET IT.
By
Blog Post, At
5:54 PM
All I can say is, "Business must be pretty slow in Las Vegas" for all of their entertainers having to go on TV and enter contests. Living in Las Vegas and travelling to East Texas for a contest just doesn't sound right, considering there was a closer one in San Diego but then again. Just like in the good ole days, ETAs travel around in packs. It's almost like WWF or NASCAR, in a way. And it depended on whether you belonged to a certain organization. Now, you will also observe old alliances, who at one time hated each other, are now joining forces again (letting bygones be bygones as explained to me) and others who once entertained with each other, are now breaking off and building new alliances. It is really all hilarious. Seriously, as with the WWF, everything is done with smoking mirrors but hey, I guess that's why they call it "Entertainment"...LOL.
By
Butch Dicus, At
2:13 PM
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