The Alpha Apollo is said to be the biggest event on campus outside of concerts at Eastern Michigan University. Most students generally know about the Apollo or have attended the Apollo at least once.
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated will be hosting its 18th Annual Alpha Apollo on Saturday, Jan. 30 in Pease Auditorium. The show is open to everybody, and tickets cost $8 in advance and $10 at the door, and can be bought in advance at the Student Center ticket box, the Quirk Theatre box office and at the EMU Convocation Center.
According to the president of the fraternity and chair of the Apollo, senior Brian Taylor: “The Apollo is bigger than just a regular talent show. There’s so much time and energy put into this.”
Taylor said The Alpha Apollo is comparable to the famous “Showtime at the Apollo,” where some of the most legendary artists and groups started their musical careers.
The appeal of the Apollo involves the audience’s ability to wholly participate in the show. Instead of just watching a regular talent show and having judges decide who the best act is, the audience does it.
With the Alpha Apollo, the performer is allotted a specific amount of time to perform and once the time is over the audience is allowed to either boo the performer and point them off of the stage, or applaud them and continue to enjoy the performance. If the performer is booed by the majority of the audience, then the designated “sandman” escorts them off the stage in a comedic form.
Though it might seem a show like this would just require acts and everything else would work itself out, that is very far from the truth.
“I like to treat the Apollo like an album,” Taylor said. “You have to have a concept. Ours is ‘Flashing Lights’ after listening to Kanye West, and I wanted people to see stars. But you have to produce it, sign contracts, book rooms for auditions, which last for months and once we get about 16 acts, which I like to call the songs, you have to put everything in order.”
Of course, that’s still only a small portion of work that has to be done in order to construct the Apollo.
There’s also the promotional team that is ran by senior and fraternity member, Wardell Littles.
“We try to target a lot of freshman, since they might not have heard about the Apollo before, as well as other surrounding colleges like the University of Michigan and Bowling Green State University.”
Littles also sends out reminders on Facebook daily.
In general he believes people, “Anticipate the Apollo.
“As soon as the winter semester starts people are asking, ‘When is the Apollo?’ It really is a lot of work and we really appreciate Brother Anthony Hytche our advisor. He has definitely helped us in the direction we need to go,” Littles said.
Ian Powe, senior and member of Alpha Phi Alpha, is working the Apollo for his second year and has the role of crowd management this year.
“I love the atmosphere, between the fraternity and the students. The fraternity really comes together and we test ourselves as a working machine,” Powe said.
As for the acts coming on Saturday, Powe has no idea who he thinks will win the competition.
“There’s a wide range of acts and talents, it really depends on the audience, because there are some really good acts this year,” he said.