How much do you know about the Penn Glee Club? Street had the pleasure of talking with BMOC Penn Glee Club President Alex Feldman, a senior in the College, and is pleased to report that the arising revelations were astounding.
What is your most scandalous Glee Club-related story?
Scandalous? Well... last year we performed at Freshman Performing Arts Night, and the sound wasn't turned up all the way -- so we all got really out of synch. There was chaos, and somebody actually split his pants, so it was kind of disastrous.
That's hysterical. What kind of pants were they?
[Laugh] We were dancing in tuxes. I think we were doing some kind of a boy dance, and somebody split their pants.
Did the audience notice?
Yeah, I think so. It was definitely an experience. Another interesting story happened last year when the Glee Club was supposed to go to China and SARS came out of the blue, so we had to cancel the trip.
That's rough, but I guess no one really appreciates a Glee Club that has SARS.
That is true. I think I can safely say that the Penn Glee Club is against SARS.
So would you say the Penn Glee Club has a lot of history?
Absolutely, the Glee Club was founded in 1862, so we're older than... a bunch of states. We're definitely older than Hawaii or Alaska. We're going to start a campaign across campus: the Penn Glee Club is older than...
Bob Dole?
Yes, we are older than Bob Dole, except we don't use Viagra.
Would you say the group is concerned with preserving a particular image? If someone really talented tried out for the Glee Club who was also a big jerk, would the group reject him?
Not necessarily. We do take personality into consideration when we're making our decisions, but there's only so much you can tell about a person after one audition.
I absolutely agree. I must say the Glee Club sounds like an extremely enlightened organization.
Definitely, we are also a very diverse group. We have all sorts of guys of different races, religions and political inclinations....We actually have a couple Republicans.
Not too shabby.
We are all male, so that somewhat limits the diversity, but we do allow some female members into the group for the technical positions, just not for singing.
No one's ever tried to pull a Joan of Arc, like cut their hair short and pretended to be a man?
Umm, not that I know of. [Laugh] Hopefully not.
Yeah, how well do you know your fellow Glee Clubbers?
I know them pretty well. I wouldn't assume that anyone's a female, but there have been movements in the past to make the Glee Club co-ed.
And you guys are just not having that?
Well, there's definitely a male sound that we are interested in preserving on the campus.
Absolutely, and I've definitely noticed a very broad vocal range among the Penn Glee Club singers. Like is it ever weird to watch a guy while he's hitting a really high note?
Well, I'm a first tenor so I sing in the highest range. I think it's a lot of fun to sing high, and you can hear it a lot better when you do. I mean there's always competition in the first tenor section to see who can sing the highest note.
Sort of a little diva competition?
I guess you could call it that.
Are there any divas in the group?
Oh, there are divas in the group. Believe me, there are divas.
How does the group feel about that?
We absolutely embrace all our divas. They just add a little something else to the group. I personally think our group would make a really great reality tv show. There are always little dramas and conflicts going on among the various members.
That definitely seems to be a trend of late in the music industry. Do you think any of the guys will go on to join or form a boy band?
I hope not. Well, in a sense we are kind of like a boy band, except maybe a little bit bigger, and a little bit dorkier. [Laugh] No, don't quote me on that.
[Silence]
You probably will, won't you?
[Awkward Pause] So what is the Penn Glee Club's Singing Valentine service?
Oh yeah, basically we stand out on the walk the week before Valentine's Day and sell Singing Valentines for $5 each, and when someone orders one we'll go to that person's class and burst into song in the middle of the classroom.
Have any professors ever been pleased by the interruption?
One time a class actually sent a Singing Valentine to the professor. The professor was so touched that she actually burst into tears while we were singing, because she was so moved that the class would do that for her.
That must have been pretty gratifying.
It definitely is gratifying to deliver Singing Valentines like that. Last year, someone ordered a Singing Valentine for Ivanka Trump, so we were pretty excited about delivering that one.
Was she pissed off?
Actually, she wasn't there. I guess she didn't go to class that day. We were all really disappointed, but maybe we'll try to go after her again this year.
Good luck with that. I've been trying to get her to do an interview all semester. So do you have any other words of Glee Club wisdom?
I do have another funny story. One time we were singing this song called 'Old Mother Cupboard,' and we got to the part that says, "the cupboard is bare" and a few of the guys singing in the front row actually turned around and mooned the rest of us. So we all just started laughing. And I don't think the director had any idea what was going on, because the guys who had their pants down were standing behind him.
Did the audience know?
I don't think so. I mean it didn't really ruin the song, just maybe took a little bit off of it. I guess it was an appropriate moment; the cupboard was bare, so were their asses.
That's very surprising. I never would have expected such conduct from Penn Glee Club singers.
I think the Penn Glee Club is extremely misunderstood on campus. People generally think of Penn Glee Club as a group that stands really tall and straight during the show and sings really boring songs, but that's completely not true. I think a lot of people would be really surprised if they came to see us. I don't know if I'd say that we're necessarily struggling with image problems, but just that people have certain views of us that are definitely not accurate.
