JAM Club Open Mic delivers chaotic, but lighthearted vocal performances
A relatively new club at MCC further established its presence by holding a second open mic event with hopes of making it an annual event for everyone’s entertainment.
The JAM Club may only be just shy of two years old, but they have already made a name for themselves on campus by performing at various events such as the past two Thunderbird Leadership Awards. Lately, they have been expanding their presence by hosting an open mic, which occurred on April 17 at noon by the Southern and Dobson clocktower.
Nakota Hunts-in-Winter, an audio production major, is the founder and current president of the club. He cited club advisor Alexandra Perdue, a professor of music industry studies, as the event’s inspiration. He also added that the MCC live sound department was of great help in assisting with last year’s iteration.
”[She] approached me about hosting an open mic, and I was excited about the idea,” Hunts-in-Winter said. “I got help from the live sound department last semester with some of the gear that I didn’t have access to, but this semester is completely my gear.”
Hunts-in-Winter also shared that while they had 10 sign-ups prior to the event, he expected more to sign up as the show happened like last year. Rather than sign up, several of the day’s performers volunteered themselves to perform.
As the event happened to coincide with ASMCC Student Government election day, several of the campaigning candidates were in the audience, like Executive Vice President candidate Gabriel Wilson, a construction management major.
“I didn’t realize that it was happening today,” Wilson said. “I came over here to table because it’s the last day of elections and I guess they had all this set up. It’s free advertisement for me, I guess.”
Wilson said that should it be an annual event as Hunts-in-Winter had planned, he would come back and participate next year.
“I’m a big sucker for the events we put on and the community around here,” he said.
Throughout the afternoon of performances, several of the campaigning candidates stopped by to advertise themselves and to spectate. Vice President of Operations-elect Jermel Gonzales-Byrd briefly came by to watch the show and presidential candidate Marlena Whitehair and Executive Vice President-elect Celeste Whiterock performed in a vocal trio with 2025-26 Miss Native MCC First Attendant Tanielle Klah.
Faculty also joined in on the set. K-12 education residential faculty Tawn Hauptli sang for the audience, despite running late for her initial sign-up.
In between performers, some audience members took to the stage to tell jokes or perform original poetry.
The majority of performers had some affiliation with JAM club. Members Devyn Nathanson and Alvin Grio, performing as his drag persona “Rita,” had some communication difficulties regarding which of their songs they were to perform first, but eventually settled on the order of “Good Luck, Babe!” By Chappell Roan and “Fight or Flight” by Conan Gray, with Nathanson doing vocals and Grio playing guitar and providing background vocals.
“This is a regular thing for us,” Grio said in reference to performing together at open mics on and off campus.
Nathanson, an audio production major, also shared her key to shaking off her stage fright.
“Usually my voice gets a little bit shaky before the performance, but the best solution for me I just yell at myself in my head like, ‘I’m gonna nail this performance!’” Nathanson said.
Grio, also an audio production major, said that his key was not taking himself too seriously, as evidenced by him tearing off his wig and throwing it in Nathanson’s face midway through “Good Luck, Babe!”
“This is the first time I’ve done a performance in drag,” Grio shared. “That was a little bit nerve wracking, but otherwise, since I knew that I was just doing this for fun, might as well go all out.”
Though there were some communication errors between performers, some impromptu performances and a case of sign-ups running late, the chaotic lineup evidently seemed to entertain both performers and spectators alike.
