Gen Leblanc – AIR GUITAR CANADA

OTTAWA JUDGES YOU!

May 11, 2018
by glenairyglenrocks

Yep. Just like that parent that’s always watching… Ottawa’s judges are ready to give you the stern eye and then give you scores from 4.0 to 6.0 that will determine if you become the 2018 Ottawa Air Guitar Champion and go on to Toronto for the National Championships of Air Guitar.

It’s not too late to register to compete: ENTER HERE

Here’s the roster of ‘expert/celebrity’ judges:

GEN ‘THE PHOENIX’ LEBLANC – 2017 Air Guitar Canada Champion

Fresh from her trip to Finland to represent the country at the Air Guitar World Championships. Our very own, Phoenix will be taking her seat at the judges table to help select the best possible competition for the big prize. She is a three-time champion having been the 2016 Ottawa Champion and the 2017 Toronto Champion. She is the first female Canadian Champion of Air Guitar and she took home a very respectable 5th place in the World Championships in 2017. Please join us in welcoming this titan of Canadian Air Guitar to the jury.

ANDRE GAGNE of Ottawa Life Magazine A.K.A. Captain Nummy Muffin Coco Butter

Andre’s a fast machine that keeps his motor clean. He’s been power drive pumpin’ his way through O-town’s music scene for two years as a reporter / photographer and sometimes they even let him on the ray-did-e-oh! Before that he was a roadie for Winger with dreams of opening up a martial arts dojo/bakery called Taekwondonuts. Though his alternate persona Captain Nummy Muffin Coco Butter was robbed of air guitar glory last year, this judge holds no grudge. He’s here tonight to kick names and take ass…or something. Now, shake me allllllllll night long!

CHELSEA MILLER of LIVE 88.5 Ottawa

According to Twitter, Chelsea Miller, the popular Ottawa Radio DJ and Mid-Morning host is into: Radio. Giraffes. Unicorns. Ceebs. Giggles. Family. White Owls. and Sports. It’s an impressive list. We are excited to add Air Guitar Judge to it. Let’s give Chelsea a warm welcome back to the madness that is Air Guitar. We can’t wait to hear her radio-voice peep back some missives to our competitors as she tosses up the scores and helps us find our 2018 Ottawa Champ!

KILLSEY VAN HELLSin of Ottawa Burlesque

“Killsey Van HellSin is not made of sugar and spice like other little girls, but of steel, sass, edges, and glass. A sideshow and burlesque performer, she embraces fierce goddesses, swamp witches, and pagan sorceresses as her aesthetic influences. She has performed her unique style of burlesque extensively throughout Ottawa and Toronto for the
past five years, including at the Ottawa Burlesque Festival, the Capital Burlesque Expo, and with the Suicide Girls’ Blackhearts Burlesque show. With the heart of a warrior, the hands of a sorceress, and hips that beat with war drums, the Battle Axe of Burlesque is here to conquer all of your expectations.” Killsey will be performing in Ottawa again this month at Burlesque in the Bourbon Room both on May 16 and May 23.

JIMMY KING A.K.A. Collective Jordan

You could perhaps call it fate? But the Saint of Circumstance blessed us with Jordan, our 5th and final Air Guitar Judge for the Air Guitar Ottawa 2018 Championships. Jordan is a veteran Air Guitar judge and a stellar lead-guitarist of the real variety. If you’ve seen him, you can attest that he’s Ransacked the Universe of House of Targ every time he’s played. Jordan will be the Head Judge for the provision of scores (4.0 to 6.0) figure skating styles for all of our performers, while he also oversees the provision of suds by the way of a total TAP TAKE-OVER for the night. Nice to know that no matter the performances on May 12th – the drinks will be impeccable.

So to be sure your State of Mind is locked and loaded on the prize, Jordan has ensured that all your craft beer needs are looked after. And for whatever Rhyme and Reason you’ve found yourself at Targ that night, you will walk away having tasted the best and done some good by supporting the brave Air Guitarists and the charitable cause of the evening… Right to Play Canada – Helping children who face adversity from war, disease, poverty all around the world through the power of sport and play.

So why Stash away all that talent? Let it shine and take the stage with us – playing your favourite songs… with an invisible guitar.

GET YOUR TICKETS

Air Guitar World Championships

2017 CANADIAN AIR GUITAR CHAMP: THE PHOENIX!

July 17, 2017
by glenairyglenrocks

SHE RISES!!! The First-Ever Female Air Guitar Canada Champion

Gen ‘The Phoenix’ Leblanc solidly wins the Canadian Championships and will be representing our country on Aug. 25th at the Air Guitar World Championships in Oulu, Finland!

A longer more elaborate post is coming soon, but until then, here is The Phoenix in action to tide you over.

Thanks to our sponsors Collective Arts Brewing and Panago Pizza for the support.

Right to Play is our charitable beneficiary.

Photos by Culture Snap Photography.

Air Guitarist

TORONTO 2017 RE-CAP – SHE SPRAYS TO CONQUER!

June 2, 2017June 5, 2017
by glenairyglenrocks

GEN ‘THE PHOENIX’ LEBLANC CLAIMS ANOTHER CHAMPIONSHIP – FRESH FROM THE SET OF MAD MAX 2

May 13th was a glorious explosion of new and raw Air Guitar talent at the DRAKE UNDERGROUND. Our pre-registered numbers were excellent with returning favourites and a huge contingent of fresh new faces. The following post will share photos of all our competitors, including our brave souls and our pre-show air band and mid-show burlesque performance by Red Herring from the Toronto School of Burlesque. All the photos are courtesy of Henry VanderSpek of Culture Snap and videos by Cat Mills. Huge thanks to Kyle from Collective Arts for the beer and prizing, and Fource Canada for the Wayhome, Boots and Hearts, and Feastival Festival passes for prizes, Eatertainment and Hogtown Pub and Oysters for restaurant gift certificates and lastly Panago Pizza for feeding us. We made a great contribution to our charity Right to Play Canada! Please join us at Nationals on July 15th at the MOD CLUB.

Enjoy the photos and the videos from the night. We can’t wait to rock out with you again.

If you wish to enter to compete – there is still a chance for you to join us at Nationals for your chance at the trip to Finland.

We’ve got Saskatoon, Medicine Hat and Kamloops too!

Next up in Ontario:

July 5th – Hamilton

July 15th – Dark Horse at Nationals TICKETS TO NATIONALS

ON TO THE RE-CAP

Our host Nyree With a Microphone started the night off with some pre-competition music and an ode to Rocky Balboa with Eye of the Tiger.

She was joined by Toronto Air Guitar veteran and world stage performer Carlos ‘Hanzel the Manzel’ Mengual.

Legend of yore – Ari ‘Red Thor’ Hunter also joined the band along with 2016 Canadian Air Guitar Champ Blake ‘The Canadian Tuxedo’ Johnston who gave the mic some vox for a ripping rendition of No One Knows by Queen’s of the Stone Age.

Then some inflated goof-ball showed up and played drums and tried to sing. They called him the Winged Luchador. The fan in the suit busted… wore it twice. Value for money as they say.

We had some aces Judges: Blake ‘The Canadian Tuxedo’ Johnston, Ari ‘Red Thor’ Hunter, Joan Smith of Little Foot Long Foot, Ryan Gullen of the SheepDogs, and Kyle Wilson from Collective Arts Brewing. They had hard choices to make, but they made them well.

AND NOW THE COMPETITION!

Drawing the UNO, was none other than Toronto favourite Mark ‘Whiskey Pockets’ Slater. He rocked hard with wet booze soaked hair and custom clothing to the Cancer Bats version of Sabotage!

Next up was new comer Ichabod Fame. He did all manner of crazy mad jumps and shit. He looked like a taller, stronger version of the Canadian Tuxedo. He might as well have borrowed his costume. Though it did fit him like he went shopping in the toddler section of Northern Reflections. Ichabod was amazing and earned strong scores for Aerosmith’s Love in an Elevator as the 2nd to take the stage… see the performance below.

Next up was another newbie – Justin ‘TheJstrazz’ Strazzanti , he rocked out to assorted Guns and Roses songs. We are hoping he joins us again for Nationals as a Dark Horse now that he’s had his first taste of Air Guitar stardom.

Following was Marc with a C – who was inspired to come out and have some fun thanks to CHAMP FORRESTER. Marc kicked it to Walk this Way by Aerosmith and shook his mullet like a number 7.

Next up was Cat ‘Cat-astrophe’ Mills who put down the camera and lived her moment of glory.

THE CHAMP was back. Moving his way through the audience and rocking out with his signature coif and plaid. He killed it. We’ll see THE CHAMP back at Nationals.

The living legend Mr. Bob took to the stage in a brand new get-up. Purple like Prince, he rocked out to a new tune and gave his best performance in many events. He scored 5.7s across the board. He earned a berth in the second round for the 3rd straight year.

Hard to follow Bob, but this newcomer did that and more… Leona ‘RiRi Rockstar’ Placide was electric in her performance to Jimi Hendrix – All Along The Watchtower – she lit the stage on fire and landed herself a spot in the second round!

Then came DAZ. Daz loves to point. Let us point out that Daz loves classic rock. Daz is our hero.

We saw the return of Adam ‘Holyrod’ Holroyd. He also got the memo about purple and whilst rocking out to Deep Purple’s Burn he delivered accordingly. Adam gave one of the purest technical performances of the night. I’m really hoping he joins us again for Nationals and some more mastery. Don’t even ask us what’s going on with this picture. The man levitates.

Then came another in the colour of the night our newest of the new registrants… the amazing ATOMIC PIXIE. While she was perhaps more fuchsia than purple. She did assume the position of pretzel and scored high scores for looking so boss and rocking so low. She moved on to round 2.

Then came our vet, our corvette, our ‘they’ pronoun rocket. Kit ‘Kid Vicious’ Kolbegger who must have ignored the memo and dyed their hair green for the meanest of performances.

It was time to welcome our 2016 Ottawa Champ – now a Toronto resident, Gen ‘The Phoenix’ Leblanc to the stage. She was all decked out in post-apocalyptic finery and totally showed the crowed what a re-birth looks like. The Phoenix earned the highest scores of the night so far.

THE PHOENIX

Gen 'THE PHOENIX' Leblanc – 2017 Toronto Air Guitar Champion Genevieve Tully-Adams

Posted by Air Guitar Canada on Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Then it was the returning champ – Dana ‘Dana-Saurus Rex’ Schieman‘s turn to be welcomed back to the Drake Underground stage where it all started for her last year when she propelled and whipped herself into a champions title last year from the brave souls’ round. She couldn’t compete at Nationals last year but we plan to see her this year. She killed it. She moved on to the 2nd round. Started like this:

Ended like this.

VIDEO:

BRAVE SOULS ROUND

That wrapped the pre-registered competitors. Then it was time for the BRAVE SOULS. These are the people that come out of the crowd that night to give it a try like Air Guitar Karaoke.

First up was – Rachel ‘Namira the Cat’ . She was also helping us out with the ballots and sign ups and couldn’t resist. We hope she comes back again for Nationals!

Then came the serene meditative man Riley Boyd – a long time friend and competitor who wanted to style out and rock the slow jams for us. We expect to have him back with us at Nationals for the Dark Horse.

Then we had crazy long awesome red hair super hot rocker like a chair please – She honestly used every inch of that hair to whip up some serious respect from all the ladies and the dudes who love the locks. Please come back July 15th and do that again. So cool. and those boots.

Closing out the Braves souls was Charlene Gibbons. Or as l like to call her… Sneak Attack Gibbons… out of nowhere she shows up and just levels the place with insane floor work and super sultry Air Guitar that earned her a spot in the 2nd round. Check this out:

From that the judges rendered their judgement and we announced our top 7 performers:

BUT BEFORE THAT – we had a special burlesque performance from the incomparable RED HERRING

The Compulsory Round song was chosen – it was Dragon Force’s Through the Fire and the Flames… just make it easy on everyone. Here were your finalists:

BOB went first. He rocked so hard he fell off the stage. He was fine… he used to be a dive instructor so taking a dip was nothing new for him.

Then came RiRi Rockstar…

Then Atomic Pixie

Then Sneak Attack Charlene Gibbons

Then the performance of the night happened and the pictures don’t do it justice, but Ichabod Fame… just killed Through the Fire and the Flames. So much so that he jumped from his third place birth straight into contention for first place with perfect 6.0s.

Then came Dana-Saurus Rex – she needed to pull out all the stops and she gave it her all. But it was hard to follow Ichabod’s insanity. We expect Dana to come back with a vengeance at Nationals as she is the stuff of champions.

Last up was THE PHOENIX, riding the best scores in the opening round, she had to do well enough to hold back Ichabod and keep her top spot. She did just that. Pulling out more tricks and theatrics to thrill the crowd and the judges, The Phoenix got the scores she needed and can now proudly put herself in the history books as the first ever Canadian to earn two championships in different cities.

IT WAS A MAGICAL NIGHT. We caught these last pictures and then had to madly clean up for the Club night that was to follow quickly on our heels. Congrats to all the competitors and we sincerely hope to see everyone back at Nationals for more madness and mayhem and good times in the name of World Peace, Rock and Roll and our charity Right to Play.

Air Guitarist

THE PHOENIX RISES IN THE BIG SMOKE!

May 15, 2017
by glenairyglenrocks

GEN ‘THE PHOENIX’ LEBLANC – YOUR 2017 AIR GUITAR TORONTO CHAMPION!

This past Saturday, there was an epic battle for the top spot in Toronto. Emerging from the flames – sometimes literally – was Gen ‘The Phoenix’ Leblanc. She had to work hard for her win, narrowly defeating the 2016 Toronto Champ Dana ‘Dana-Saurus Rex’ Schiemann (3rd place) and newcomer Zachary ‘Ichabod Fame’ Knowles (2nd). They furiously rocked out to DragonForce’s ‘Through the Fire and the Flames’ as chosen by the audience.

We look forward to welcoming our top three finalists to the National Championships on July 15th at The Mod Club. We also encourage all how participated to register to compete at Dark Horse entrants for their last chance to enter the Canadian Championships.

We need to thank our audience for their patronage and donations to Right To Play Canada. We were able to raise over $1000 for the cause through ticket sales and compulsory round song ballot donations.

We need to thank our Judges: Ryan Gullen of the Sheepdogs, Kyle Wilson of Collective Arts Brewery, Joan Smith of Little Foot Long Foot, Red Thor and Blake ‘The Canadian Tuxedo’ Johnston the 2016 Canadian Air Guitar Champion. They had a tough job and delivered some great laughs along with their scores.

We need to thank our competitors. We had 14 people sign up in advance and another 4 brave souls who threw caution to the wind and strapped on an Air Guitar to rock the crowd. Stay tuned for a second post to come in the following days with pictures of the wicked people who shredded the stage, as well as some video of the event.

We need to thank our volunteers – score keeper Carlos ‘Hanzel the Manzel’ Mengual, Front of House Dave ‘Kit-Air-ington’ Finkelstein, Kurt and Rachel on brave souls sign ups and ballot bucket, Carlos’ Mom with waivers, Henry ‘Snap Culture’ Vanderspeck for the photos, Cat and Dimitri for the videos.

We also need to thank our HOST!!! Nyree MacPherson filled the role of host exceptionally and with her Eye of the Tiger performance got us started right! Huge props to Nyree for making sure we could get out before the clubbers overwhelmed the Drake Underground.

To our Sponsors: Collective Arts, Panago Pizza, Fource Canada, Eatertainment, HogTown Pub and Oysters, Sinclair Music and the Toronto School of Burlesque. Thank you for your contributions to the charity and for giving our rockers some extra incentive to make a difference and wow the crowds.

Lastly – Our Venue – THE DRAKE UNDERGROUND – thanks to Johnny for helping out with all the tech, Iain for the booking and Jonathan for stocking the bar with the delicious Rhyme and Reason from Collective Arts.

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS RE-CAP – Toronto’s Tuxedo for the Win!

July 24, 2016July 25, 2016
by glenairyglenrocks

Blake ‘The Canadian Tuxedo’ Johnston from Toronto is Your 2016 Canadian Air Guitar Champion!

July 16th, 2016 – Toronto, Ontario. The MOD club was set a fire last Saturday with twenty-one Air Guitarist heroes all seeking to be the Nations’ best. But alas, there could be only one… and that one was none other than Blake Johnston – The Canadian Tuxedo. He used every inch of his fanny pack carrying capacity and filled the stage with Airness unmatched in our 3 years of competition. He scored 4 perfect 6.0’s the final round and cemented his place as the king of Air Guitar in Canada. He unseated our 2015 champ – Jay ‘THRUST’ McNeely – who was no slouch – breathing fire, and stripping down to minimize air resistance.

Here is the summary of the night. Thanks to amazing photographs by Henry Vanderspek from from CultureSnap.

Huge thanks to all who participated, our venue (Mod Club), our volunteers, our audience, and our sponsors (Steam Whistle, Panago Pizza, Banger Bingo, Blitz Printing, Eatertainment, Second City, Hogtown Pub and Oysters, and The Bond Place Hotel). All proceeds go to Right To Play – Looks like we should be close to $3000 donated for the season. Official number to be announced following some final accounting.

We were blessed with a all-star panel of judges with a variety of backgrounds to deliver the scores to find us our 2016 Champ. Our judges were: Entertainment reporter Rudy Blair, Adam Ricard of The Edge 102.1, Sara Elizabeth lead singer of Bloody Diamonds, Actor Suresh John of CBC’s Mr. D, and Kelly Dickinson and Ainslie Dowle of Right To Play Canada.

Our host was Kat Curtis of Naked News... she rocked some fresh duds with styles inspired by The British Invasion – like Bowie and Geri Halliwell.

Let’s get to the Re-Cap:

DARK HORSE COMPETITION:

The night started with the final shot at entry into the championships – commonly known as the Dark Horse competition, after some last minute cancellations we had SIX performers try for the last 2 spots in the Championships. They were (in order of performance): Tyler ‘Cat Fiday’ Gardener (Red Deer), Carlos ‘Hanzel the Manzel’ Mengual (Toronto), Matt ‘Champ Forrester’ Hallsworth (Toronto), Joel ‘Hand Solo’ Zak (Red Deer), James ‘AIRick Clapton’ Dalzell (Midland), and Darryl ‘DAZ’ Jones (Toronto).

First up was Cat Friday. Nimble and pouncing like a fierce feline, he came away with a combined score of 16.4 to earn him a spot in the championships.

Hanzel the Manzel prayed to the rocks gods and they listened giving him the top scores in the Dark Horse round with a combined tally of 16.9. He moved on to the championships. Nice crotch shot…

Champ Forrester came next and tried to make lemonade from Led Zeppelin’s Lemon Song. His performance was sweet, but the judges left him feeling sour with a combined score of 15.3. He would not move on.

Next up was Joel ‘Hand Solo’ Zak from Red Deer, Alberta. This man is the epitome of good vibes and good times. He rocked the stage with glee and disrobed revealing some pretty dandy boxer trunks. We can’t wait to see him rip it up again next year in Alberta – His combined score: 16.0 – good for third place in the Dark Horse. A number that Hand Solo is getting a little tired of seeing as he’s come in 3rd for every competition he has ever entered.

AIRick Clapton came next. Fresh from the Brexit debacle, AIRick had been self-medicating himself through the sorrow of the Leave vote and was happy to gain some clarity if only for one minute with a sterling performance of Layla. He lost his head at one point and launched his toupee into the sky, only to have the sky reply “We’ll take that”. His golden locks remained up in the rafters for the remainder of the show. Bare headed… Airick received the tally of 15.8 – good for 4th in the Dark Horse.

The final Dark Horse competitor was none other than DAZ. With his signature pointing moves, and leather jacket that screams ’80’s rocker’ fashion, Daz did what he does best and gave the crowd a rollicking rendition of Twisted Sister’s ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’. The judges took it. Then gave him a tally of 15.1. Punks.

HELLBROS!

While we got organized for the Championship round – We were thrilled to welcome the HELLBros! from Ottawa to blow the roof off the MOD Club. They were possibly the best part of the night. Peter, Christian, Matt and Josh put on a killer show and Culture Snap got these sick shots of them doing the real thing…

CHAMPIONSHIPS

We had 16 Air Guitarists in the running for the title this year from 4 different provinces and 7 different cities. Here are the heroes who gave us the biggest and best Air Guitar competition ever held on Canadian soil in the history of Air Guitar Canada.

We started much like we started the Dark Horse competition with Tyler ‘Cat Friday’ Gardner – drawing first spot in both rounds of competition, our Red Deer dynamo was not deterred and left it all out on the dancefloor. Forever to be called the Canadian Care Bear of Air Guitar, Cat Friday got us off to a wicked start. His score: 16.7. Not enough to move on, but good enough for 9th in Canada.

Going 2nd was the heart and soul of Air Guitar Canada. Bob ‘Mr. Bob’ Wagner. While he’s shy about his status as our most cherished and most veteran of performers, Bob is quick to point out that his age and his IQ are basically the same: 72. But that his IQ is 72.8, which gives him just enough smarts to get up and Air Guitar for all of us. That .8 is his MOJO. He rocked out to his favorite – Elvis, doing ‘Johnny Be Good’. Judges gave him a 16.6. Not good enough to move on this year.

NEWS: We are going to run a campaign in the coming weeks to ensure that BOB makes it to Finland for the World Championships to compete in the Dark Horse for his chance at gracing the world stage. 50% of the finds will go to Right To Play. We need your help to get him there… so stay tuned on how to pitch in to make it happen. Here’s a sweet shot of our boy, Bob:

Going 3rd was Mark ‘Whisky Pockets’ Slater who growled his way through a thrashed up version of Beastie Boys’ ‘Sabotage’. He scored: 16.9 landing him a spot in the final round.

4th was Hanzel the Manzel fresh from the Dark Horse competition. He wowed the judges again with his highly reflective and flashy performance and scored just enough to land him a spot in the finals with score of: 16.8.

5th spot in the order went to Kit ‘Kid Vicious’ Kolbegger who again proved that time, experience, serenity and super-stardom comes to those who shred. Check out the vibe on this shot… easily the most self-explanatory photo for why Air Guitar can mean something more than just the 1-minute of wild. They scored: 16.7 – tied for 9th and one spot out of the finals… but nothing short of inspiring.

Up 6th was our first ever Saskatoon Champ – Natalie ‘Sweet Dee’ Scott. She started with a reading of Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary… straight into Van Halen’s ‘Hot for Teacher’. She crawled and bent her way around the stage delivering one of the sauciest performances yet of the competition. The Judges responded to her sweetness with the highest scores of the evening thus far with: 17.1. She would move on.

Up 7th was Toronto native and Brave Soul success-story Adam ‘HOLYROD’ Holroyd. He choose by far the most technically and ‘guitar’ centric track called ‘Bad Horsie’ by Steve Vai. It was nothing short of awesome. He hit the notes with perfection and whipped his curly locks around like he was astride a bucking bronco at the Calgary stampede. Perhaps it was the time of the night, perhaps it was the stuffed horse animal that was protruding from his belt, but the judges didn’t see the sheer genius of his performance and he scored just shy of placing in the finals: 16.6. No bad scores. Just nothing high enough to propel him into the next round. We hope HOLYROD comes back to redeem himself next year.

This is when the night starts to get a little punchy. Taking the stage in pure theatre was the Vice-Champion from Saskatoon – Brennan ‘Major Party’ Risling marched to the front in all bombast. He saluted the crowd in his best teacher/major-general voice and explained the ‘nature’ of Major Party… for like 5 minutes too long. The audience ate it up. The Judges wanted Air Guitar. and while he delivered the payload to the tune of ‘God Save The Queen’ by Sex Pistols, the judges court-marshaled him for his lengthy break in decorum. His scores: 15.5. The Audience quickly informed the judges of their displeasure with a volley of boos. My friends… that is Air Guitar for ya.

Going 9th was our first-ever North Simcoe Air Guitar Champion – Bryan ‘Dr. Rock-Star Genius’ Piitz. He channeled his inner Lemmy from Motorhead and brought out a classic Air Guitar track by Extreme – ‘Play With Me’. Judges enjoyed, but didn’t quite give the scores to push him into the finals with a tally of: 16.7 – Good enough for tied for 9th in Canada.

Going 10th was our eventual champion Blake ‘The Canadian Tuxedo’ Johnston who choose to go near the middle of the pack to take advantage of the peaks and valleys of scoring in a large field of competitors. His strategy and his performance paid off as he took the highest scores of the night thus far with a tally of 17.5. This put him in 2nd place for the Audience Choice round. Here are some choice shots of his performance of System of Down’s ‘Chop Suey’:

Going 11th was our first-ever Red Deer Alberta champion Kaje ‘Sista Fista’ Annihilatrix who looked so amazing and transcended cool with her performance of rocked-up version of ‘All Along the Watchtower’. She had a tough act to follow but made the home team proud – the judges gave her a respectable: 16.4.

12th up was our 2-time Quebec Air Guitar Champion Helene ‘HEY!len’ Laurin. She came out in army fatigues and created a 1-min message about war and world peace in her Air Guitar routine. She was technically pristine and aside from a slow end to a strong start (all part of the creation) her performance showed us why she’s the Montreal champ. The judges’ scores were good but they were not strong enough to earn a spot in the finals: 16.5. 5.5 across the board.

Going 13th – Zandy ‘The Space Mime Continuum’ Pothier – one of three finalists from Ottawa. Zandy didn’t speak a word and wowed the crowd and judges alike with his full and complete performance of Protest The Hero. His score: 17.1

14th – Our first-ever champion and competitor from Medicine Hat, Alberta, Darin ‘Ebony Love’ Mckay. One of our favorite performers of the night and a true show-man. He rocked out to ‘I Believe in a Thing Called Love’ by The Darkness. He betrayed the dark side with a light up heart shaped belt that was by far the raddest and effective accessory of the night. He got some huge scores from our judges and found himself in the finals: 17.3. Good enough for 4th place moving into the finals.

15th – two more performances and both from Ottawa. This was our Ottawa Champ – Gen ‘The Geek Girl’ Leblanc. She was one of our many female champions this year that totally owned her spot at the front of the pack. She got huge scores from the judges with her Baby Metal performance. SCORE: 17.4 – this put her in 3rd place moving into the final round.

Last to perform and not one for being shy about adding spice to the stage was our 2015 Champ Jason ‘THRUST’ McNeely. He shoved every inch of himself into the tightest and shortest man-shorts we’ve ever seen and then breathed fire to Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Foxy Lady’. His theatrics and sheer rock-awesomeness earned him the highest scores of the Championship round with tallies of 5.9, 5.9 & 5.9 for a total of : 17.7 and first place moving into the compulsory round.

AUDIENCE CHOICE ROUND – Compulsory Round:

After all the dust had settled – we had 8 performers that would move on to the final compulsory round of performance. Arctic Monkeys’ ‘I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor’ won the Audience Choice vote and helped raise an additional $247 dollars for Right To Play through people boosting their ballots. In order of performance: Hanzel The Manzel, Whisky Pockets, Sweet Dee, Space Mime Continuum, Ebony Love, The Geek Girl, The Canadian Tuxedo and THRUST would battle it out for final standings and who would represent the country in Finland for the 21st annual Air Guitar World Championships.

Hanzel the Manzel pulled out all the tricks and delivered a rocketing performance moving his 8th place finish into a tie for 4th place after showering the audience in confetti and earning 5.9, 5.9 and 5.8 for a total combined score of 34.4.

Whiskey Pockets who voted heavily for the Arctic Monkeys had a blast and gave us a boozey final performance and ended the night in a tie for 7th place in Canada.

The Space Mime continued to push the boundaries and ventured into the audience with the first-ever mimed crowd surf. No mimes were harmed. He ended the night tied for 7th place.

Sweet Dee – Showing that Saskatoon can mos def play… ended the night with a respectable 6th place in Canada. We can’t wait to see what comes out of Saskatchewan in 2017.

Ebony Love, who was easily one of the best acts all night showered the crowd with roses and t-shirts. He won the hearts of the audience and came away tied for 4th place. We expect to see him back in 2017, unless Medicine Hat can find someone to unseat this love-bug of airness.

The Geek-Girl suffered from technical mishaps, but still delivered and landed herself in a solid 3rd place – showing that Ottawa is where it is at for Air Guitar. Next year could be the year of Gen. We know how close she was this year.

Then there was Blake’ The Canadian Tuxedo’ Johnston. His compulsory round performance showed the audience and judges what champions are made of. The furious energy, the intense eye contact, the hunger for the win and his ultimate surrender to the music elevated the performance into the stratosphere and earned him a set of perfect 6.0s.

It was now up to THRUST to defend his title and bring out some scores to hold his initial lead. He smashed a guitar, a familiar move from his first championship run, and then dropped an elbow on the wreckage. He tore open his shirt and even slipped off his kilt to reveal a very skimpy set of briefs that at times appeared to disappear depending on the camera angle. Jay delivered a performance to be remembered, but could not overcome the huge scores that The Canadian Tuxedo garnered. He left the stage knowing that it was time for a new champion. But we know we haven’t seen the last of THRUST.

The Canadian Tuxedo won the title, the love of the crowd and the respect of his fellow competitors… now he’s going to prepare himself to bring home the World Championship title in August. Check in to airguitarcanada.org for all the updates and news about Blake and his aspirations for world domination… as far as Air Guitar goes.

Thanks to all the judges and competitors for making the 3rd Air Guitar Canada Championships one of the best ever held on Canadian soil.