Story by Annie Bohling | Photos by Chris Dorwart | Seeds Entertainment

At the Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards show on Sunday, the grand ballroom of the Double Tree Hotel in downtown Omaha was filled with artists of all types who sat in relaxation, camaraderie and curiosity of what nominees would be named for having done it best last year.

45 awards were given to artists and productions under the three umbrella categories of visual arts, performing arts and music. (Scroll down to see the list of winners.) Nearly 200 artists were nominated. Nominations were open to the public via the Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards website and were then tallied by local accounting firm Hancock & Dana. In order to be considered, nominees had to have produced their art between Aug. 1, 2012 and Sept. 31, 2013.

For the most part, the evening was fast, loose and smooth, likely just as planned.

[title size=”5″ style=”options: default, sidebar”]Highlights from the 8th annual OEAA show:[/title]

• The presence and acceptance speech of Bennie and the Gents (Best Cover Band) which featured a giant live snake coolly wrapped on the arms and shoulders of a band member. Their big hair, glittery ensemble is also in their online profile picture. “Thanks for letting us be ourselves. Keep being you and doing what you do,” said the band member wearing items including a gold speedo and black garters.
  
• When the laughably drunk diva presenting an award said, with her drink in one hand and the envelope of the winner in the other, “I can’t open this. Can you help me? Yeah, you. Come up here and open this.” A female from the audience with a commendably just-go-with-it attitude went up to the podium and ripped open the envelope…but still didn’t get to read the winner. Drunk Diva did.
• Spoken word artist Zedeka Poindexter’s performance…all of it, but particularly (for the writer of this article) about half way through the second poem when she shifted from all of the things her grandmother taught her to all of the things she was not taught, like to watch her cholesterol.  More generally, Zedeka’s confidence, stage presence, delivery, voice, and smooth, flowing rhythm of her words.

Nominees John Larsen and Edem performed in the room during the ‘cocktail hour’ before the show started. They were followed by Omaha Pipe and Drums who sauntered through the room playing bagpipes and drums, as their name hints, and provided an attention-grabbing transition into the start of the show.

From there, host Ethan Stone took the stand as the host of the night. Nearly immediately, Stone spewed an awkward boob joke followed by more forced humor and silence. He said, “Every year, [the OEA] asks me, ‘Ethan, will you host the OEAA’s this year?’ and every year you keep asking ‘why?’.”

To Ethan and the board of OEAA: Sincerely–why? The program would benefit from a host who is less obnoxious and desperate for laughs. In his defense, Stone has a solid, strong voice that fits the role of a host and also a ‘former on-air personality,’ which he is credited as. Stone carried most of the rest of the night with maturity.

Fortunately, Stone played a minimal role. The night was mainly carried by numerous awards presenters and of course, the awards receivers, who the night was all about.

The first pair of awards presenters were the familiar faces John Knicely and Malorie Maddox, anchors of WOWT channel 6 news. Things got less familiar from there.

A series of awards presenters followed who had more to do with the entertainment and arts district than news anchors, but the names of all of them were difficult to catch as they were quickly spattered by Stone from somewhere behind the wall of black curtains.

The massive screen suspended front and center displayed a slideshow presentation that informed the audience of the nominees for each category. However, the slideshow only minimally informed the audience—only of names of the nominees were given. For the sake of time, perhaps this was on purpose.

But the audience would have felt much less distanced and much more interested if a sample of the nominees’ or winners’ artwork was shown during the appropriate times. For instance, by the time Mary Zicafoose took the stage the second time for winning Best Solo Show after winning Best 2-D Artist, I was dying to know what her artwork was like.

Although the experience would have been better with the added visuals of art that many audience members are unfamiliar with, these complaints are minor and the movement of the night and overall experience of the event was arguably but likely pleasant for everyone in attendance. Plus, the screen couldn’t do it all. It served its dual purpose of the slide show as well as live feed from the cameras which included necessary close up shots of awards winners, awards announcers and the performances on stage.

The switch from slideshow to camera shots on the screen was seamless except for the boring, long shots into the dark room while nominees got up from tables and made their way up to the front—or failed to be there at all without someone to accept on their behalf, like in the case of Icky Blossoms, who won Best Indie Artist of the year.

What was happening in the room was more important than what was happening on the screen. But there was one vital use of the screen: the video about OEA 2014 Lifetime Achievement award winner Wanda Ewing, a multi-faceted artist and UNO professor who unexpectedly died at age 43 on Dec. 6, 2013.

This video showed a large bulk and variety of Ewing’s work. Despite the inclusion of a few painfully trite phrases like, “Wanda’s smile lit up the room like the sun…,” the narration (presumably by Stone) and display of artwork helped the audience (the seemingly few members unfamiliar with her) illustrate Ewing as a person and artist. The video, which would be nothing without the artwork displayed, showed and told why Ewing undoubtedly deserves this award.

There were a view bumps in the production of the night like in lighting cues and camera adjustments, but nothing significant enough to cause major disruptions. Overall, the night went smoothly. The sound was notably crisp and clear at the podium, the acceptance area, and the stage where performances were held.

Live performances were by musical acts Belles and Whistles featuring Daniel Christian (nominees), Purveyors of the Conscious Mind (winner for Best Hip Hop/Rap) and Josh Hoyer and the Shadowboxers (winner for Best R&B/Soul/Gospel); spoken word artist Zedeka Poindexter; and the excerpt from the play, Clybourne Park (winner for Best Comedic play).

The pace of the night was quick. The plan to fit 45 awards announcements and speeches along with five performances into roughly two hours was executed successfully; the night chugged along steadily and did not feel rushed to the attendees sitting at leisure.

The feel of the night was celebratory and somewhat casual, though most were in formal attire. The artists seemed to genuinely support each other whether they were nominees together in the same category or strangers to each other in unrelated categories, like Best 3-D Artist and Best Comedian. This respect was apparent through verbal speeches made by winners as well as the audience’s behavior. Applause was always paid to nominees and winners even when applauding was getting tiresome or when the winner of a given category was not who you, the audience member, would have chosen.

Overall, the night was an undeniable success and certainly a different and much more enjoyable night than any other typical Sunday night. The board decided to mix up the series of categories of awards throughout the whole show so that people did not favor and only attend the music, performing arts or visual arts chunks of the whole show. This kept the show fresh and did not superiorize categories over others.

The best part was easily the acceptance speeches by the winners. The words from the presenters and host were scripted and sometimes forced, so it the audience especially looked forward to seeing the reactions and hearing the sincere words from humbled and excited winners.

Here are just a few of those words said by the many awards winners of the night:

• “Thanks for being you and doing what you do.” – Brian Zealand (to the artists of the Omaha arts community), winner of Best Actor in a Musical
• “I have a lot of pride in the city I live in…” – John Klemmensen of John Klemmensen and the Party, winner of Best Singer/Songwriter

Acceptance speeches followed this pattern. Awards winners were proud to live in Omaha, to be artists and to be artists in Omaha. They thanked each other, the people who support arts and entertainment, the people they work with and their families.

Josh Hoyer and the Shadowboxers (winner of Best Blues/R&B Band) closed out the night with a high-spirited performance of three songs off of their new EP.

The eighth annual Omaha Entertainment and Arts awards show was sponsored by The Reader and WOWT Channel 6 news.

[title size=”1 to 6″ style=”options: default, sidebar”]WINNERS OF 2012-2013 OMAHA ENTERTAINMENT AND ARTS AWARDS[/title]

[title size=”3″ style=”options: default, sidebar”]Announced February 16, 2014[/title]

[title size=”1 to 6″ style=”options: default, sidebar”]Visual Arts[/title]