Shanna Braunschweig, Staff Writer

NCDC is Northwestern College and Dordt College’s version of American Idol, so if you are a fan of the hit TV show American Idol, you will love this!

The first-round was scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 14 at Northwestern’s chapel. However, due to the weather forecast, it was rescheduled for Sunday, April 15, following GIFT.

Dordt College’s very own, Joel Venhuizen, was one of the Emcees at NC/DC. When asked how he was chosen for the glorified position of Emcee, Venhuizen said, “I’m just terrifically funny and everybody knows it, I guess.”

He was not alone on stage, though; Cha Chi from Northwestern was his female cohost. In all seriousness, he said he was probably chosen as the host because they didn’t have any other ideas and because he hosted TX. “Also because I beat Jory up and took the job away from him. I threatened him, told him that I would not make juice with him again unless I got to host.”

“There are 10 groups of contestants, five from each school, but only four of them will move on to the final round,” said Venhuizen. “All 10 will prepare two songs and perform one on Saturday. The four groups who move on will be announced following their performances and get to sing their remaining song.” The audience gets to vote in addition to the judges.

The final round will be held in the BJ Haan auditorium at 10:15 pm, on April 21. The theme is The Beatles, so everyone will be singing a Beatles’ song. There’s also a possibility that contestants will be dressing up.

“I was surprised by the amount of people that showed up. I expected it to not be very full,” said Venhuizen, when asked about the turnout due to the rescheduling. “There was a pretty good Dordt crowd.”

“I think I should have hosted,” said Jory Kok, who suddenly interrupted the interview. “I would say Alex Geleynse should win the contest,” said Kok, “because he’s standing up in my wedding.”

“I wouldn’t be a very good host if I played favorites,” said Venhuizen.

The actual judges for the competition are Mark Eekoff from Admissions and Laremy DeVries, owner of the Fruited Plain. The third judge is from Northwestern but is still being established.

“The cool thing they did on Sunday night was to use Twitter. They made a hash tag NC/DC 2012 and people could tweet live to the event,” said Venhuizen. “After a performer, the tweets would come up on the big screen. This added some humor to the event and allowed the audience to voice their opinion.”

“Some tweeted saying there needed to be more Jory Kok at the competition,” said Jory Kok.

“I don’t think that anybody said that,” said Venhuizen. “There is clearly some hostility between the two former TX hosts.

One of the favorite tweets of the night was, “There is a very pretty girl on stage.” So as you can see, audience members are allowed to voice their true opinion no matter how unrelated the matter.

“Make sure everybody brings their ipods, smart phones, or even laptops to the event so you can tweet your opinion. It makes the event way more fun,” said Venhuizen.

Show up this Saturday for a night full of talent and laughter!