This week on The Glee Project, Mario Bonds was the latest contender to be eliminated from Oxygen competition after performing a last minute duet.
Although the story of blind competitor Mario Bonds was an inspiration to many fans of The Glee Project, Mario found himself in tough this week under the theme of “adaptability.” Despite a surprise guest appearance by Glee’s Kevin McHale, several Glee project competitors were challenged by a number of twists, which included choreography, acting, and three “bottom six” duets.
Unfortunately, when working with video director Erik White during this week’s shoot, Mario was criticized for not giving enough in the acting department.
Interestingly, in the episode’s final twist, Mario was paired with singer Charlie Lubeck for what can only be described as the night’s most awkward duet since Charlie and Mario ran into tension during rehearsals.
So, after initially being confident in his own “adaptability,” how does Mario feel now about Erik’s feedback about his acting? As Mario told The Deadbolt the next day, he would have done things much differently in a proactive manner.
“It’s tough, because the mistake I made was being too afraid to ask Erik for clarification for what he wanted. At the end of the day, I am a blind actor. So if you say things like, do it with more swag, of course to a blind actor it’s kind of like, what do you mean do it with more swag? For me this week, with adaptability, I saw Erik as more of a judge than a director. Unfortunately, this week I got caught up in my head and gave a sub-par performance and it cost me the competition.”
Although Mario was initially surprised about what Erik needed from an acting standpoint, he did manage to get through his duet with Charlie. In fact, despite a few touchy-feely moments and downright awkwardness, Mario found his musical groove with Charlie enough to move Glee creator Ryan Murphy.
Prior to the duet, Mario and Charlie struggled with what was obvious frustration over the pressure of the moment. Still, the two somehow made it work.
Looking back on the rehearsal time with Charlie, how does Mario view their final duet chemistry?
“Generally, it wasn’t seen enough on The Glee Project. Charlie and I interact extremely well. I’m a huge fan of Charlie’s voice. I think he’s fascinating. Charlie and I are both very creative guys and we always take a song and make it our own. But Charlie is a guy who will do it with every song, every single song that he gets. So, since it was a song that I didn’t know and he didn’t know, I was just like don’t rewrite it because I don’t know it that well. And if you sing a different melody, that might confuse me. In the end, things worked out well and I think our voices fit well together on that classic song.”
Interestingly, a few weeks earlier during his time of The Glee Project, Mario’s confidence was evident after several rounds of feedback from the mentors. Call it nerves, fear, or whatever happens in the monent, Mario sometimes took feedback to mean that he wasn’t prepared for Glee. But he was still confident despite the pressure of being the only blind contestant on the show.
Although Mario now feels that he should have gotten more clarification along the way on The Glee Project, he does see it as a learning curve. However, given the time limitations of television and editing, there’s more to Mario Bonds than just what people saw on the show.
So, now that his time on The Glee Project is over, does Mario feel that he was ready for the big time of Glee?
“That’s a tough question because I don’t really feel like The Glee Project represented my real talent. I only feel that on The Glee Project the audience was able to see a fraction of my personality. And that of course was only during times when we had been filming for seventeen hour days and I didn’t have the normal social filter that I usually have. So, it’s hard to say. That’s why I’m doing this YouTube campaign, to allow the audience to see things they weren’t able to see during The Glee Project and then they can properly judge. Right now they’re just judging on an edited character.”
How do you feel about what Mario has to say now about his time on The Glee Project?