It sells out in no time flat, organizers rarely need to beg for acts, and the onstage outrageousness is the stuff of legend. Everything imaginable, and unimaginable, has gone down on the historic Sheridan Opera House stage for Lip Sync, from inadvertent nudity to cardboard jalopies, with costumes ranging from fishnets to furries. And the songs? Springsteen, the Roches, Kill the Wabbit, chanting monks, original rap songs, Dusty Springfield, metal, country, dance and spoken word. In a word, anything. What is it about the annual KOTO Lip Sync Contest — happening Friday at 8 p.m. at the Sheridan Opera House — that makes it one of Telluride’s most anticipated events of the year? What is the secret to its enduring popularity?

Bärbel Hacke has produced the event for the nonprofit community radio station for three years and has taken the stage in award-winning acts since 1986. She remarked that the free-wheeling, unpredictable show possesses the ability to bring people together.

“The arts bring us together,” she said. “It brings together the community across all ages and ways of life, and also our new people. So, they’re getting the vibe. The funky vibe of Telluride.”

For the uninitiated, Lip Sync performers put together acts that vie for the top three donated cash prizes. Through the years, there have been acts ranging from the simple — a solo balladeer, perhaps — to those involving numerous people and props. The idea is to choose a song, stage it creatively and, most importantly, nail the tune in a way that makes the judges think you are actually singing the song. Lip. Sync.

Not only are the acts judged on knowing the lyrics well and miming them succinctly, but aspects such as choreography, creativity and audience reaction are tabulated into the judges’ scores. When it’s time to tally up the points, the judges huddle at the end of the show. Deciding the top three acts is often a matter of hot debate. Hearts have been broken, tears spilled, corks popped.

Providing a thread of continuity since 1993 are the show’s hosts, Ashley Boling and Suzanne Cheavens. The pair appear every year as characters — often famous duos — such as Ken and Barbie, Lucy and Ricky, Cheech and Chong, Valley Floor prairie dogs, and, last year, in a rarely-reprised role as KOTO televangelists. The first time they sent up evangelicals was during the show’s virtual pandemic edition in 2021. Who they will be each year is one of show biz’s best-kept secrets, revealed only moments before going onstage.

“It’s more than costumes, it’s characters,” Cheavens explained in a previous Planet story. “Ashley and I become different personalities for every Lip Sync show we emcee. Think of it as an extended Lip Sync act, except it’s entirely ad-libbed. Ashley and I have been doing this for so long, I can’t imagine performing with anyone else but him. He’s brilliant and quick and hilarious.”

Hacke is quick to point out that she wouldn’t produce the event without Boling and Cheavens as emcees.

“I wouldn’t do it if it weren’t for the emcees,” Hacke said. “I think they are, for me, what keeps this together for so long.”

Another key ingredient in the show’s success is the KOTO staff act. Since they are staff, they are not eligible for prize money, but that never dissuades them from putting their all into it. They are always the first act on stage and whatever they dream up sets the tone for evening’s humor, outrageousness and wit. Hacke said she loves working with executive director Cara Pallone, station manager Ben Kerr, assistant station manager Claybrook Penn, news director Julia Caulfield, news reporter Gavin McGough and Spanish language news reporter Luis Tavares.

“What a vibrant staff,” Hacke said. “They have so much love and enthusiasm for KOTO and for this event. They are community.”

Like the emcee schtick each year, the staff act, too, is kept under wraps. It’s one of the many traditions that have become woven into the fabric of the show. Pallone, like Hacke, marvels at the powerful way Lip Sync creates community.

“Lip Sync is one of those Telluride traditions that brings out the shenanigans in all of us in the best possible way,” she said, “It’s an event built solely on laughter and community, two things we need most as humans. What’s not to love?”

As is its wont, this year’s KOTO Lip Sync at the Sheridan Opera House is sold out and all the acts have signed up, but the excitement still vibrates. People approach Hacke to express gratitude that Telluride’s funkiest show still goes on after all these years. Acts and sponsors clamor to participate, wanting to be a part of what makes Telluride stand out from other mountain towns.

“We can’t let our funk go away,” she said, “The funk is what makes Telluride so different.”

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