Considering San Francisco boasts Bay to Breakers, a race that some people choose to run naked, it's not that surprising that someone would show up for American Idol in a Transformers costume.
The judges were indeed mighty impressed by Drew Beaumier's creation, which allowed him to transform from car to robot in the blink of an eye, but not so much his voice.
"How many miles to the gallon?" Steven Tyler joked as Drew disappointedly left the room.
But there were a few auditions that did rev the judges' engines...
The backstories set the tone on Wednesday's American Idol, and luckily the young men and women with the roughest tales of woe had the pipes to back them up.
There was Stefano Langone, who survived a car accident in 2009 that had doctors telling him he would never walk, write or be "right" again.
He was out of a wheelchair and playing piano again after three months, the 21-year-old from Kent, Wash., recalled before wowing with a bright rendition of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine." His "movie star looks" didn't hurt, either, according to Jennifer Lopez.
Julie Zorilla, who grew up in Colombia until she was 8 and the country's ongoing civil war forced her family to leave their dream home and head for the states, auditioned on her 20th birthday.
She then scored a compliment from J.Lo on her glittery gold shoes and broke some sort of numerical record when Randy Jackson said, "200 bazillion percent yes." (That may have been the highest he's gone so far.)
And oh...James Durbin.
The 21-year-old from Santa Cruz never really knew his musician father, who died of a drug overdose when James was 9. As a kid he was on medication for sleep deprivation and was later diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome and Asperger's syndrome.
Now, he and his girlfriend are raising a son together.
So the fact that he has Adam Lambertian range is very good. James not only impressed the judges, but he brought himself to tears wailing Aerosmith's "Dream On."
Clint Jun "Junebug" Gamboa, a karaoke host in real life, blew 'em away with an impressively polished take on "Billionaire" that Steven Tyler called "brilliant." So his only disadvantage is that he set the bar really high for himself.
Coverage of Hollywood week begins on tomorrow's episode.
(Originally published Feb. 9, 2011, at 7 p.m. PT)