Having grown up “with zero stage fright,” it seems like Barry Surran was born to be a performer. He is used to speaking in front of large crowds—the bigger, the better, he says—but one wouldn’t have known it in his first speechless moments after he was named the 2008 PA State Senior Idol.
   “It was a combination of shock and somewhat disbelief—‘Was it my name I really heard? Why are they choosing me over the others?’ It was like a cloud,” Surran remembered of his win.
   After trying out at the PA State Senior Idol auditions in April, Surran, a resident of Blandon, Berks County, was chosen as one of the 15 semi-finalists who earned a spot at the finals competition held recently at the Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre in Lancaster.
  His lack of stage fright is understandable, considering his career in sales and his lifelong passion for musical performance. Surran grew up in Easton, Pa., and spent many of his early-childhood days at his grandmother’s restaurant tavern in Bloomsbury, N.J. As a 2- or 3-year-old, he would join his parents on weekends when they traveled to help out in the restaurant’s kitchen.
  “My mother always claimed I was humming before I actually ever talked,” said Surran. “They had an old-fashioned jukebox in the bar area in the tavern, and I would sit in there and learn all the songs and sing along as they were playing. And the patrons in the bar would give me Indian head pennies.”
  “I grew up with the big bands of the ’40s, which my parents loved. Boy, I would’ve loved to have been one of those guys at the microphone with a big band, singing ballads!” said Surran.
  Surran earned a master’s degree in education at Lehigh University, and he often incorporated music into his classrooms. “I’d bring my guitar in for music classes, and any new song that was on the radio I’d try to learn—the kids really enjoyed that,” he said.
  After nine years of teaching, Surran got into sales and set off on his current career path in sales. He has traveled extensively doing trade shows, lectures, presentations, and other business events. In addition to those public-speaking forums, Surran also competes in national memory competitions, so the competitive pressures of the Senior Idol stage were familiar territory.
  The biggest opportunity to continue performing the songs he loves came in the form of that ’90s sing-along music fad—karaoke. “When karaoke first came out, I don’t think I truly understood it,” Surran admitted. “It’s come a long way over the last 10 or 12 years, and I think it’s a nice experience.” Several years ago, he began going to karaoke night every Thursday at a restaurant in Allentown, and the karaoke jockey he came to befriend urged Surran to perform at one of his gigs in Reading.
  Surran went, and it was a chance decision that would change his life. “I saw a very attractive lady across the room and started talking to her, and asked her if she would do a duet with me,” he said. They didn’t get a chance that evening, but Surran kept coming back to the club, hoping to run into her again. In short, Surran met his wife Cindy through karaoke—and because of his pursuit of music. They were married in October 2003.
  As fans of American Idol, it was with excitement that Surran’s wife called him into the living room earlier this year when she discovered an ad for PA State Senior Idol in the newspaper. “I had always said to her how unfortunate it is that there isn’t a competition for seniors, something the 50-and-older crowd could do,” said Surran.