Linda's nickname came indirectly from Greg Lyne, though he has no idea about that, of course. In The Masters of Harmony's master class in Indy, Dr. Greg said the tenor's role is to add the "electricity," which led to Shanno's dubbing Linda "Sparky"in honor of her voice part at the time. Linda's previous nicknames included Fluff and Icing, which is basically how the rest of Zing! saw Linda's role before they listened to Dr. Greg. Sparky has since migrated to baritone, but the name fits her anyway, so she gets to keep it.
Shanno has really and truly tried valiantly to have a nickname, but so far none of them has stuck.
The newest attempt comes from an interactive theater piece set in the 1950s, in which Zing! sings, among other things, 1950s commercial jingles. Since Shanno sings the Chiquita Banana song (wearing an enormous fruit hat) she thought "Chiquita" would be a good nickname. The rest of Zing!, however, decided they liked "Fruithead" better. They all eventually settled on "Fruit" as a compromise. Shanno was happy to see that Fruit of the Loom has gotten on board with their new ad campaign "Everybody loves fruit."
Nicknames from the past include "The Cake" and "M.o.D." Shanno is lucky enough to have the range to sing all four parts, and has actually competed in quartets in three of them. When asked why she hasn't yet competed as a tenor, she replied, "Why be the icing when I can be the cake?" M.O.D., which stands for "master of disguise," is in honor of Shanno's ever-changing hair style.
At Tracy's first Area contest her convention badge kept flipping over to show her dinner choice, which was (you guessed it) "pork." She enthusiastically adopted the nickname and was known to wear her Pork nametag to chorus rehearsal when she needed a boost. Tracy is also known as Blueberry Girl, for her borderline psychotic love of that fruit, and TracyShowChair, which is how she introduced herself to a quartet when they were on Women of Note's show.
Tracy's newest nickname, "Big Dog," comes from her perpetually barely leashed-in exhuberance (think chocolate labrador retriever seeing a squirrel). The Big Dog comes in handy for big tags and bass solos, but not so much for tender, soft passages, during which the other members of Zing! often say, "Down Big Dog!" and pull on an imaginary leash.
Finally complete, Noreen joins the ranks of nicknamed individuals everywhere. The answer to a typical performance or rehearsal related question is generally "whatever you guys want; I'm flexible." And who is the most flexible character that immediately came to mind but Gumby. The pronouncement has been made. Welcome, Gumby!
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