Mark Allen will audition live next month at an Indiana location yet to be determined.

WARSAW — Local musician Mark Allen has cleared yet another hurdle in his quest to appear on television on the program “America’s Got Talent.”

On Monday, Nov. 12, Allen, 50, hauled his guitar and small amplifier to Detroit to the expansive Cobo Center to participate in his first round of live auditions.

“It was just massive, like you could fit four Fort Wayne Coliseums in it,” said Allen, who received word recently that his application was approved to begin the arduous auditioning process. After interviewing on the phone last month, which included being asked to spontaneously break into song over the telephone, he was given the nod to participate in the Detroit call-out.

“It (Cobo Center) just goes for blocks, both ways,” said the 1987 Warsaw High School graduate. “I got there shortly before 8 a.m., but the line was already massive.”

All around him, there were hopefuls everywhere, musicians, comedians, dancers and magicians. He was given a number and a wristband and sorted into a group of about a dozen people to audition for one woman.

“There were just people everywhere, practicing and performing,” he said. “They called my number and took me out in a group and that’s when all the promotional stuff started where we were on camera. And we had to retake it at least three times until they were happy with it.”

When it came time for Allen, who often performs solo with an electric guitar and amplifier and performs original hard rock songs, he was told to stand on an X in the floor and was reminded he only had 90 seconds.

But, the minutes leading up to this moment were not without their challenges.

“I forgot my guitar cord,” said Allen. “I left it in another vehicle when we left Sunday night. I got there at 9 p.m. and no guitar cord and there’s no Guitar Center or anything like that open.”

As soon as he got to the venue the next morning, he began approaching guitar players, looking for someone with an extra cord. If he was unsuccessful, he would have to improvise by borrowing an acoustic guitar and playing without an amplified instrument. This would add to his stress level because he’d also forgot to bring the microphone that plugs into the amplifier to project his voice. He could belt out his vocals to make up for the missing microphone, but an electric guitar is virtually silent without amplification.

“This group of guys walked in and I said ‘by chance, would you happen to have a guitar cord?’” said Allen. “He’s like ‘yeah man, I’ve got a guitar cord.’”

Allen told the guitarist his story. “He stops, puts his guitar case down, whips this cord out and goes ‘here ya go, brother’ and he goes ‘if you don’t see me afterward, God bless ya man, keep it.’ And I never could find him afterward, but he saved my butt on that.”

With his guitar amplification crisis averted, Allen stepped on the X and let fly with an abbreviated version of his original song “Hey Baby, I Got You.”

He said he felt like he needed to make a quick connection with the judge.

“I had her head bobbing and stuff, I could tell she liked it as I got into the chorus of the song,” Allen said. “I just kept eye contact with her as I was singing as if I was just singing to her. So everything went well and they liked it and said, ‘OK, let’s move ya along here.’”

Allen’s next audition will be somewhere in Indiana. He hasn’t been given the location yet and only an estimated date of Dec. 21, although he said the date could be adjusted by a day or two, depending on scheduling.

“If I can advance from this next one, I’m going to be going in February out to L.A., so I’ve got my fingers crossed on that one.,” he said.