The Meramec Music Club’s annual talent show rocked the cafeteria on Wednesday, April 25.
BY: Lauren Johns
Staff Writer
The Meramec Music Club’s annual talent show rocked the cafeteria on Wednesday, April 25, despite relatively low turnout. This year’s lineup featured a wide range of acts including beatboxing, rapping, songwriting, comedy, singing
and guitar-playing. Free food was offered to all attendees.
Sophomore Jesse Davlin, who ran the event, took the place of former club president Dennis Allen by request of choir teacher and club sponsor Jerry Myers, working to have food catered and audio equipment set up and keeping track of performers, making sure they showed up early for sound check. The event ran smoothly with only a few minor technical setbacks. Despite her effort, Davlin said she believes Myers deserves the most credit for keeping the club and events going strong.
“He is amazing at supporting musicians in and out of the club,” said Davlin.
Davlin also had the idea to get more audience involvement through improvisational comedy games during intermission. Audience members chose a particular character for each volunteer to play, and participants had to start a conversation as their assigned character until someone yelled out a cue word like “pause,” which caused them to freeze, often in peculiar poses. A third participant chose someone to “unfreeze” through tapping them and a new scene was created based on their
unique poses.
One of the acts was sophomore Alyssa Poss, who performed a song accompanied by her boyfriend on guitar. They performed “Only Exception” by Paramore and “Never Too Late” by Three Days Grace. Although Poss spent years in “Camerata” or advanced highschool choir, she admitted she has very little performance experience and appreciates her boyfriend being
there for her.
“I have terrible stage fright,” said Poss. “I’m always so nervous and anxious when it comes to performing on stage, especially by myself. It’s really comforting to have someone I care about so much by my side the whole way because it helps me worry less…I’m really glad that I decided to perform, even though it was last minute. We received so much love from the audience.”
Lily Polley, sophomore and audience member, said she enjoyed the show not for the amazing acts but for how they carried themselves on stage.
“I loved all the courage and confidence they all had, even if it was faked,” said Polley. “The comedian, Richy James, gave the audience some good laughs and he did a wonderful job of putting himself out there and being
okay with it.”
Polley’s favorite act was the beatboxer due to her fascination with acapella movie “Pitch Perfect”.
“It’s so incredible to see what the human voice is capable of,” said Polley. “I love the “Pitch Perfect” series and it was so neat to see that style done live rather than on-screen.”
Polley also had a few minor criticisms for the show involving the lack of a program, but enjoyed how laid back and authentic everything was. There was plenty of time for each performer to go twice if they wanted.
“You could tell they were mostly winging it,” said Polley. “But they remained confident and made it work.”
