Story By: Bailey Ketcham
Photos By: Hannah Montgomery
It was a night full of cheering, laughter, singing and Missouri Western spirit that flowed throughout the Kemper Recital Hall on Thursday, February 18 for the annual “Western’s Got Talent”.
The event was hosted by Western Activities Council and was planned by the head of entertainment, Charles Flemons. In order to perform at the show, Flemons held auditions for all the contestants to get a feel for their talent. Flemons also hand picked three judges for the show from different aspects of campus, which included student Branislav Tadic, academic advisor Derek Evans and assistant professor of modern languages Ana Bausset.
“I wanted to get different types of judges,” Flemons said. “Branislav was my big in TKE, and Evans and Professor Bausset don’t usually see students in this type of environment, so I thought they were good choices because they got to see students do something different other than asking for advice in class.”
The hall filled up quickly with anticipation from students, staff, families and people in the community who came out to support the 14 acts. The night started off with some unique beat boxing from Terin Wade to get the crowd going for a night full of talent.
“I’ve been beat boxing for three and a half years,” Wade said. “It all started when I looked up a Michael Jackson beat boxing video and started to learn, and then, after that, I just continued to look up tutorials and taught myself.”
Throughout the night, there was a combination of singing, stepping, clogging, guitar playing, dancing, rapping and drumming. One act in particular that took the audiences breath away was a singing performance done by Mariatul Dianah Hidzir, where she performed “Halo” by Beyoncé. Along with the talent show, Hidzir also performed in The Voice of Missouri Western in the fall of 2015.
Another performance that thrilled the audience was a combination of singing and dancing by Ivory Cohens and Darcey Peters. Peters sang as Cohens danced and then, towards the end of the performance, a group of audience members stood up and started a flash mob that finished on stage.
“Everyone was so used to me dancing from the previous years,” Cohens said. “So I came up with the idea of having one of my teammates sing while I danced and then throw in something different with the flash mob, because I saw it on a TV show and it looked really fun. So, I asked some of my closest friends if they wanted to help me out.”
Another activity that occurred throughout the night to keep the audience engaged was the giving away of prizes during intermission. Host, Maiya Jackson, would play a song and if any audience member knew the song they were supposed to race on to the stage to name the song and artist. Jackson was chosen by Flemons to be the host the day of the talent show and kept the audience engaged with her constant humor in between performances.
“My favorite part of the show was meeting all the new people,” Jackson said. “I loved interacting with the crowd and seeing all the unique talents that people brought to the stage, because it takes a lot of heart and confidence to get up on stage in front of a crowd.”
The night ended by celebrating all the performers and announcing the overall winners. Hidzir received third place with her singing performance, Michael Dycus received second place with his drumming performance to the song “Cinema” by Skrillex and Cohens topped it off by bringing home the first place trophy for the fourth year in a row.