This April 29, EF held its second annual talent show EF’s Got Talent, in Robinson gym, hosted by event coordinator Kaitlyn Sulaiman. This show allows students to show off their unique talents and skills to the student body in a fun competition judged by Deans Sara McCarthy, Victor Solano, and Kaela Clapp.
The first performance was Jennifer Gallegos on the flute, Sean Kim Lee on the clarinet, and Aron Hyun on violin performing Johann Pachbel’s “Canon in D.” This piece is a constant, flowing piece with no break in sound from start to finish.The three had spent several weeks preparing the piece in advance. Afterward, Ashton Davis performed “KMD” by the American Poetry Club with only guitar and vocals, contrasting the previous group’s layered music.
Continuing in the vein of musical performances, Luke Spain played the main theme from the movie “Shindler’s List” on the violin. The movie, set during the Holocaust, is about a factory owner who hires Jews to work for him so that they are protected from being sent to concentration camps. It is a very mournful tune, and Spain’s performance embodied it very well. This is especially impressive considering he first began learning the piece only three days before the show.
In another beautiful performance, Destan Topalli sang “Washing Machine Heart” by Mitski. Before she sang, she addressed the audience by saying she wasn’t very good at singing in front of other people, to which the audience showed their support by clapping along with the beat of the song. The audience’s support, along with an incredible technical mastery of singing, helped Topalli give a beautiful and confident performance.
From one pop song to the next, Addison Gassama sang “Unethical” by Fauozia, a song about the toxic nature relationships can take on. She sang with a very developed, emotional tone, although when interviewed said, “I feel proud about my performance, but I wish my vocal stability was better.”
For the final, longest, and only non-music performance, Emeir Sulaiman did his magic routine. He began with some slight-of-hand, making various objects disappear and reappear, such as a coin, handkerchief, and most impressively, a fistful of water. He also made someone from the audience come and pick a card, which he then made disappear and “reappear” as a drawing on the audience member’s chest.
For his final act, he “hypnotised” five students from the audience, making each one fall asleep and wake up hypnotised. He made them do things such as forget the number seven, or had a pair of best friends act like they were a couple about to get married. After running through each student individually, he made all five fall asleep and wake up as a group of royals.
After Sulaiman’s magic show, the judges took a moment to decide the winner, who would win a gift basket worth $75. The competition was judged in five categories, Quality of Talent, Stage Presence, Preparedness, Creativity/Imagination, and Technical Ability/Mastery. After their brief conferral, the judges were in perfect agreement as to the placing.
The podium was Emeir Sulaiman with the magic show in first, Spain’s violin performance in second, and Gassama’s “Unethical” in third. Emeir Sulaiman said that he didn’t go into the competition with the express goal of winning, he was, “just here for pure fun.” As he was married to the host of the show, the gift basket went to Spain instead.
