Star studded event at OHS

The highly anticipated NHS/DECA Talent Show is this Saturday, March 15, 2014 and this year, the theme is an award show with a grand prize of $300. Behind the talent show are the co-producers, seniors Luke Owens and Sarah Ulman. They volunteered to produce the show. Their job is to oversee the production making sure things run smoothly. They formed committees and assigned people to run them. They also were in charge of auditioning all of the acts. Throughout this process, the hardest part for them has been getting the word out. They are limited on how they can advertise. Their favorite part is seeing their hard work come together.

The acts include everything from singing to yo-yo tricks. Junior Barameer Okumu is participating for her first time. She will be singing Nightingale by Demi Lovato. As for her expectations she said, “Whatever happens, happens. There are a lot of talented acts.” Senior Logan Johnson is involved in two acts, a solo and a quartet act.  Junior Christopher Kim is excited to rap and sing. He hopes to awe the crowd and wishes good luck to all the contestants. Freshman Abukar Fakrudin is singing Thinking About You by Frank Ocean. Even though he has not been practicing, he expects to win the $300. Fakrudin said, “[I signed up for the talent show] so I can show the people what I got because I’m hot.” Junior Hailey Usher is singing It Ends Tonight by All-American Rejects and she said, “If I don’t win, I’ll be okay.” Freshman Melissa Webinger is singing for her talent. Sophomore Juncheng Wang is feeling both excited and nervous to show OHS his yo-yo talent. He is a foreign exchange student and he auditioned for the talent show to enjoy American high school life. Freshmen Tate Peterson and Avery Oja have an act together in the talent show. Seniors Natalie Rivera and Nicholas Rethemeier are singing a duo. Junior Alyssa Crum and seniors Sarah Maloney and Kirsten Elstad will be singing a capella. The trio has been practicing a lot after school working on getting their rhythms down. They decided to join because they had a trio in the most recent OHS musical, Beauty and the Beast. They liked how they sounded together. Their expectation is to beat the quartet act. The quartet act consists of junior Albert Rysavy, Jacob Hellevik, Thomas Donlon II and senior Logan Johnson. They are singing in a barbershop quartet. They won’t use any instruments. They have been practicing every day. The quartet is very confident in their talent and they expect to beat the girls’ trio. Sophomores Eric Benson, Ryan Guenther, junior Jacob Hellevik and seniors Haaken Bungum and Josh Dub will be playing brass instruments and acting out a skit at the same time. Bungum said, “We did something similar at the MBO concert so this is just a follow-up.” While many are just participating for the experience, others are taking their act very seriously.

The MCs will be seniors Luke Wanous and Timon Higgins. Higgins said, “We went through a scrutinous selection process from the co-producers of the Talent Show.” Wanous added to that and said, “We were obviously the best choices. They saw that through all of the rigorous training they put us through.” According to them, their good-looks and personality will help them entertain the audience. To prepare for the night, Wanous has traveled to the Dagobah system and has trained with Yoda, who has taught him the ways of “The Force.” Higgins, on the other hand, might get a haircut. The type of talent that would really surprise them would be anything besides singing. They encourage people to come to the talent show. It will be hilarious, and there will be a lot of great talent showcased. The price at the door will be four dollars and all proceeds will be going to the Lily Sparrow House foundation.