By GREG O'BRIEN
On Saturday July 16th, the Advanced Studies Program (ASP) held a talent show in Memorial Hall for past and present students; and even for the interns. Between outrageous costumes, mind-blowing voices, and a folk story about Zelda, it was truly an interesting night. A few stood out amongst the crowd.
The talent show was hosted by Advanced Mathematics intern, Donny Dickson, and Marine Biology intern, Kate Shaper who improvised their entire performance. Dickson said, “All of the parts where we were singing, we were reading each other’s lips.” Their MC skills proved mediocre, but the improvisational factor added to their dynamic skits.
It is safe to say that the third act of the night confused everybody a little. Charlie DeBenedetto performed a finger-style guitar narrative combo about, well, what was it about? Some of those in the audience got back in touch with their inner nerd and immediately knew what was unfolding. For those of that were left wondering, DeBenedetto told the story of Link, a character from the Nintendo series Zelda. DeBenedetto said, “When I first learned guitar as a freshman, I always wanted to play videogame music.” When asked why he chose to play this song, he responded, “I feel like I have a very strong connection with the song and people would care more about the story than my voice.” He was absolutely right. The story intrigued the majority of the office and many wondered about its content due to their lack of knowledge about the topic and its strange appearance in a talent show.
Another shocker was the voice and piano performance of Chuck Neild. Neild roams around campus wearing a toga or casually strolls with his guitar. His leisure activity proved much more serious. Nield played “Mad World” by Tears for Fears on the piano and sang as well. Genuine surprise washed over the audience as soon as the first note rang. With nearly flawless piano playing, it may come as a shock that Nield has not been playing for years. Nield said, “I can’t say I play piano because I only know two songs, I just think it’s fun.” When asked why he chose the song, he said, “I only know two songs and that one sounds the coolest and it was different so I went for it.” Chuck also stated that he will be performing in the next Talent Show because “it is good to put yourself out there sometimes,” so be sure to see his talent for yourself.
Another puzzling, yet entertaining performance on the night of the talent show was the mock serenade performed by Jordan Dempsey, Eric Levenson, and Lauren Nevin, three students from the ASP class of 2010. They performed the song “Truly Madly Deeply” by Savage Garden. This “serenade” was nothing like any of the ones that have happened this summer. Between pictures of human ears, strange men with large muscles, cats with watermelon hats, and people running around with green suits and masks, it captured the audience’s attention with its quirky humor and delightfulness. The group was refused a spot in the talent show last year due to time constraints. When they auditioned this year, Dempsey said Michael Ricard , the program Director, had two things to say, “I wish it was longer, and how did you not make it last year?”
The night concluded with a miraculous performance from Betty Wallingford. Wallingford’s natural gift for music was first notably discovered by the ASP community at Chapel around two weeks ago when she sang an original piece while playing the guitar. When she approached the piano to conclude the night, the crowd sat quietly in anticipation for a performance that would top her previous one. And Wallingford certainly raised the bar another level by performing another original piece that amazed just about everybody in the building. There was truly no better way to end the night than with a roaring standing ovation from the ASP community.
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