This TOWN Truly Has TALENT

Last night TOWN held its first of what will be a monthly talent contest, This TOWN Has TALENT. It is open to pretty much anyone to do pretty much anything that they believe will impress the judges and, more importantly, the audience.

Last night, sixteen hopefuls pitted their talents against each other. This is how it went down. We each had to sign a standard agreement with TOWN. We informed the TOWN people running the operation behind the scenes (the fabulous X Faction dance group) our name and what talent we would be showcasing. We were all randomly assigned numbers. Then we all waited upstairs in the Quiet Room for the competition to start.

One by one, our usher took us from the Quiet Room to the downstairs backstage area. When our hostess, Ms. Lena Lett, called your name, you were given four minutes to wow the judges and the audience with your talent. Once you were finished, you were allowed to stand in the audience and watch the rest of the show. The judges chose the finalists; the audience chose the winner.

I was Number 15 of 16 performers. I knew a few of the other people in the contest and knew the competition would be incredibly tough. (*coughDarrylJohnsoncough*) As the next-to-last, I only was able to see one person perform, so I really had no idea how well (or how poorly) the previous contestants did.

My name was called and walked up the steps from the backstage onto the stage. The room was packed! Wall to wall! I hadn't seen it that busy since Memorial Day weekend. I performed "Walking In Memphis" by Marc Cohn. If you're not familiar with it, here it is.


I have to admit, although it didn't show, I was nervous as hell! There were so many people and I couldn't hear myself on stage. All I had to gauge how I was doing was the reaction from the audience. Which was very positive. So I couldn't have been stinking the joint up that badly.

And having Ms. Blair Michaels doing her best Paula Abdul impersonation certainly helped easy my nerves. (Not the I-can't-finish-a-coherent-sentence Paula, but the I-am-so-loving-this-performance-I'm-going-to-stand-and-applaud-you Paula.) Thank you for that, Ms. Michaels!

The finalists were:

1. a short, incredibly built Asian guy who did ballet in his underwear,
   
2. a drag queen and companion who performed to a Beyoncé tune,
   
3. a burlesque dancer, and
   
4. me.

Then the judges were taken back stage, we were again assigned random numbers, we were given thirty seconds to perform a piece of what we had done earlier, and the audience chose the winner by applause.

And the winner was Yours Truly.

And, honestly, the winning was icing on the cake. I was happy to have just sang in front of that crowd. It is such a high being able to do what I love to do, what I was born to do, even for only four minutes.

And for that, TOWN, thank you from the bottom of my heart. This talent competition is a fantastic idea and one that I hope that TOWN can continue. But they can only continue it if you people keep competing.

So keep bringing the talent! The bar is set high (from what I've heard). And, now, I'll be watching.

*cue thunderbolts and lightning*