A Lill Perspective

“Curb Your Enthusiasm”, and “The Office” are among some of my favourite television shows of all time. From time to time I will engage in conversation with some people who can’t watch these shows. I use the word “can’t” very purposefully here, some people are unable to watch these shows because of the awkwardness of human interaction demonstrated. It makes certain viewers too uncomfortable to be able watch it. While I don’t agree with their rationale towards the shows, I do understand feeling this same uncomfortable feeling when watching the awkwardness associated with Talent Shows.

I hate Talent Shows.

There, I said it.

As a person that works with young people a lot, talent shows are a big part of social entertainment organised for them. I understand the premise, I really do. People are talented in ways that might surprise you, it’s good to discover these talents in an organised fashion where people really get to show their stuff. Here’s where the problem lies, some people don’t have stuff to show. I’m sure some of you are thinking about how bad of a person I am, but before you judge, can I describe a scenario for you? A shy, nervous, young person gets their folded, faded, piece of paper out, with a poem, they wrote, or worse, a song. Not only does this person share their lyrics, it’s goes even further. They sing. Even describing this scenario to you is making me feel sick to my stomach right now. That shy person, alone, standing up there in front of their peers, shakily holding that piece of paper, and singing their little heart out, and it sounds awful.

Is there beauty in this moment? Sure. Is there character building potential here? Absolutely. Is it cringe-worthy if it doesn’t go well? Without a doubt.

It’s that moment when the song is a little too intense, the singing a little too off-key, the person a little too vulnerable. As a person who basically just wants to scoop people up in my arms and prevent them from any kind of judgement, it’s all too much for me. I want to bury my face in my hands, and try not to throw up. The slightest whispering of people, I snap my head around, trying to suss out the potential meaness. To the human race’s credit, most people are unfailingly kind and supportive, which really is amazing. Sometimes though, because I have a tendency to make some amazingly good eye-contact, I’ll beam out a smile and clap so loudly that their eyes are on me, and then suddenly, they might think, “man, I’m incredible! I should think about doing this forever!”

This is the tricky line between general human support and being dishonest about someone’s actual talent. Again, it’s a notion that makes me feel endlessly conflicted.

Now you might think to yourself, what’s the harm? They’re only seven, or twelve, let ’em live.

Sure, but let me introduce you to the Talent Shows of Adulthood, i.e. Open Mike Night, and Karaoke.

Let’s get something straight. There are genuinely talented or personable people that grace the microphones at these events, I know a few of these people. They’re a joy to listen to, they’re really fun to watch and they can really get a crowd going. Once in a while though, you’ll get this one person that’s announced as a ‘newbie”. This person waiting off stage, giving themselves a mini pep-talk. They walk up slowly to the mike, and…

Yes, sometimes you get Susan Boyle. Sometimes (most-times) you get the person who’s been singing in the bathroom mirror for weeks on end and they finally decide to take the plunge. People are oh-so polite, but sometimes that’s even worse, because the air gets to be a little too quiet and they’re overly focused. Have you ever been in a room where you can’t make eye contact with anyone else at the risk of chortling out a laugh, because doing so means you’re acknowledging how bad, terrible or funny it really is? That makes for the longest four minutes of your life. Particularly if they’re wearing a cute, pre-planned outfit, they have dance moves, or they have another song lined up. Again, it makes me feel so uncomfortable, I just want to pull a scarf over my face.

On rare occasions, you’ll just get a person that’s not particularly good, but is pretty endearing. On others, you’ll get a person that doesn’t give a damn about their performance, but just wants to be up in front of people. This makes me think of a past camper, let’s call her Emily. On the Talent Show Board at camp where you sign up to put your talents she put “Cartwheels and Goose Calls” Emily was about eight years old. I was confused, was this code for something?

On the night of the talent show, when her name was called up, she walked up and took her stance. What do you think she did? She did a cartwheel, followed by a loud goose call. I’ve never laughed so hard in my life, and I was joined by every other person in that audience. To this day, I don’t know if she ever intended for anyone to actually laugh, it might have actually been a serious routine. I really think those were the two biggest talents she had to offer, so she put them together. Everyone laughed, she seemed unfazed, and she cartwheeled and goose called away.

I didn’t even have time to worry because of how entertained I was by her, how we all were.

So…I take some of it back. Maybe there is something to Talent Shows after all.