The Talent Show

The boy’s school has the 1st graders perform a “Talent Show” at the end of each year. A number of parents we know have older sons and daughters who have already done their time, and they all said it’s a lot of fun. And I have to say, it actually was.

There were comedy acts with kids telling jokes, singing acts of various types, a few skits, and one young lady played some simple tunes on a piano. The singing acts were done with varying degrees of, umm, skill. But I don’t think we’ll be seeing them on American Idol next year. The comedy routines were amusing with the predictable fair of one-liner type jokes. The final act was four boys doing some, er, choreographed dancing to Dynamite.

Out of all the acts, there were only 3 solo acts. One was the piano, the other was a singing routine, and the final one was the boy’s routine. This actually shocked me because he’s typically so self-conscious about everything he does that I would never have expected him to be doing a solo act.

Especially when acting as the World’s Strongest Man.

Dressed up with some floaties on his arms and wearing a couple-sizes-too-large long-sleeve shirt, he did the “beach ball lift” and the “swimming noodle lift.” Apparently they were the heaviest beach ball and noodle in the world, or something. He even did some posing while he was up there, flexing for the audience, whom loved it. When it was all said and done, he had successfully lifted the beach ball and noodle over his head. According to the narration, that had never been done before. Who knew?

Of course, he’ll be living this one down for years to come, especially the posing. A bunch of the Mom’s asked him to pose afterwards and a couple Dads flexed their muscles for him as well. One Mom noted that “He’ll be 18 and people will still be asking him to pose.” Not the sort of thing that’s lived down easily.

But he had fun with it. The fact that he actually got up there and performed without scampering for the exits also has me rethinking my sense of him. Either I was incorrect, or he had one of those moments where his self-confidence got a big shot in the arm. For the moment, I’m not sure which. Either way, it was a big positive experience for him.

One other thing worthy of note is that he and 2 other boys volunteered to help out a fourth boy in their class, whom is autistic, with his act. It was one of those grown-up acts that kids do every now and again, making for a nice surprise for us as parents, especially given the circumstances. I’m betting they were dreading their own acts, let alone having to go out for another one that wasn’t even theirs. But they did it anyway. He should be as proud of that as of his own performance.