Talent Show

The boys' school had a talent show on Friday night:  planned, organized, and completely run by the students themselves.  They also organized a bake sale and an art show and sale to raise money for their respective classes' community service projects.  Pretty amazing when you realize this school only goes up to fifth grade!

Oldest didn't feel he had a talent he wanted to share (his karate is rusty and a discussion of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics might have put most of us to sleep), but the middle one wanted to read a poem.  He wouldn't read it at home.  He wouldn't practice.  He kept stumbling over some of the longer words.  I was in a panic for him.  I know about talent shows.  I know how cruel they can be.  But he was sure he wanted to do this, so I gave him a lipstick kiss (at his request:  I put on lipstick and then gave him a big smoochie kiss on the cheek.  The boys loved these when they were in preschool; I guess they felt like they had a bit of mom with them.  Anyway, I gave one to Timothy.  He liked it.)

So, they call his name and he walks out under the bright lights in front of about 400 people.  He's only about three feet tall and tiny; they had trouble getting the mike to go down that low.  My blood pressure is through the roof, my heart is pounding.

And cool as a cucumber, Timothy starts to read in his perfect, clear, little boy voice, slurring the S's a bit in his efforts not to say "sh":  "True Story" by Shel Silverstein.   (From my faulty memory):

I got up this morning went out for a ride

But some wild outlaws chased me and shot me in the side

So I went into a wildcat's cave to find a place to hide

But some pirates found me and soon they had me tied

To a pole (I almost cried)

But a mermaid came and freed me and begged to be my bride.....

And at this point, Timothy turned his cheek to the audience to show the kiss I'd given him, pointed at it, and chirped out, with absolutely perfect comedic timing:  "And she kissed me!"

And the audience went wild!  The laughed so loud and so long and so hard, I wasn't sure Timothy would be able to finish.  But then, again, with perfect timing, he waited until the laughter had died down to exactly the right place, and started reading again.

And the poem ends (after a broken engagement with a mermaid, encounters with jungles, water snakes, and cannibals):

And an eagle swooped me up and through the air we flied,

And he dropped me into a boiling lake a thousand miles wide.

And you'll never guess what I did then:  I DIED!

And of course I didn't get any pictures because we'd forgotten the camera.  Sigh.  I'm a D- mom this week.

Oh, the crowd loved him again at the end.  I think he was proud of himself.

And I was actually, quite proud of the kids who ran and attended the talent show:  EVERYONE, no matter how awful, got a vigorous, healthy, encouraging round of applause, led every time by the kids.  We had to leave before it was over, but I heard today that one of the final performers, a 5th grade girl who was supposed to sing a solo, burst into tears with stage fright at the critical moment.

But, instead of a teacher coming to usher her comfortingly off stage, several girls from her class jumped down out of the audience, ran to stand with her, and from behind her back encouraged the audience to give her a round of applause.  And then she finished the song in a blaze of glory.

What a great evening.  What nice kids.