It was a dark and stormy night. Simply walking past the Summit, one could sense the forces of evil threatening to destroy the peace of the school. Entering the Moot Court, one would witness bizarre events: a fish swimming through the air… the Malayan Law Journal (MLJ) singing tribal African music…a rolling in the deep… a boy stuck in a never-ending cycle of pirouettes.
Sorry. I get carried away. Allow me to restart.
Even before the sun had set on the 22nd of March, Friday, a good deal of the Year 1s began to flock towards the Moot Court, in anticipation of watching and supporting their friends who had bravely signed up and made it to the finals of the Year 1 Talentime, organised by the Year 1 Class Committee.
Oh, but I wasn’t exaggerating about the forces of evil one sense while walking past the Summit. That was probably true nonetheless. (I jest.)
Moving on.
We were honoured to have with us three hilariously witty judges for the night: Nigel Yeo (Y2 Class Committee Chairman and former Rag Head), Prof Sandra Booysen, and Prof Goh Yihan. They were also terribly humble. As we shall see, however, we couldn’t possibly have had better judges.
Nigel: ‘I am not qualified at all for this, which is why I was Rag Head and not Rag Dance Head.’
Prof Booysen: ‘Let me say first of all that this is a race to the bottom. I am probably the least qualified to judge this competition.’
Prof Goh: ‘As Prof Booysen said, this is a race to the bottom. I think I am the least qualified of us all.’
The ridiculously sleek Goh Hui Hua kicked off the performances for the night with a freestyle dance to ‘When I Was Your Man’ by Bruno Mars. His performance felt deep, sincere, and even moved some to tears.
Note: This picture is from another event, but we wanted to make sure that you got a closer glimpse of him anyway!
Prof Goh: ‘You move like a fish through the air… And that hand wave thing! Wonderful – like a wave through the air.’
Second up we had MLJ (Mark, Louis and Justin) who brought us an international medley of random songs, ranging from the Hokkien ‘I Ask the Heavens’ to the Korean ‘Run Devil Run’ (SNSD), everyone’s favourite Pokemon Theme, and even the hilariously annoying ‘Waka Waka’ (Shakira), which was undoubtedly appealed to one of our judges in particular. Their performance was titled ‘Journey to the East & West’, and they had the crowd cheering and moving along at various points of their performance.
Visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gnUiSRWPM0 to view their full performance!
Nigel: (in jest) ‘That is not African music! I sit in Bing Wen’s car so I know what real African music is.’
Prof Booysen (on ‘Run Devil Run’): ‘Very nice audience appeal.’
Prof Goh: ‘20/20 for the creativity in your name! MLJ! Like, Malayan Law Journal!’
Third, we had Basil ‘Heart Throb’ Lee, who blew the crowd away with ‘The Blower’s Daughter’ (Damien Rice) and his very own rendition of ‘Billie Jean’ (Michael Jackson).
The judges were so impressed by his vocal prowess that the essentially all said the same thing: ‘I wish I could sing like you’. Honestly, me too! You can catch his performance at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDUT75u024k
Putting up a good fight, next, was Cheryl Chui with her rendition of ‘Rolling in the Deep’ and ‘Make You Feel my Love’ (Adele). Personally, I thought they were extremely ambitious song choices, but BOY DID SHE PULL THEM OFF!!! The judges and the crowd, too, were thoroughly impressed.
Nigel: ‘I try to sing this in the shower.’
Prof Goh: ‘When you started singing, I thought I’d turned on my iTunes or something.’
In the very least, you should catch her ‘Rolling in the Deep’ performance at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngdRD1XGKYM
Next, we had the group that called themselves ‘6 GIRLS AND 2 BOYS’, presenting a dance performance entitled ‘6 GIRLS AND 2 BOYS’! Their dance had a contemporary and a hip-hop segment, and you really must watch it for yourself!
Catch their performance here
Prof Goh: ‘Again, 20/20 for your group name. I mean, 6 Girls and 2 Boys! Absolutely wonderful. (Crowd laughs.) No, really! (Crowd laughs again.) No, hear me out. 6 Girls and 2 Boys! It’s the literal meaning and all. (Crowd continues to laugh uncontrollably.) Okay, I should just stop talking.’
This group really had the crowd support! It was certainly a good lot of entertainment and fun watching them working the stage. The Judges, yet again, had nothing but praise and envy for the amount of talent that they had displayed, making particular reference to Kevin Elbert Toa’s fabulous pirouettes.
Ending off our performances were Joseph and Denise Tay! They performed a mashup of ‘Devil’s Tears’ and ‘Fall for You’, along with ‘Genie in a Bottle’, with TONNES of hilarious moments sprinkled throughout their performance. For example, Joseph, with Denise right next to him and both looking rather awkward (all part of the act), started the performance out with something like this (not verbatim, alas):
‘There comes a time when you meet a special someone… who is important to you, and you want to tell her how important she is… (goes on for a while)… this is not such a time.’
Prof Booysen: ‘I never understood that part of the song? “Because tonight will be the night that I will fall for you” — either you have fallen, or you have not. How can you say you will fall?’
Prof Goh: ‘You are really good at talking nonsense. Better than me, even.’
Needless to say, the audience and judges were in stitches while enjoying the musical delight that the couple (and by that I simply mean 2 people) brought to the night.
After much difficult deliberation, during which some games were played with members of the audience, the judges finally came to their decision:
Third place: Joseph Tay and Denise Tay
Second place: Cheryl Chui
First place: Goh Hui Hua
Congratulations to the winners!
The audience and performers then adjourned for a buffet spread, along with free-flow of beer!
Also, I don’t think the Undergraduate Lounge has ever been this crowded!
Message from the organising Y1 Class Comm: We hope everyone had as good a time as we did! Cheers! We leave you last of all, with two things. First, a quote from Prof Goh, which we agree with:
Prof Goh: ‘It was worth giving up dinner to watch this… you guys are so talented… my only hobbies are astro-photography and growing plants.’
And second, an awesome photo of one of our judges (credit to Miin for this photo and the last):
***
Article contributed by Jotham Tay.
Photography contributed by Erwin Wan, with contributions by Isaac Ho and Miin Tong.
