Talent Night: Oh What A Night!

by Richard Bastuck

Every year, the Bronxville Youth Council organizes a talent show to raise funds for their cause, as well as to showcase some of the talent our school has to offer. Although I’ve never been to one of these shows, I found an interest in participating in it this year. Despite being in two of the acts that performed last Friday, I didn’t know whom else to expect in the show until that night. There was a dress rehearsal on Thursday the 21st, but I went to a Bruce Springsteen concert instead, which was totally awesome by the way.

So Friday was interesting for me, since I didn’t know who else I’d see on the stage. The show itself was divided into two parts: an early show for elementary and middle schoolers, followed by the high school show. The Elementary/Middle School show was followed by a 15-minute intermission, during which the high schoolers prepared for their acts and an entirely new audience appeared.

The evening show commenced with Amanda Tarangioli dancing to “Shake It.” I personally did not see this act, but I heard it was a good way to get the crowd pumped. The next act was one that featured Niki Balac and yours truly. If you’re as big a fan of Scrubs as Niki and I are, you probably would have enjoyed our a’cappella rendition of “Guy Love,” a song about two guys who learn not to be ashamed of their bromance. Since I was part of that act, I won’t judge it myself because I am clearly biased and thought it was awesome. The crowed seemed to enjoy it, though.

The third act was Martin Bonventre, performing a very original interpretation of The Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women.” Martin brought his enthusiasm to the performance, implementing all kinds of interesting vocal techniques I couldn’t predict. Being quite familiar with the original song, there were times when I couldn’t even recognize what he was singing. Like I said, it was a very original interpretation.

The next performance of the night was Sara Winant, who sang and played piano for “Thinking of You” by Katy Perry. While I’m the opposite of the Katy Perry fan, Sara delivered the song beautifully and in such a way that I got really into it. Admittedly, however, I did not know at the time what she was playing. I enjoyed it nonetheless, and also add that Sara has a wonderfully strong voice, of which we should expect to hear more in the furture.


In between two of the acts the audience was given a very special surprise performance. A man walked out on stage in total darkness and began flailing around a pair of glow sticks, demonstrating mad skills. This man was none other than PE coach and Health teacher Matt Fisher! I was very impressed with his various tricks and couldn’t help but get excited. All I can say to that performance is “Go Blue!”

The remaining two acts were two bands: Nine18 and The Pryde. Before I go into details about them, I should make a point that there were numerous technical difficulties that prolonged the bands’ setup times. This became a real problem for MCs Justice Kibbe and Jack Begert, for it was up to them to keep the audience entertained in between acts. This problem was experienced before both bands were ready to play. Nine18 went on first.

Nine18 is a new group made up of Luke Connors, Niki Balac, Blaze Lassiegne, Andrew Walsh, and Alex Hartwell. This talent show was their first performance, and I could tell they were pretty nervous. They played two songs: a cover of “Splinter” by Velvet Revolver, and an original called “Moonlight Sundancing.” From backstage I thought they sounded fine. They’re just starting out so I’d give them some time to develop their style.

The final group was The Pryde, a band that has been making a big impression on Bronxville since earlier in the school year. The musicians who make up this group are Kuba Kierlanczyk, George Hider, David “Stan” Blanco, Justin Romeo, and John Aurelio from Fordham Prep. I had the honor of playing with them in their opening song, the Pokémon Theme Song. I was very happy about this because I got the idea over the summer and proposed it to them early in October. After months of waiting, I finally got to do it. Overall I’d say it went very well; the audience loved it, despite my one voice crack. After I was done, The Pryde kept up with the 90’s motif and played a cover of Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” which was also a real crowd-pleaser, as one can imagine. They had plans to play two of their original songs and have Justin play a beastly drum solo, but they were told right before going onstage that their time had been cut short, limiting them to two songs. That was a shame, not only because I love their music, but also because I would’ve had a tambourine solo in one of them!

I encourage more people to attend next year to support friends and the Bronxville Youth Council!