Talent Show Recap, Videos and Pictures

So the boys were both excited to be in the Roosevelt talent show this year.  I knew Cainan would want to do an act.  I encouraged Asher to participate in Cainan's dance routine (I figured it would be a hard sell because he's so stinkin' shy and fearful about public performance of any kind) but he refused...because...he wanted to do his own act.  AND he wanted it to be a stand-up routine.  My petrified-with-shyness son wanted to do a solo stand-up act for the talent show.  Of course, I said, "Great!" and didn't show a hint of doubt about it.  

We got to work on both boys' acts.  We went to the library and checked out several books of jokes.  Asher read through them and wrote down some of his favorites.  I transferred them to cue cards for him.  He began to have some doubts as tryouts approached.  He was worried that people might not laugh at the jokes or that when he said, "knock, knock" they might not say, "who's there?"  I suggested Cainan help him out as the "foil".  He could be the one to repeat the jokes, ask questions and say, "who's there?".  Asher liked that idea and seemed to relax once he realized he wouldn't be up there totally alone.

Cainan, on the other hand, was 100% invested in whatever idea we talked about for his act.  I had Googled "talent show ideas" and came across some good ones.  One that really popped out to me was a dance routine where the dancers dressed in black, taped glow in the dark lights to themselves in the shape of stick men, and did a dance routine.  I thought this would be perfect for him because it would look spectacular, even if he isn't the perfect dancer (which he is not--but he puts his whole heart into it).  I came up with a mix of dance music and we worked out a routine.  We told his physical therapist about the idea and she loved it--she helped us come up with a few moves, too (Thank you, Heidi!!).

Both the boys did great during tryouts and were accepted into the talent show.  They both practiced their little hearts out.  As the week of the talent show approached we learned the venue had changed to the gym at their school, during school hours, which meant it would be bright daylight out.  It turns out there is absolutely no way to make the gym dark and the effect for Cainan's whole act would be completely lost.  My little trooper didn't let it phase him and did his whole routine, even though we all could see him as clear as day.  He did fantastic.

(Here's a link to the video if you haven't seen that yet: http://youtu.be/qNWFR3ypmQw)

Then we ripped off all the tape and glow sticks so he could join his brother on stage for the comedy act.  Asher was extremely nervous but not nearly as much as I expected him to be.  Cainan was the perfect foil and Asher delivered each joke with great expression and timing.  He had nothing to worry about since everyone laughed at each joke.  I even heard kids the next week telling each other his jokes as I walked by them after school (proud mama moment)!

(Here's a link to Asher's video if you haven't seen it: http://youtu.be/OkjU3phCzkM

We decided about a week after the show that Cainan should do an encore performance at home, in the dark, so we could record it and let everyone know how the act was really supposed to look.  We just finished that up tonight and it was SPECTACULAR!  He did so awesome and I'm bummed the rest of the audience didn't get to see him the way we did.  BUT, I did record it and here it is, as it should have been...

(If you can't view the video here, you can see it on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHraeRUJuQE&sns=em)

We also received a ton of great pictures e-mailed to us from the school, since they had a photographer there capturing the show.  There's some fantastic shots of the boys!  I'm so proud of them both and they're already talking about next year's show.

Asher doesn't look tense, does he?

You can't even tell his glow stick are activated because it's so bright in there