Students to display talents in contest

For the past 10 years Waynesburg University has been having students perform their unique talents in “WU’s Got Talent.” This year, auditions for the show are Feb. 1 from 4-6 p.m. and the show is Feb. 9 at 8 p.m., both events will take place in the Goodwin Performing Arts Center.

“Students are able to sign up on myConnect and on the form, it just asks them what they are planning on doing [in the show] with a brief description of it as well,” said Graduate Assistant Erin Kern. “Then they will perform the skit in front of three or four individuals and then the judges will go from there to let them know if they made the show or not.”

Judges for this year’s “WU’s Got Talent” have not been decided yet. This is Kern’s second year helping with “WU’s Got Talent,” but she remembers going to shows to watch whenever she was a student.

“There was a group of my friends who did a dance routine with white masks on,” said Kern. “It was kind of like a hip-hop dance. It is definitely my favorite memory because it was all choreographed.”

Kern says she enjoys “WU’s Got Talent” more than “WU Idol” because there are different types of talents in the show. “WU Idol” is Waynesburg University’s singing competition that usually takes place every fall semester.

“I like the variety of WU’s Got Talent compared to WU Idol,” said Kern. “So, it’s more than just singing, I think that it is cool to bring in other things.”

So far there have been five people who have signed up on myConnect to audition, but others have verbally told Kern that they will sign up soon. This year’s show will contain magic, comedy, singing, dancing and even baton twirling.

“I liked watching Nic Burgess do his magic act last year and I hope to enjoy it again this year too,” said Kern. “I am looking forward to it because it is a type of act that we don’t get to usually see.”

Students could get the opportunity to see sophomore children and youth ministry major Connor Hoffman perform in this year’s show. Hoffman did a comedy act last year in the show, which Hoffman said was the first time he ever did a comedy skit in a show before. The only other time he was in a talent show was in the fifth grade when he did a baritone solo of the song “Taking My Walrus for A Walk,” Hoffman said.

“It is a whole new set of jokes this year that I haven’t done yet. [The jokes are] mainly going to focus on my life in elementary school when I was younger,” said Hoffman.

Last year Hoffman did WU’s got talent and he feels like most of the crowd enjoyed it which really encouraged him to come back this season.

I think that [last year] went very well for me,” said Hoffman. “It was my first time doing comedy while standing up in front of people which was at first terrifying, but the reactions I got were confirming in a sense in the fact that people actually do find me funny.”

Hoffman said that one of his jokes will be about an emotionally tragic event that happened to him in the third grade.

“I am hoping for the audience to relate in a sense,” said Hoffman. “Some of the things that I will be joking about are so outlandish that many people probably have not done them, but in a sense, everyone has that one thing when they were a kid that still haunts them to this day. So, it’s just that thought process of how weird it was as a kid since now we are all adults.” The winner of “WU’s Got Talent” will receive a prize of $100, runner up will get $50 and third place will be awarded $25.