Top of the list, of course, the audio-visual set. My god, if Donald Trump had sat in there for half a minute, he'd have fired the entire fleet of audio crew and closed down the whole building. So much cackling interference, such uncontrolled mike volumes, multiple video glitches, the case of the missing mikes, the case of the 'present mikes-but-missing sounds' and yadder yadder yadder...
There were 5 categories yesterday - emcee, solo, duet, group and song composition. A guy & a gal vied for the emcee award. The guy was gracious and eloquent. The gal was... (pardon me big-time but I really couldn't find kinder words)... frivolous, petty, repetitive, aunty-ish and plain irritating. Many times, her comments were "duh-inducing", lacked grace and reflected ignorance. I am quite sure it was not my hormones, but i absolutely felt like giving her one good smack. Just one example of her boo-boos: she called The Dean of NUS Science Faculty, Prof Tan Eng Chye, "MR DEAN, MR DEAN"! Not once, not twice, but so many times over that I think the GOH Dr Amy Khor couldn't stand it and had to correct her onstage, asking her to refer to him as "Prof Tan" from that moment on. Dr Khor herself was not spared and had to tolerate having her surname switched many times throughout the night, sometimes it's "KOH", sometimes it's "KHOR", sometimes it's both in the SAME sentence. *FAINT* Her ancestors must have flipped in their graves.
The lighting was dead. There was only a stationary spot of light shone right smack at the middle of the stage. When singer(s) moved left, the spot stayed; when singer(s) moved right, it still stayed. Was another special guest performer scheduled to emerge from beneath that spot?? The only other time when the light moved was when the crew decided to project it right into the audiences' eyes to wake us. Very effectively blinding. Can be put on par with the audio cackles.
The presentation of tokens of appreciation, trophies and lucky draw prizes was another horror segment to squirm through. The lack of coordination was so apparant, it screamed "MANY MORE REHEARSALS NEEDED". No one seemed to know where to stand, where the tokens/trophies/prizes were, where to go after receiving their stuff that it would have been more painless to have just gotten DHL to do courier service.
Thank Buddha, all was not lost. The one saving grace yesterday night was that some of the contestants were really good! Despite all the hiccups, they managed to sound pitch-perfect, drawing the audience into their soulful renditions. One or two were so good, I wonder what they are doing here and not in Singapore Idol. I bet they'd make it to the finals there too. The other helpline that delivered was guest performer Zhang Dongliang. He was the malaysian boy-next-door singer who charmed the crowds with his soothing vocals. If not for his timely appearance, I'd probably have popped a vein or two by then.
I know, I know, quit whining and let it go. Remember it's a wholly student-run event, and even for expert event planners, there should always be some leeway coz there's always the blameable Dr Murphy right? Only from mistakes does one learn and grow, yes? Furthermore, who am I to criticize so much when all I had done was to sit there in that snug theatrette chair clutching my $10 ticket stub and goodie bag (containing *yippee* partyworld karaoke vouchers)? Yes yes, despite my barrage of complaints, I thank you organizers, for giving my cousin a chance to perform, and for giving me a 3.5hr marathon nite of music and noise.
Lucky the whole event's taped down. The next organizing batch had better learn from this. To TalentQuest 2007, cheers and good luck.
Remember golden rule number one: If you ever ever ever have to organize a talentime, PLEASE DO NOT ever ever ever choose.... AND save not on the rehearsals please.
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