Tailgate Talent Show finale on Saturday
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The Tailgate Talent Show is wrapping up its final episode in Simcoe on Saturday.
The talent search travelled to Simcoe, Aylmer, Goderich, Port Elgin and Sudbury throughout the summer. The auditions included acts such as original music pieces, comedy sets, and dances. Judges selected two acts from each community to head to the finale to compete for $1,000 and studio recording time or video production to help with their acts.
The finale is being held at the Simcoe Legion on Sept. 14 at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the door.
Simcoe’s two acts are comedian Nara Farrell and pianist Alesio D’Agostino. The finale performance can be a maximum of 90 seconds.
Farrell, a singer and entertainer, decided to use her funny bone during her audition.
“It was so much fun,” she said. “I do funny voices, and I wrote a script pretending it was a radio show mystery. I did five different voices for it.”
Farrell said she wants to get into voiceover work so she decided to do her character voices.
“I had no idea if that was the right thing to do because I didn’t know what people would be doing, but I just loved doing it,” she said. “I thought I’d be cheeky and do the voices instead.”
Farrell has been preparing a script with more voices for her finale performance.
“I live in my imagination all the time and I enjoy other voices more than my own.”
D’Agostino, a Grade 9 student at Holy Trinity Catholic High School, auditioned with a section of Presto Agitato, the third movement of Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven, and will be playing Clair De Lune by Claude Debussy at the finale.
“I wanted to show off my talent and show people how great I am,” D’Agostino said about why he chose to audition for the show.
He has only been playing piano for about a 1 1/2 years and already has taken his Grade 6 piano exam. He is now studying for his Grade 10 exam.
Alesio’s mother, Karen, who is also his piano teacher, said the piece for finale has to be cut to meet the 90-second time requirement.
“The piece is quite long,” she said, adding that some “gentle emotional parts” are missing.
She expressed pride in her son.
“He has big goals and incredible talent.”
The event is being hosted by comedian Kyle Bergstresser. Local musician Felicia McMinn and TV actor and musician Kolton Stewart are judges.
Tailgate Talent Show will air on Eastlink Community TV Channel 610 this fall. It has been filmed in partnership with Rainey Media.
astaylor@postmedia.com
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