This Week in the Mercury
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Mercury Congratulations to Our Pizzazz Winners!
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Sat, Oct 18, 2008 at 8:32 AM
WOW! What an amazing array of talent we saw at last night's fifth anniversary of PIZZAZZ! (Portland's funnest talent show!) There was music, bellydancing, Romanian shenanigans, booty rapping, beatboxing, comedy, and burlesque-y striptease (and even a special guest appearance from Sarah Palin)! First of all, a big thanks to all our contestants who worked so hard to bring our sold-out audience the most entertaining show of the year. It takes a ton of guts to put your stuff out there, and in my opinion, you guys provided the toughest competition yet! Secondly thanks to our judges, who was scoring last night's competition on both talent AND creativity, and really had their work cut out for them.
But there can be only three winners of Pizzazz, and here they are:
THIRD PLACE: The amazing hoop manipulations of Dustin Hubel!
SECOND PLACE: The 11-year-old wunderkind Tony Green, who knows every single TriMet bus route by heart!
AND THE PIZZAZZ $1000 GRAND PRIZE WINNER: The brain-melting music from the kids of SCHOOL OF ROCK, who completely blew away the audience with an incredible performance!
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR WINNERS! And thanks to our Pizzazz staff who made this edition one of the funnest ever!
DID YOU MISS PIZZAZZ? No worries! Check out Blogtown in the coming week to see video highlights of this year's Pizzazz competition! (You may now begin arguing in the comments below about who you think should have been the top three finishers. Be marginally nice, please!)
Humpy, house band "Pizzazzterpiece Theater" and that girl in the skimpy gold tuxedo.
1
Happened to be in town and caught the show, very entertaining evening.
"School of Rock" killed (the drummer looked like she was having the best time ever), Beatbox guy got robbed and for a newspaper writer Humpy showed he can carry a tune and bust a move (sorta)
All in all a great night, hope I'm around to catch it next year
"School of Rock" killed (the drummer looked like she was having the best time ever), Beatbox guy got robbed and for a newspaper writer Humpy showed he can carry a tune and bust a move (sorta)
All in all a great night, hope I'm around to catch it next year
4
A few acts were VERY good! Most were, uh..., terrible, and not amusingly terrible, but gag-me terrible.
Don't you all have a better pool of talent to work with? Do you vet the contestants?
And what was with the "house band?" Did the woman sing, or just look nice, or what? Why did they not rehearse and perform the music for the acts that used recorded music?
The MC was cute and funny, FAR better than the so-called comic act who was HORRIBLE. Why did he not rehearse enough to not spend half his time reading his notes?
And what is with the judging? The bus route "prodigy" appeared to have simply memorized 3 routes for his act. He was marginally cute, but did clearly not warrant a prize over the beat-box act.
If I ever attend this show again it will be prepared with a large bag of rotten produce.
Don't you all have a better pool of talent to work with? Do you vet the contestants?
And what was with the "house band?" Did the woman sing, or just look nice, or what? Why did they not rehearse and perform the music for the acts that used recorded music?
The MC was cute and funny, FAR better than the so-called comic act who was HORRIBLE. Why did he not rehearse enough to not spend half his time reading his notes?
And what is with the judging? The bus route "prodigy" appeared to have simply memorized 3 routes for his act. He was marginally cute, but did clearly not warrant a prize over the beat-box act.
If I ever attend this show again it will be prepared with a large bag of rotten produce.
5
That's a pretty harsh turn against the bus boy. Backstage I quizzed him on multiple routes and he knows them all. He's currently working on other cities including San Antonio and Fargo, ND. Sorry you weren't entertained - I hear season 4 of the OC is available, why don't you go watch that!
6
Hey Fenbi, and Bus Boy,
I don't mean to sound harsh on that act, but it just did not translate well do the show format. With 100 people shouting out route numbers it could have been too easy to just cite anything. The challenge and accomplishment was not so impressive as it ought to have been.
My beef is mainly that Portland has a HUGE number of TRULY talented people that could have used the show's stage to get a leg up. They were sorely under represented last night.
I don't mean to sound harsh on that act, but it just did not translate well do the show format. With 100 people shouting out route numbers it could have been too easy to just cite anything. The challenge and accomplishment was not so impressive as it ought to have been.
My beef is mainly that Portland has a HUGE number of TRULY talented people that could have used the show's stage to get a leg up. They were sorely under represented last night.
7
Your opinion is certainly your opinion, empkae, but I'd say there are about 400 other people in the crowd that would disagree with you... because the rest of us had a fantastic time.
8
Empkae should audition next year. His talent can be drinking 20 gallons of hater-ade.
My vote would've been rock kids, beatboxer, hoop guy. Fun show though.
My vote would've been rock kids, beatboxer, hoop guy. Fun show though.
9
I actually LOVED the Romanian act at the end. I thought they should have been third, the hoop guy second (it was soooo original) and I definitely thought School of Rock deserved first. I want to watch the entire thing again, so I hope you are going be posting the videos soon.
What the fuck was with Dick Freedom? Did that guy actually have to audition and someone thought his "songs" were funny or good? Was it just a joke? I don't think he got booed hard enough.
What the fuck was with Dick Freedom? Did that guy actually have to audition and someone thought his "songs" were funny or good? Was it just a joke? I don't think he got booed hard enough.
10
Oh Portland, you so crazy.
I was one of the folks that was lucky enough to sift through the talent pool during auditions and help select your Pizzazz contestants this year. All of which I personally was totally in to. Even Dick Freedom.
Regarding Tony Greene, he is 100% legit. During auditions we had him on stage for almost 10 minutes. The audition judges had the Tri Met literature and were sifting through them calling out routes, we'd have him planning trips, etc. I think one was from The St. Johns Library to the zoo. He nailed it. Audience participation rules but, I'd of liked to see him hand his routes to the judges and have them call out to quiz him just like he did at auditions. If nothing else to eliminate the possibility of a dickweed/dickweedette questioning the validity of a 10 year old boys talent in a talent contest.
Empkae, regarding your feelings that all of Portland's extremely talented people you feel went under represented, how's about you approach them about next years show? It will be about the same time next year. Or, compile a list of all these talented folks and submit it to us and we can search them out.
Or, they can show some initiative and come to us just like all the talented people this year did.
To all that participated, it was awesome seeing you do your thing. You totally have Pizzazz!
I was one of the folks that was lucky enough to sift through the talent pool during auditions and help select your Pizzazz contestants this year. All of which I personally was totally in to. Even Dick Freedom.
Regarding Tony Greene, he is 100% legit. During auditions we had him on stage for almost 10 minutes. The audition judges had the Tri Met literature and were sifting through them calling out routes, we'd have him planning trips, etc. I think one was from The St. Johns Library to the zoo. He nailed it. Audience participation rules but, I'd of liked to see him hand his routes to the judges and have them call out to quiz him just like he did at auditions. If nothing else to eliminate the possibility of a dickweed/dickweedette questioning the validity of a 10 year old boys talent in a talent contest.
Empkae, regarding your feelings that all of Portland's extremely talented people you feel went under represented, how's about you approach them about next years show? It will be about the same time next year. Or, compile a list of all these talented folks and submit it to us and we can search them out.
Or, they can show some initiative and come to us just like all the talented people this year did.
To all that participated, it was awesome seeing you do your thing. You totally have Pizzazz!
13
school of rock? wow, fucking groundbreaking. I mean snooooooooooooore. seriously, pick something that hasn't already been hyped to death, has its own benefit show / showcases at decent-sized local venues, etc.
sounds like a fine way to turn what should eventually be an outlet for rebellious teenage angst into a gifted-and-talented program for "cool thirtysomething" parents to railroad their overachiever kids into.
sounds like a fine way to turn what should eventually be an outlet for rebellious teenage angst into a gifted-and-talented program for "cool thirtysomething" parents to railroad their overachiever kids into.
14
I can't wait to see all the acts on video. My roommate had a similar critique of Tony Green. It probably would have gone over better if he had called on individual audience members or had the judges call out number, but regardless, he truly does know his stuff. I also quizzed him backstage with both routes and trip plans, and his knowledge is really impressive.
15
Me too. The bus kid's act truly appeared to me to be a quickly-revealed gag, which I enjoyed severely, and which seemed obvious to every laughing beer-drunk member of the audience, hooting their approval of the apparent "illusion"...
kid:"CURSE YOU, DECK OF KNOWLEDGE!!!"
me:"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! BELCH!!!HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
...and which also generated a collective groaning f-bomb mingled with some polite but weak can't-hurt-the-little-guy's-feelings applause when he was awarded. What a let-down. Since he's really capable of these truly tricky feats of memory, that kid needs some coaching if his legit skills are to get any respekkk.
If that perspective makes me a dickweed, smoke me.
kid:"CURSE YOU, DECK OF KNOWLEDGE!!!"
me:"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! BELCH!!!HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
...and which also generated a collective groaning f-bomb mingled with some polite but weak can't-hurt-the-little-guy's-feelings applause when he was awarded. What a let-down. Since he's really capable of these truly tricky feats of memory, that kid needs some coaching if his legit skills are to get any respekkk.
If that perspective makes me a dickweed, smoke me.
16
Me too. The bus kid's act truly appeared to me to be a quickly-revealed gag, which I enjoyed severely, and which seemed obvious to every laughing beer-drunk member of the audience, hooting their approval of the apparent "illusion"...
kid:"CURSE YOU, DECK OF KNOWLEDGE!!!"
me:"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! BELCH!!!HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
...and which also generated a collective groaning f-bomb mingled with some polite but weak can't-hurt-the-little-guy's-feelings applause when he was awarded. What a let-down. Since he's really capable of these truly tricky feats of memory, that kid needs some coaching if his legit skills are to get any respekkk.
If that perspective makes me a dickweed, smoke me.
kid:"CURSE YOU, DECK OF KNOWLEDGE!!!"
me:"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! BELCH!!!HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
...and which also generated a collective groaning f-bomb mingled with some polite but weak can't-hurt-the-little-guy's-feelings applause when he was awarded. What a let-down. Since he's really capable of these truly tricky feats of memory, that kid needs some coaching if his legit skills are to get any respekkk.
If that perspective makes me a dickweed, smoke me.
17
and as for Mamaligele and Her Glorious Pastramalama's they have over 5,000 hits on youtube!
They have become international sensations - the people in Romania can't get enough!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LByWC7B9FgY…
They have become international sensations - the people in Romania can't get enough!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LByWC7B9FgY…
18
and as for Mamaligele and Her Glorious Pastramallamas they have over 5,000 hits on youtube!
They have become international sensations - the people in Romania can't get enough!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LByWC7B9FgY…
They have become international sensations - the people in Romania can't get enough!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LByWC7B9FgY…
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