The talent show: recognizing student skill

By Olivia Garrett

Talent show contestants pictured by Olivia Garrett.

This April 30th, as the PAC stage curtains were unveiled and the overhead lights began to dim, the OHS 2024 talent show began. For weeks students practiced and fine-tuned their acts, all in hopes of putting on a successful performance. Executing an intricate act in front of hundreds of one’s peers is not an easy task, and for students Jacob Raulie and Abram Smith their courageous display of talent earned them a winning spot in this year's showcase. 

First-place winner Jacob Raulie states, “Whenever I had free time I would start practicing [my act]. I’ve done [the rhythm game] for about three years now.” 

Raulie took a unique take on this year's show, displaying his technical skill within a rhythm game. In the game that Raulie compares to piano tiles, Raulie explained that there are four keys on a keyboard that each respond to a column, and when a column falls, you must click the corresponding key at the right time. This uncommon skill requires both natural talent and years of experience. Luckily, Raulie had gotten an early, somewhat unconventional start to the game.

Jacob Raulie pictured by Olivia Garrett

Raulie recalls, “There was a Roblox event with a rhythm game, and I was like, ‘Oh I actually really like this.’ Later, I went into OSU to do it a bit more professionally. I realized that I was pretty good at it and I thought I might try to do it in the talent show.” 

Finding both a hobby and a skill, Raulie practiced and honed his newfound talent over the past year. While not initially confident that his skill would be successful in the show, Raulie’s excitement and adeptness towards the game propelled him to take the chance and perform it. Simply putting on the act to share his talent with his peers, Raulie didn’t expect any particular outcome from the event. 

“I was just doing [the show] to have fun. Whenever I initially signed up, I wasn’t even thinking about winning. I was genuinely surprised when I won,” Raulie laughs.

While the audience cheered, hollered and clapped along to the song the game produced, Raulie’s 2024 talent show performance was marked as a resounding success. One of Raulies’s fellow performers, Abram Smith met a similarly successful outcome at the show, earning a deserving second place. Performing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing,” Smith executed a masterful violin solo and gained the overwhelming support of the crowd. 

Smith shares, “I knew the song would be really popular among people because that’s a song they always play at football games and a song that basically everyone knows. The electric guitar solos are really fun to play.”

Abram Smith pictured by Olivia Garrett.

In hopes of producing a positive and excited audience Smith chose a song that he thought the crowd could sing and dance along to. Creating exactly that, the crowd clapped to the beat as they waved their phone flashlights in the air throughout the performance. Smith attributed this success to the months he spent preparing the act.

“I found an accompaniment track to the song and from there I started to develop the violin part. I kind of just listened to the song and figured out how I wanted to do it. I started practicing it maybe a couple of months ago,” Smith notes. 

Smith shares that he puts such a level of practice in the talent show because he feels it's special to be able to perform a well-put-together piece for your peers. Having participated in the talent show for the past several years, Smith continues to enter because he genuinely enjoys displaying his talent and being able to share his skill with others.

Smith remarks, “I think it's a lot of fun to play a popular song for a crowd of people and it seems like they get really excited whenever I'm playing violin, especially when the song choice is something that they like.”

Following his win, Smith shared that when going into the talent show he simply aimed to have fun, and he was elated upon learning of his second-place achievement. Both Smith and Raulie were extremely thrilled to be recognized with this win, and they were proud to be a part of the talent show this year. Everyone who performed in the talent show and contributed to its production helped the showcase be an undeniable success.