Whitley and the Talent Show

Mom and Dad this is for you-

Whitley and the Talent Show. That really should say it all. For those of you who know Whitely you may be chuckling already. Our primary held a small talent show activity the other night just for the fun of it. When I say small, I mean very small. The performers outnumbered the audience. We had a lot of brothers and sisters. 12 performers? 8 parents?

Something like that.

Originally we had no plans to be part of the talent show. It didn't occur to me to sign Whitely up because I thought she was a little too young. However, earlier in the afternoon our Primary President texted me (we are texters) and she mentioned that not that many kids had signed up. I was kind of bummed for her because she puts a lot of time and effort into the activities for the kids. So I thought that maybe I could convince Whitley to do something in the talent show to help bolster the numbers. Ha! Convince. But this was my actual first thought. 

I had planned to take Whit to watch the show that night anyway and I sort of had an idea what would happen if we went. She would see all the kids getting up on stage performing/singing into a microphone and I knew she would be begging me the whole time to let her get up and "talk" into the mic too. Talk in it, sing to it, hold it, caress it, anything. Just like she does every week in Sunday school. It's torture for her to sit there and listen to voices being carried gloriously around the room and not have it be hers. She thinks I am punishing her when I won't let her get up every week and talk in the microphone. She really thinks I'm punishing her. For what, I don't know. In general, she's always kind of in trouble and usually being denied something, so of course every Sunday she thinks I'm denying her open mic time. Possibly for being so rotten in Sacrament Meeting. Which is fine. I'm not going to tell her otherwise.

So because of low numbers and thinking practically, I thought it would be best to go with a "little something" prepared in case she got the itch to want to "perform" from having to watch all the other kids. That way at least we could legitimately get up and perform a real act and not just listen to her giggle and hiss in the mic. 

I let April-Primary Pres. know we "may" be performing that evening. Ha! "may". But there was a small part of me that thought she would/could/might get nervous if she actually had to do something for real instead of just giggling and hissing into a mic. She'll giggle and hiss in front of anyone. But sing? I wasn't so sure. I hadn't seen that side of her yet.

When I talked to Whit about doing it and explained the concept of a talent show- Small stage, lights, microphone, all eyes on her; I might as well have told her I was buying her every Polly Pocket ever made, plus a pony. And building a pink pool in the back yard. With sparkles. She was that excited. I think her thoughts were- "Is this true? Do things like this really happen to girls like me? 

She was pretty excited.

We basically had only one choice of what we could perform at such short notice. It's a family favorite. Her stand by, go to, favorite old gospel song- In the Highways and Hedges. Yes, that's right. Every other little girl did something from High School Musical or Hairspray but we went old school gospel. Mostly because she has it memorized and will sing it very loudly. I just hoped what she will do for us in the car would translate to a stage for a talent show. 

Whitely wanted to wear one of her old ratty gymnastic leotards but I talked her down to a simple elegant pink lamé ballerina bedazzled tutu and tap shoes. Don't ask how we got there. I looked at her and thought- Okay Tammy Faye, but it works. She had a sunburn that gave her the look of a little southern pageant girl that had been spray tanned and heavily rouged. I topped it off with bright pink lipstick and sparkling body powder. Whitely was happy. Happy happy happy.

We practiced a few times a home. She did great. Looked at mom, sang loud (very loud), stood still, held the mic, didn't suck on it and we were hopeful. She was, we think, adorable. Our little Lolita.

We went to the show early. She practiced. Fine fine. Just like at home. She was to perform second. I did that on purpose because I knew for her to wait while other performers went before her would be a very loud struggle. We had to sit in the front row so I could "lead" her through her song and I didn't want to be rude to anyone before us. Even having to sit through all of the one and half minute of the first little girl's performance proved to be torture for her. She loudly complained and whined "whensit MY turn?!" and gave her (and me) the stink eye until she was done.

Then it was her turn.

She walks up on stage. She looked so cute I almost ate her. She gets up on stage, looks around, smiles,  sees "all" the people and our eyes on her.... And then we lost her.

She left us. The music started and Whitley went to her world. 

Now let me explain that she was fully aware of everyone looking at her. She doesn't check out... Well, she kind of does. It's like she's here and there. One foot in, one foot out. She just...... lost herself to the music? I don't know, it's hard to say with her. All the fame and glory went to her head I guess and the realization that she could pretty much do anything she felt like and that we all had to sit there and take it.... It all took a hold of her. She wasn't crazy and didn't do anything nutty by any means but it wasn't what we practiced. It was just Whitley. She couldn't help herself. She chose not to listen to a word I was loudly hissing at her from the front row to "Look at mom" and "Sing louder!!" My ear cupping and hand flapping meant nothing. It all went out the window. She wanted to dance and sway to the music, kick up a heel or two and twirl. So she did. And she sucked on the mic. I finally just sat back and watched. It was her performance after all. 

It was cute and even Sheldon coming up on stage and wandering around didn't phase her. She hardly noticed. I thought for sure she would shove him off for having the nerve to steal her spot light. But she didn't. It was just her, the music, and the lights. When the song faded she came back to us and looked around at all the smiles and cheers and got the biggest grin on her face like- I cannot believe I just got to do that. And people are clapping. 

Christian and I just laughed. With Whitley you just have to laugh. There is NO method behind the madness. It's just madness. We love it.

This is Whitley pre-show. It's how she relaxes. Actually she had no idea at this point there was going to be a talent show. This was around 4:00pm. The talent show was at 6:30pm.

Checkin' out the stage. Gettin loose.

 Channeling Tammy Faye.

Warm Ups. It's starting to feel very natural. 

Waiting her turn.

Still waiting. A minute is a long time.

Finally!

This lasted 30 seconds.

Cute!