I’ve been practicing this all week, I thought to myself in the darkness. I can’t screw up now. I stood there alone, fidgeting like it was somehow going to help my performance. What was my first line, what was my first line…shoot, I forgot! And as the curtains spread apart and the spotlight pierces through the shadows, I lose track of everything.
I deliver the first line. All of a sudden, it’s just the crowd and I, and every trace of anxiety is left behind in the darkness.
This is what it was like to rap onstage at the 2013 Langley Talent Show. It was a night of exhilaration and entertainment, especially for a participant.
It’s a scary thing really, performing in front of a crowd. But I treated it more as an opportunity to make something great happen rather than an opportunity to mess up. It’s easier said than done though, as some problems were my fault while others were not.
Up until last Thursday, I had only been onstage twice in my life. I pretty much have no idea how to perform.
Sure, I’ve gotten a few tips here and there, but practice makes perfect and—I wasn’t perfect (but nobody is, right?). Getting three hours of sleep the night before because of my 2000-word English paper probably didn’t help me either.
But I wasn’t the only one who made mistakes. My beat was played a measure early and that completely caught me off guard. I had to stop the song and the host had to tell the techies to start it all over again because I wasn’t simply going to skip the first few lines of my song after I’d worked so hard to make them.
I just hope the judges didn’t think I choked.
Not only that, but my beat was incredibly hard to hear. Rap needs to have lyrics that match the rhythm of the beat, so it is very difficult to rap in musical time when there’s basically no beat in the background. I spent most of the performance just belting out words and hoping that they matched the tempo.
When I was watching the other performers, I also noticed that the microphone produced an annoying buzzing noise. That became very bothersome, especially when the solo singers didn’t have any background noise to drown it out.
Regardless, the entire show was very entertaining. I liked watching people I see in the hallway every day come up and perform talents I never knew they had. It’s a wonderful experience and I highly suggest it to those who want to show the world who they really are.