A variety of talent that stretched from a young ballerina to a politically conscious rapper showcased their skills at the first ever “Bakersfield’s Got Talent” event, that was hosted and developed by DJNentertainment.
The event was part of fundraising to collect money for the Children’s Christmas Program that is annually held at the Elks Lodge located at 1616 30th St.
Nick Hill III was the organizer of the event as well as owner of DJNentertainment. Hill plays a variety of roles, as he is the Esteemed Loyal Knight of the Elks and is also the Chair of the Children’s Christmas Program.
“We usually have a barbecue,” said Hill. “But this year I thought we would do something bigger.”
Overall, the night raised $230 for the cause, as a table was stationed for donations and Hill periodically asked the audience to visit the table whenever they found a suitable time.
The show started around 6:30 p.m., and over 25 contestants were corralled in an area next to the stage inside of the Dome on V Street awaiting their turn to perform.
“I’m scared,” said Johnny Solorio who was going to do a pop-locking rendition of a Debbie Deb song. “Everyone’s putting the pressure on me.”
This wasn’t the only time Solorio had performed in front of a large quantity of people.
He used to dance at rallies for Centennial and West, but this crowd was a bit different and tinged his nerves.
“It’s weird doing this in front of a lot of different people,” said Solorio. “The families mostly, not mine, but other peoples.”
Family seemed to be the unspoken theme of the night. Family support was a major contribution to the crowd of people that circled the stage.
“My son’s performing tonight,” said the mother of rapper Russell Carter aka “Bonz” who performed his song “Everybody knows Bonz” towards the later half of the night. “He made a clean version especially for the family and tonight,” she said.
All performances had to maintain a quality that would be accessible to the ears of families that were in attendance. Two year-olds could be seen holding onto the hand of an older individual as well as herds of adolescents running amuck as they allowed the energy from the music to flow out of their bodies into random spurts of dance movement.
“Some of the people we dismissed still showed up wanting to perform,” said Hill. “But we didn’t let them due to something wrong in their performance involving cuss words or things like that.”
“Not all rap is negative,” said Lisa Payne aka the “MRS”. The MRS is an acronym for Many Restless Sisters. Payne stressed the importance of a positive outlook when coming from a negative background in the lyrics of her conscious songs.
“I’m trying to be a teacher and have people learn through my raps,” said Payne. “You have to have learned something in order to teach someone.”
Payne heard about the competition from one of her aunts, Margie Davenport. Davenport also performed with her sister Bernice Boyd. They performed an original gospel ballad titled “One on One.” Davenport was on keyboard as Boyd let her tonsils vibrate gospel goodness.
“We write and perform our own songs,” said Davenport.
Singing, rapping and pop-locking were not the only types of entertainment available that night at the Dome. There was also a little old man playing guitar as well as an 11-year-old ballerina.
Miguel Guiterrez is a 59-year-old man who sings in casinos in Reno. He performed “Cielito Lindos” with the help of an acoustic guitar. It swayed the night onto a different track of pace.
The performance was very different from the crowd-pleasing shinanagans of Midnite Records, featuring Macumba of Backyard Shack Records.
The group performed their original song “We Can Ride” at the beginning of the show and was able to get the crowd involved early by demanding they lift up their bottoms from the seats and head to the front of the stage. Free CD’s were included for those who followed Macumba’s words.
“We just want to have fun,” said Jose Maldonado, aka Silence of Midnite Records.
Tatyana Pryor did not have to speak a word for the crowd to be moved by her actions. This 11-year-old performed a ballerina routine as she pranced and twirled in front of judges for roughly three minutes.
“I thought I did really good and I tried really hard,” said Pryor.
All the contestants tried really hard, but three judges were to determine the fate of the grandest of prizes, a six demo record deal compliments of Urban Tracks, a local recording studio located on Niles Street. The prize was not awarded that night, but will be given out at a special ceremony to be held at a later date.
Everybody received something for performing that night though, whether it was recording time, a free chicken wing meal courtesy of Wings to Go, or getting to see what kind of talent Bakersfield has. No one left without something.
Bakersfield has talent for children fundraiser
December 5, 2007
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