Springfield Junior High's 50th Annual Talent Show

Chapter 1: The Big Announcement

Everybody was looking at the message that was just placed on the billboard. It proclaimed in big bold letters, "Springfield Junior High's 50th Annual Talent Show; Friday June 10, 1994, 7:00 p.m.". Now, this being the talent show's golden anniversary, it was sure to a big one. And this time, a record 500 students, or more than half the school's 900 students, were going to participate, a little more than last year's, which was the previous record, having 400 students particpate. And not only that, but it was going to be covered from every possible angle by the local news stations. Now, it was already June 3rd, which meant that the students had exactly seven days left to practice for their acts.

Chapter 2: Registrations and Rehearsals

Incredibly by Monday afternoon, over 200 more students had registered, and by Wednesday morning, which was the last chance to register, the remaining 200 students had registered. This meant that amazingly, all 900 students were going to perform in the show. Now, one might be tempted to wonder "Just how are they going to fit 900 people into a single talent show?". This situation was possible because many students registered as a group or as a class. In fact, some groups had up to 30 people performing one act. Of course, there was a lot of diversity between the acts. Some required many hours of rehearsals, while other acts required delicate planning because they were working with dangerous materials such as fireworks, and still others were one that one would have to see to believe. The supervisors had to be extra careful this year, becuase many acts were extremely dangerous. In fact, during last year's talent show, the combined weight of the performers in a "high-rope" act accidentally brought down the heightened steel walkway, making it fall 50 feet to the floor below. Fortunantly, no one was seriously hurt. However in 1992's talent show, one performer doing a magic act accidentally managed to light the stage on fire. The stagehands managed to get it out within a few seconds, however the auditorium had to be evacuated, more than twenty people had to be sent to the hospital, and the rest of the show had to be postponed.

Chapter 3: Opening Night

Because all of the students in the school had registered, all their parents were going to be there to watch their children's big night. And that equaled exactly 1800 parents. In fact, they had to put in extra chairs in the auditorium becuase of the larger than expected crowd. And when that didn't work, they had to move into the gymnasium because they ran out of seats. At exactly 7:00 p.m., the "curtain", which was really a big sheet hastily placed up at the last minute, rose and with that the show began. The first act was a group act of 12 boys and 12 girls doing a Broadway-style musical number about the origin of Springfield. It went well at first, but during the final verse two of them tripped over each other and fell onto the cold hard stage, but got up in time for the final line. The audience applauded and cheered. The second act comprised of a magic act. The ringleader of this was one of the eighth-grade boys who introduced himself as "The Great Masked Magician" even though he was not wearing a mask nor was he a great magician. In fact, he was the one who had lit the stage on fire (accidentally, of course) back in 1992, and that resulted in him getting suspended. Anyway, this act was supposed to be far less dangerous than the infamous "fire act" as this one involved a simple show of little tricks (aka, rabbit out of the hat, the "is this your card" trick, etc.). However, when he tried the hat trick and pulled the rabbit out of the hat, the rabbit angry at being pulled out so suddenly bit him squarely on the hand. He ran around the stage, screaming in pain, the rabbit still biting his hand. And as he ran, his pants fell down, all the cards, balls, cups, hankerchiefs, everything fell out of his pants. The audience roared with laughter all the while as he struggled with the rabbit and knocked down all the scenery so shoddily put together at the last minute. But finally he managed to shove it back into his cage. Surprisingly, the audience actually took the time to applaud him anyway, because technically except for that little mishap after the rabbit bit him he had done the rabbit-in-the-hat trick perfectly. Boy, people in Springfield will laugh and applaud at anything. For the third act, Springfield Junior High's own barbershop quartet, performed "I Swear", which at the time was the #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100. This act, unlike the first two, went smoothly from beginning to end, and the audience showed their approval at the end. After this the fourth act came in the form of a show featuring about a dozen giant marionettes controlled by 30 students (yes, they were that big), while another 30 interacted with the puppets. After a few minutes, they switched so that the people who just controlled the marionettes were now interacting with them. While not exactly an official talent, the audience was amazed at the craftmanship and the sheer size of the puppets. This too went off without a hitch. The audience applauded at the end of that scene as well. Then came the fifth act with the cheerleading sqaud doing the normal cheerleading stunts (human pyramids, torches, bow and arrows, split lifts, twists of fate, double twist cradles, basket tosses, etc.). It went almost perfectly, that is until the human pyramid trick came in. One of the girls lost her balance and fell on the floor, sending all the other girls down with her. Luckily, they all got back up and tried the human pyramid again. This time it was successful, and the audience cheered them on like crazy. With that, the supervisor of the show walked on stage and said that there would now be a brief intermission. And about time too, for just for those five acts it took nearly an hour, as it was now 7:50 p.m.

Chapter 4: Talent Show Part 2

At exactly 8:00 p.m., the show immediately went into restart. The first act from that point consisted of one of the seventh grade girls belting out her rendition of a number one hit from earlier this year, "The Power of Love". Her version of this song was actually quite good, and the audience agreed. But from there, the quality of the acts (though still good), as well as the amount of time for each act, began to experience somewhat of a decline. Within another 45 minutes, came acts 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19. Act 7 was another magic demonstration. Act 8 consisted of a boy and a girl, both in sixth grade, performing "The Time Of My Life". Act 9 consisted of the school marching band performing the Springfield town song. Act 10: 6 of the eighth grade boys performing a classic, "Mama Don't Allow No Music Playin' Round Here". Act 11: 8 of the sixth grade girls performing another classic "I Can Dream, Can't I?". Act 12: The school dance team performing an old classic from way back in the Roaring 20's, "The Charleston". Act 13: The school gymnastics team performing a high-wire act. Act 14: 10 of the sixth grade boys blowing balloons up until they were the size of their heads and then molded them into several different animals. Act 15: 10 of the eighth grade girls peforming a "riverstomp" dance routine. Act 16: The school drama club performing an excerpt of their hit play "Springfield Origins". Act 17: The school creative arts team putting up a really huge wall puzzle (25 feet by 10 feet) really fast (less than 3 minutes to put it fully together) Act 18: The school wrestling team and the school martial arts team combining their talents together for the first time and performing one heck of a demonstration. And Act 19: the school stunt performing team doing their own demonstration (shooting out of cannons, highwires, etc).

Chapter 5: The finale of the show

By now, it was 8:50 p.m. There was now only one act before all of the performers would come together for the finale. The only participants left were Bart Simpson, age 14, and Lisa Simpson, age 12. They were the two oldest Simpson kids and now both in the eighth grade. Their act was a semi-duet performing the song "Hero". Of course, he would compose the music and she would sing the lyrics. After a minute Bart walked up to the piano and started playing, and then a few seconds after that, Lisa walked up to the microphone and began to sing. As she progressed deeper into the song, gradually everyone began to feel the power of her beautiful operatic soprano voice sink in. When she ended the song, she concluded with an very high vibrating operatic note. This act by far brought the biggest applause. She and her brother walked to the edge of the stage and bowed, and then they walked over to where all the other performers were gathering and they joined hands with the others and everyone bowed for the audience. Everyone loved that last act, that is except for the girl who has performed in Act 6. In fact she was really upset that she had been upstaged and immediately began planning her revenge. Trouble lies ahead.