The Griffon News

Comedian Jen Kober hosted the annual talent show held by the Western Activities Council on Oct. 9, 2007 in the Potter Fine Arts Theatre.

The show traditionally takes place in the gym, the Looney Complex, but this year it was moved to Potter Hall.
There were eight vocal performances and four non­vocal performances.

The winners of the vocal performances consisted of Seth Logston, coming in first, David Jolley, coming in second, and Katie Penland, coming in third.

The non-vocal winner was the dance group called “Versatile.”

Third place winner Katie Penland said this was her second year singing in the talent show.

“I guess I wanted to perform again this year, because it was a good experience last year, and it’s also great practice to get up in front of a large crowd and sing,” Penland said. “I always get very nervous, but the more you just push yourself to get up and sing your heart out, the more rewarding it is in the end.”

This event conventionally takes place during Homecoming week, and it is usually hosted by a come­dian to make it even more amusing.

WAC President Janell Banks was especially excited about this year’s comedian.

“She is very funny, and she always gets her point across,” Banks said.

Some students may have already been familiar with Jen Kober, but some may have seen her perform for the first time Tuesday night.

For those who missed out and have no idea who she is, Kober currently resides in Los Angeles, California, and she has just recently become recognized nationally.

She has brought her rock-n-roll style of stand-up comedy to colleges, casinos and comedy clubs across the country.
Kober has performed with Dave Atell, Dane Cook, George Lopez, Chris Tucker, Wayne Brady, Kevin Nealon, Kevin Pollak, Dana Carvey and many others you might be familiar with.

But it was not merely the comedian who brought stu­dents to the talent show, because Banks believes the show in and of itself is always entertaining.

“It is always packed beyond capacity – we never have trouble with this event,” Banks said. “We have so much talent housed on our campus.”

The talent show had been planned since last semes­ter, but Mercedes Hyman, director of major attractions, recently took over the chair.

“I personally started working on the talent show since Sept. 19, because that is when I took over the chair to do so,” Hyman said. “I know they had already been working on it for about a week or so before I did.”

She was in charge of setting up auditions and making decisions as to who was going to perform.

The vocal performances were as follows:

• 1 Accord - “reflections”

• Jamal Graham - “stupid things”

• Lisa Crawford -“Inside You Heaven” origi­nally by Carrie Underwood

• BreAunnia Morrow -“When I See You” by Fantasia

• Patrick Banks -“Where I Wanna Be” by Donnell Jones

• David Jolly - untitled piece

• Katie Penland - “Hero” by Mariah Carey

• Seth Logston - “Me & Mrs. Jones”.
The non-vocal performances consisted of:

• Darrell Dixon - “symphony”

• Ricky Wander - untitled piece

• Chris Bates - untitled piece

• Versatile - “Musikality”.