From burping to breakdancing, Paly’s fourth annual Talent Show last Thursday at Haymarket Theater expressed a variety of talents.

The show began with a performance by the Talent Show’s house band.The band was comprised of Patrick O’Konski on drums, Roland Synnestvedt and Andrew Levin on guitar and Matt Segall on the saxophone. The Heartbeats from Paly choir sang “Jungle Boogie” and “Ain’t No Other Man”.

“They [the house band] were so cool and jazzy,” junior Julia Blum said. “I liked that they all wore white jackets.”

Seniors Ryan Giordano and Tyler Stetson emceed for the rest of the evening, presenting features such as freshman, Shameem Jamil and her talent of burping polysyllabic names.

“Mr. Najar asked me to perform,” Jamil said. “He knew I could and I didn’t really mind. I thought it would be funny.”

Following Jamil came a performance by senior Ben Richards on the viola accompanied by a small student orchestra in the back.

“We only had about an hour to prepare,” Richards said. “The orchestra got the music at 6:30 and the show began at 7:30. Mr. Najar wanted a classical performance.”

Other students also showed off their musical talents during the show. Seniors Justin Takamine and Kyler Siegel played a duet with Takamine on bassoon and Siegel on guitar. Senior Alexa Beaman sang as she played the song “Try Your Luck” on the guitar.

Throughout the evening, there were several spotlight singing performances as well. Senior Kate Carey, sophomore Jovan Bennett, Najar, and English teacher, David Cohen sang with the help of the house band in the back.

Seniors Ellen Weaver and Adrian Sanborn salsa danced to Ricky Martin’s “Living La Vida Loca”. Their performance received an enormous applause by the enthused audience.

“I was nervous at first, but fine during the performance,” Sanborn said. “We knew that many people knew the song, which made it [the performance] fun to watch.”

As the last performer before intermission, senior Montika Levy and partner danced and lip-synced to Shakira’s “Dance Like This”. Emmer played the role of Shakira and belly danced while lip-syncing.

“I didn’t know Montika could dance like that,” Blum said. “It was a great surprise. I thought it was amazing.”

After a short intermission, performances began again with the Heartbeats singing “Lollipop”.

Junior Kelvin Wang and senior Johnny Chan break-dance battled to techno music. The audience was very impressed with both performers’ moves.

To get away from the pattern of singing and dancing, freshman Nick Gaya showed his juggling act as the house band played in the background.

Both Indian and French cultures were demonstrated in this year’s talent show. Senior Pooja Chaudhuri and sophomore Sai Boddupalli played and sang classical Indian and Bengali folk songs. French teacher, Carla Guerard’s French 4AP class also sang and performed a French song.

The Heartbeats demonstrated their singing talent in yet another performance, this time dressed as Spice Girls. They sang “Stop” with the house band playing in the back.

For the final performance of the evening, Najar, Cohen, the Heartbeats, and the house band all performed “So Lonely” by The Police.

“It was such a blast to perform,” Najar said.

Proceeds from the $5 ticket cost go toward Paly’s music program. The entire show was a fundraiser to help get money for the program’s transportation, uniforms, equipment, etc.

According to Najar, about 200 people came to watch the talent show, a number slightly smaller than previous years. Najar believes this is due to the show being on a Thursday evening this year as opposed to Friday night in past years.

“I’ve always wanted to be in the talent show, but never really knew about it,” junior Yotam Dror said. “It needs to be better advertised.”

Junior Kelly Hafner said, “I will definitely be in it [the talent show] next year. I was going to sing in it this year, but I was sick unfortunately. I thought it was really good, though.”