Chargers Got Talent brought an enormous crowd Wednesday, November 28th to showcase the student and teacher acts. There was singing, poetry and eating a whole box of pizza all within the span of four minutes. There PAC certainly had a lot going on.

The winners of the talent show were Jonathon Nguyen (12) and Jose Reyes (11) who rapped to an original song based on Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode,” winning the $100 first place prize.

“Our act was a little bit of everything. A little bit of Dominican and a little bit of Vietnam all together. There’s a little bit of nerves when going on [the stage], but at the end of the day, you just have to be out there in your craft and just putting it there for everyone to see,” Nguyen said. “Rapping is just something that is so relevant and a part of our culture today.”

Reyes wanting to work with Nguyen stemmed from a Volt Vision video.

“I saw [Jonathon] rap on Volt Vision once, and I thought it was pretty cool. He wanted to get together last year to make a song, but it wasn’t until this year when we had a class together [that we created a song],” Reyes said. “It was history from there.”

Jose and Jonathon did not rap alone, though. They had a special guest perform with them.

“We wanted to make it school related, so we have a version with our principal, Mr. Houston, on [the song], too,” Reyes said.

The students seem to not be the only ones with talent to spare. Mr. Houston was one of several teachers and administrators to come out on stage and show everyone what they had in them. He read a poetry piece that he wrote himself. While other teachers, such as Ms. Bennett, presented an ‘interactive discussion’ with the audience called, “Bennett’s Beef with All of You”.

The $60 second place prize was awarded to Dane Wyble (12) who performed his stand-up comedy script.

“I did not expect to win second place, but some people said that stand-up comedy was different from all the other acts and that I’d most likely win. I didn’t really believe them, but I was really excited to win second place,” Wyble said.

Something new to Chargers Got Talent this year was the addition of the Improv troupe and their skits in between acts. The director of the troupe, Ms. Rosanne Curtis, got some of her members involved.

“I think that the improv troupe loves performing and helping out other people. I have been really pushing this year to get them to help out in the community. I think they were excited to be performing,” Curtis said. “Mrs. Peña loved everything that we did and wants the improv troupe to be a part of Chargers Got Talent every year.”

There were returning Chargers Got Talent performers as well, such as Haley Evans (12).

“Last year I sang ‘Hello’ by Adele, but this time I am singing ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ by Elvis,” Evans said. “It’s pretty exciting for my senior year. I just hope I did better than the last one and keep improving!”

Even the past performers suffer from stage fright, though.

“I’m somewhat used to the crowd, but I still get anxiety over it. When I was small, I wasn’t really competitive, but my mom had me in all of these sports and I started singing. It just means a lot to still get on stage, still singing and feeling the same adrenaline I did when I was five,” Evans said.

The senior officers, Evan Antie, Bethany Richner, Tracy Hsia, Lexi Poston, and Emma Yehle, even had a little surprise for the audience at the end. In addition to putting the whole show on and selling tickets, they organized a ‘synchronized swimming’ routine with flower caps and all.

“Bethany and I choreographed the routine. It was practice, practice and more practice. It was so much fun, for me at least, and all it took was getting the wrestling coaches to loan us the mats they use,” Poston, the senior class Parliamentarian, said.

“Chargers Got Talent was great this year. It was different from years before because there was a whole different set of officers with a whole set of new ideas. It ran rather smoothly, I think, because Emma and I both have had experience with what needs to happen backstage, so it all felt normal,” Poston said.

After the night was over, the class officers raised a little over $1500 for activities like Prom, Powder Puff and Graduation.