Everyone knows that Thursday night is always the start to a great weekend on campus. Plymouth State’s International Service Trip decided to kick last Thursday up a notch and organize an awesome show full of a few extremely talented PSU students to support their upcoming trip to Ghana.
Equipped with a fully functional stage, lighting, judges table, photographers and plenty of seating for the audience, PSU Idol resembled the popular TV show while keeping the comfortable Plymouth ambiance in the room. Brenda Shively and Helen Wells led the evening as lovely hostesses, giving Ryan Seacrest a run for his money.
The contestants all had their own special charm, taking over the stage with their personalities, many of them visibly skilled in their craft whether they were strumming the guitar or belting out vocals.
In between each of the musical numbers, it was the judges who stole the show. Jake Steele, much like Randy Jackson, kept his comments sweet and supportive of the nervous contestants. Jay Clyde, looking dapper in vest and tie, adopted the role of Simon giving mostly constructive criticism, occasionally letting out some harsh reactions.
The judge everyone was anticipating was the student body’s favorite Prospect employee Pom. For many of the contestants’ reviews, her words were taken right out of her mouth by the other judges and she replied with a simple “what they said”.
Each performance had its own life to it. The first two contestants performed Skinny Love by Birdie. Nina Weinstein belted out the sweet sounding vocals while Reed McFarland filled the room with the sound of his guitar.
Reed wasn’t the only one on guitar that night. Alec Lingiewicz backed up Liz Spink in a great performance of Turning Tables by Adele. Matt Sheehan, the second place winner and heart throb of the night, displayed both his singing and guitar talent in Name by the Goo Goo Dolls.
The ladies definitely lucked out during the show. Besides falling in love with Sheehan’s performance, Jerry Zajac dedicated an upbeat rap about college life, titled That Thing, to all of the ladies in the crowd. The girls started screaming so loud you would think ‘the Biebs’ walked in the room.
Pom seemed to be the one who loved JZAC’s (Zajac) performance the most, giving him a smile during judging and practically jumping over the table to give the hosts some money to enter her in the raffle for his CD. Although he came out in 3rd place overall, he was definitely first in Pom’s heart that night.
The personalities of the contestants really stood out in all of the performances, but most memorably in Melodey Matthews’ rendition of Katy Perry’s Not Like the Movies and Ramsey Dean’s singing and dancing to Me by Agnes. Matthew’s strong and beautiful voice left the crowd in awe of her talent. Ramsey demanded attention with his powerful voice and creative dance moves and really got the crowd into his performance.
Kendra Makos, first prize winner of PSU Idol 2012 and student coordinator of the International Service Trip, shined on the stage. With a recent diagnosis of a concussion mixed with genuine nervousness, she slightly lost track of her lyrics. Many of her friends and fellow IST members rushed the stage to help her out and finish out the song all together.
All of the voting was done via text after every performance. The audience was given the numbers, and as soon as the songs were done, there were little screens lighting up everywhere in the crowd.
PSU Idol was a great fundraiser for IST. Some really amazing talent was showcased in a setting that obviously took a long time to organize. It was successful due to the hard work done by everyone. It goes to show that whether you’re organizing a trip to build a library in Africa, cheering on a talented friend on stage, or rushing up there when she loses her place-Plymouth is definitely a place where we get by with a little help from our friends.