Written by Isabelle Hendrich, Editor-in-Chief
Photos by Eleanor Sanford
DAYTON, TN – “Henry! Henry! Henry!” The crowd cheered as a curly brown haired freshman in a red Bryan tee shirt made his way to the stage. He smiled with pride as he was handed his first place prize. When he exited the stage, he received numerous high fives and fist bumps.
On Feb. 24, 2023 Bryan’s Got Talent showcased twenty acts of various abilities. The event is a parody of America’s Got Talent, which is a tv show where people compete for the grand prize of $1,000,000 by performing their unique gifts. For Bryan’s Got Talent, the judges based the top three winners on talent and crowd participation. The grand prize of $300 went to first place, $200 to second, and $100 went to third place. Grayson Whaely and Jack Smith were the Masters of Ceremonies during the night. Their main responsibility was introducing each act.
Henry Chesebro won first place with his reenactment of “Ellen’s Lion”. Second place went to “The Beard and The Baby Face” for playing “Low” by Flo Rida. Eliana Martin came in third place for playing a sonnetina and Toto’s Africa on the piano while blindfolded. Masen Cheeks, who played Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver came just shy of placing on the podium by acquiring fourth place.
“I thought a lot of the acts were really well done. Eliana’s was especially interesting. It was also cool seeing a different side of campus, seeing everyone get out of their shell a bit more and just set school, the mediocreness of cafeteria food, aside for an evening to goof off and have fun,” Chesebro said.
One of the many notable acts of the night included Marcus Heil, who did a reading of the thoughts inside his head. The act was so compelling that Whaely felt prompted to share the Gospel afterwards.
Madeline Fournier and Andrew Morris performed Something to Believe In from the Broadway performance of Newsies.
“Performing, I think it was just really fun to get up there and do something with a friend. In terms of the whole thing, I think what I liked the most was the atmosphere. I did not expect everyone to be so hyped and have as much fun as they did,” Fournier said.
The last act of the night was performed by Rebecca Duncan, Isaac Mullet and Grace Thompson. Ducan and Mullet sang the Phantom of the Opera, from the show of the same name, while Thompson played the organ.
Isabelle Hendrich is a senior communication major and history minor at Bryan College. Besides running, Hendrich likes to read and do crafts. She is a triplet whose siblings, Benjamin and Savannah, are also attending Bryan College.
