Cypress High School ASB hosted Cypress Got Talent on December 7, 2022, to give Cypress students and faculty a chance to showcase their diverse talents.

The talent show had been in planning since September. Senior and ASB Assemblies Commissioner Kailani Amuro helped coordinate the talent show, along with ASB Service Commissioner Madeline Mejia. Amuro said that her favorite part of planning the show was the audition process. She mentioned how she was excited to see everyone perform and express themselves. As exciting as the auditions were, it was also challenging for the two to choose the final contestants. “We had about 22 people try out but we had to narrow it down to 14. All in all, I’m glad we picked who we picked, but I also wish we were able to include everyone,” said Amuro. 

Nicole Thach, 10th grader and People’s Choice Award winner of the talent show, performed a comedy act and has been writing comedy since she was young. “I like doing comedy because I noticed that growing up, during class presentations, I would subconsciously do stand-up. My coping mechanism was to make jokes when I got nervous,” said Thach. Thach described the writing process for her comedy act, “it’s almost like an essay outline of writing jokes, and sometimes I just think of them and take notes.” Thach added that one part she was most excited about for the talent show was watching her talented peers perform, as well as performing, herself. 

Emily Galvan, a saxophone-playing 9th grader, said she was excited to see the other participants’ routines and also see everyone’s hard work pay off. This was her first talent show.  Incredibly, she has only been playing the saxophone since last year, but has experience in band since 4th grade. Galan signed up on a whim, but eventually got accepted into the show. She said, “My friends were going to sign up so I thought, ‘Why not?’” On the other hand, 9th grader Parsmi Rajput has had experiences with t alent shows and even carnival events in the past. Rajput did a Bollywood and hip-hop dance routine for the performance. She stated that she has always enjoyed dancing and has done so since she was young. When asked what inspired her to participate in the show, she answered, “I thought, ‘it’s the first talent show after a long time and it’s just my first year here, too. It would just be fun to participate in one of the school performances.’”

English teacher Kristy Takacs had never participated in a talent show before Cypress Got Talent, but she had participated in other school performances such as Cypress’ Dancing with the Stars. In her performance, Takacs sang a song Broadway-style from a musical called Once Upon A Mattress. Takacs mentioned that she has been singing for a long time, “I’ve been singing ever since I can remember. I even took guitar lessons when I was in fifth grade.” She also stated that because she sings all the time, preparing for the show did not take long. She stated that she decided to participate in the show because she “wanted to support Cypress and Cypress ASB.” ASL teacher Tanya Winterton had also never participated in a talent show before. Winterton also chose to sing a song, Ironic by Alanis Morissette, but signed it as she sang in her performance. She chose to sing in the performance because she said she loves karaoke.  Winterton’s main inspiration to participate in this performance was because she wanted to support Cypress ASB.  Other staff appearances included the staff winner Mrs. Seana Brief, as well as Mrs. Fenton, Ms. Mauldin, and Mr. Pfeiffer as judges.

The talent show was an entertaining and energetic event. All the performers brought their own unique talents to the stage, and their performances did not disappoint.