Alaska's Got Talent...Ninilchik Style

(You can thank Willie for any motion sickness you might experience from watching the above film)

On the day of the Alaska's Got Talent competition at The Ninilchik Fair, I said to Falcom, "Hey, you know we talked about this...do you still want to do it?"  When he casually said "Yea,"  I opened the computer to find out what day the competition was, and oops...  wouldn't you know the competition was in three hours. 

"Yea, I still want to do it.  I'll sing something like...Maybe This Time...  can you get the music from I-Tunes?  I'll get dressed." 

We scurried.  He belted it out a couple times and off we went.  Mema joined us.  I took Willie out of work at McDonald's early.  The sun was shining. 

My friend, whose name I won't mention here but who is a singer, told me that at this competition, there was no way Fal could win.  Not because of his talent, but because this is the Ninilchik Fair.  "For God's Sake!"  he said, "We are talking about a Rodeo Fair at Ninilchik!  Tell me, he is going to perform in cameo?  A country western song?  Fal?  He should sing whatever he wants because... this is Falcom we are talking about.  Maybe if he looked more like Justin Beiber or was singing at a fund raiser for the TeaParty..."

Sure enough, the competition was littered with cowboys and young women singing heartbreak songs.  One of the talented dance troops from Soldotna was dressed in Cameo.  One man recited Robert Frost from memory.  There was a young woman who sang a piece from Wicked.  "Oh Mema!  I know this one and I love it."  Falcom began to sing along and was out singing the girl.  Mema had to hush him.  One dancing group had a very hip hip/hop song and Willie and I turned to each other at the same time because we both heard the profane lyrics at the same time.

Falcom tried to change the pronouns in his song so that the crowd at the fair would not have that "gender confusion" that people often get when they see a boy sing a girl song or a girl sing a boy song.  He wore pants and a t-shirt.

When he was done the entire crowd was blown away.  This is something I find wondrous and it may be my favorite part of being his stage mom.  People can not believe the voice to come out of this kid!  Listening to their comments and seeing their expressions is wonderful.  A photographer came to me to ask me what my daughters name was.  Before I could be gender ambiguous and break it gently that Falcom is a boy, a friend ran up to us shouting, "Oh My God!  He was great!"  The look on the photographers face was so confused and priceless.  All over a couple of pronouns.

After an extended wait and a pig race (which is not nearly as exciting as one might think) we learned that Falcom came in third place behind a dance troop and a young woman singing Etta James.  She was really good and will be performing at the State Fair competition in Palmer next week.  The judges made a special point to let us know that they felt Falcom was out of this world and that they will be very interested to see what he does in the years to come.  They felt he was a little young for all that big competition stuff. 

I was secretly relieved.  Performing this way has so much to do with molding yourself to the wants and desires of others: be that a row of judges or an audience.  I know that Falcom has his own destiny, but I want him to know who is is inside before he gets caught up in the world of performing.  A year or two out of the state fair is fine with me!