Pals Club members show off their talents

MOSES LAKE - Students in the Pals Club (life skills) class at Moses Lake High School showed off what they could do in the third annual Life Skills Talent Show Thursday.

The students sang, danced, did skits and told jokes to packed houses three times during the day, 13 different acts in all. The students decide what they're going to do, said teacher Tanya Piturachsatit, and work on their performance for about three months.

The Pals Club talent show grew out of the cancellation of the all-school talent show three years ago, Piturachsatit said. Chris Schmidt is in the Pals Club and was one of the performers.

Chris does well at music; he just knows how to play. Dan Beich, MLHS band director, explained Chris knows music like most people know color. Just like most people know the difference between light green and dark green, Chris knows the difference between C-flat and C-sharp, Beich said. He's put that knowledge to work, and he was planning to play his guitar in the school talent show until it was canceled.

"I didn't know what to tell him," teacher Jill Allyn said. So the Pals Club decided to put on their own show, Piturachsatit said. They pulled it together in two weeks with the help of theater manager D. Jay Kendall, Piturachsatit said. "We just kind of winged it," she said.

"The word got out after that first year," she said, and from there "it has just gotten bigger and bigger."

There were two numbers with the whole Pals Club, songs and dances, skits, and two comedians, Chazz Johnson and Brandon Torres. Chazz loves jokes. "Me and Brandon T., we tell jokes to everybody," he said.

Brandon is a "self-proclaimed comedian," Allyn said. "He's a silly kid. He really thrives on jokes," she said. Brandon and Chazz practiced their routine, but somehow or other the script was dropped and they were forced to improvise. "Most of those jokes were unrehearsed," Allyn said.

Heather Simpson had devised her own song for the show, but decided to help a couple of her friends, who asked her to join them. "It was enjoyable, being with the kids," she said. She liked "being with all my friends and having a good time with the kids," she said.

"I had fun with my whole family cheering for me," Jesus Pimentel said. Jesus was in the "Bad Boys" skit, one of the police officers, in fact. "I took people to jail," he said. He was a little bit scared, he said, at least for the first show, but it didn't last.

Fabian Ruiz was the mailman in Mr. Postman, and that was great because he'd like to be a mailman, he said. He got to chase the girls and put them in jail, he said, and that was fun. Juan Ruiz had a solo, using sign language for his song. He said it didn't take that long to learn his part, and he felt "happy, good," when the crowd applauded.

Heather Liggett wore a pretty dress and sang a song. "I made everybody cry," she said. She loved the music from the animated movie "Frozen" and chose that as her song, complete with a castle in the background. She was joined by Heather Simpson and Misti Gonzalez.

"It was fun to be the star of the talent show," Misti said. Her mom and dad, her aunt and grandma were all there. "My whole family was screaming and clapping for me."

Dylan Cheney was one of the cops chasing those "Bad Boys." It was hard work, learning that song, Dylan said. "Practice and practice," he said. The best part was "running and chasing the people, taking them to the pretend jail," he said. It was fun to perform for his family, he said. "I know my mom and my dad were there, because they were yelling my name."

Brandon Blankenship sang two songs and was in both the group numbers. He could've done more, he said. "To me, it (the practice) was easy," he said. "I'm just a superstar, that's all."

Emilio Garcia sang a ballad for one of the girls in the Pals Club (whose name couldn't be used), and gave her a flower. It was pretty cool to be out there on stage, he said, and not scary at all. "He kept saying, 'This is fun. This is fun,'" Allyn said. "I was beautiful," the girl said, and her family was there, and happy to watch her on stage.

Taylor Moberg was happy that her family was there. She liked being on stage, and liked hanging out with her friends. The audience was clapping for them, she said, and it was a lot of fun.

Robert Cortez thought it was fun to be up in front of the whole school, singing and dancing. It took a while to learn the songs, but it wasn't hard, he said.

The talent show means a lot to the Pals Club. "They're already planning for next year," Piturachsatit said.