Talent Night Memories

The women’s month organizers came to me last month to seek for my assistance so that I could also contribute some inputs to make their events a little bit better. I have been tapped to document their cooking showdown, magna carta for women symposium, and my favourite of all – the beauty pageant for plus size women dubbed as the “Binibining Bigatin 2016” (Miss Heavyweight 2016).

The Candidates, The Judges, & The Organizers

I opted to call the pre-pageant as the Talent Night because that’s what comprises the entirety of the activity. On March 16, the lovely lady-candidates showcased their oozing guts during the talent portion, which was held at the second floor hallway of SM Hypermarket – Valenzuela.

On the program I drafted, the department head of the organizers was supposed to deliver the welcome remarks. Unfortunately, the esteemed officer was unable to attend due to some other pressing concerns. So as a band aid solution, yours truly was compelled to do the opening remarks. It was an exhilarating experience because it’s my first time to deliver a short inspirational speech in front of the public. Good thing making an impromptu speech is my league since I was a speech major and I’m a college instructor.

I started off my speech by discussing the women’s month celebration. I briefly underrated the commercialized notion of beauty which promotes the idea that “beautiful” women should be skinny and sexy. Having gone through episodes of being fat, of course I can relate with how our candidates feel whenever judgmental people give their insulting, mindless, and unsolicited remarks. So I ended my spiel by saying in Tagalog that real beauty is not measured by the size of the body, but rather, overall personality and set of good values.

I enjoyed the part when the candidates introduced themselves with funny pick up lines. One mentioned that it’s better to love a fat woman because you’ll have a girlfriend, a pillow and a bed, all in one! Haha! That was spoken with matching sexy gestures. Hilarious. I nearly decided to make her the Miss Talent because her inhibition-free presentation was a little vulgar sexy dance which wowed the crowd. Something in my mind told me that no matter how entertaining her dance number was, it might still upset some moralists so I opted to mark her down and choose somebody else with real skills. The one who did bar tending exhibition won the Miss Talent award.

By the way, I’m not the sole judge; I’m just one of the three.

Judges: I, Mr. OLFU & Miss GTDL

                Another highlight of the pre-pageant was the participation of my Philippine Literature students who did filler-intermission numbers throughout the Talent Night to ensure minimized dead air. The move was like hitting two birds in one stone. One, the students gained fun experience and exposure. Two, the organizers saved money because despite the fact that my students are not professional performers, they were still able to perform well. It’s a win-win scenario.