Time will tell if Dartmouth really does have talent

Does Dart­mouth “got tal­ent?” Will one of our class­mates share the stage with Nick Can­non? We’re about to find out. This week­end many of our own headed to New York City to au­di­tion for "Amer­ica’s Got Tal­ent," NBC’s va­ri­ety show­case se­ries.

"Amer­ica’s Got Tal­ent" con­tracted 99 Rock to hold au­di­tions here on cam­pus for the show’s sev­enth sea­son. The re­al­ity show reached out to the Dart­mouth com­mu­nity and 99 Rock in an at­tempt to “get the word out to young peo­ple” and look for a more di­verse group, said Chris Zhao ’13, pro­gram di­rec­tor of 99 Rock. "Amer­ica’s Got Tal­ent" gave 99 Rock five passes for sched­uled au­di­tions and close to sixty “fast track passes” to dis­trib­ute through­out the com­mu­nity.

Al­though 99 Rock hoped more peo­ple would try out, those who did show­cased some of Dart­mouth and the Upper Val­ley’s finest tal­ent. The au­di­tion event was pro­moted on air and brought all sorts of acts to the Col­lis patio on Tues­day af­ter­noon. Of the per­form­ers, a few par­tic­u­larly stood out to the 99 Rock judges: the dance troupe SHEBA, an Upper Val­ley 18-year old “ma­gi­cian kid” and Gary Le ’15, who has pre­vi­ously au­di­tioned for "Amer­ica’s Got Tal­ent."

Le, a mas­ter of the Chi­nese yo-yo, tried out four years ago while he was in high school and made it past the pre­lim­i­nary round. This time, how­ever, he won’t be wait­ing in line, since 99 Rock gave Le one of the five sched­uled au­di­tions.

We hope every­one put their best foot for­ward at au­di­tions, and will let you know if any­one from Hanover makes it onto the show.