Unlike previous years, the Cannon Falls High School talent show kicked off homecoming spirit bright and early in the morning. Starting out the show was Elliot Bowman and Nick krager who called themselves Minnesota Nice. This first performance, which helped liven up the morning, included the song All Star. Following their performance was Kaydance Simota and Angel Zheng who sang One Voice by Billy Gilman as a duet. Afterwards Paige Scherz sang Evermore from Beauty and the Beast. Finally Peter Duggan, the middle school band director, made his way to the stage. Partaking in some stand up comedy, he played a combination of I Want It That Way by the Backstreet Boys and Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond on the piano. However, his interpretation included an unusual but creative twist because he also played the kazoo and sang to these well known tunes. Next, Peter Duggan stated that he was going to play the “alphabet like you’ve never heard it before”. While sitting on the ground backwards in front of the piano and blindfolded he certainly accomplished that task. He also beatboxed to Rodgers and Hammerstein and gurgled water to the tune Somewhere Over the Rainbow while playing the piano to finish out his talented performance. Although slightly disgusted by Peter Duggan’s water gurgling talent, Beth Barrett claimed that “his performance was slightly funny and interesting.”

Brian Thorburn and Ian Saudi both had a similar ideas and sang separate Johnny Cash songs. Singing Safe and Sound By Taylor Swift, Emma Shepersky had some of the audience standing on their feet. Another talented student is Kressin Hartl who sang an original song she called Saving Grace. She got a standing ovation from the entire crowd and Paige Miest stated that she liked “that she performed her own song” and also that “the uniqueness in execution was superb”. Written for her best friend Hailey Newinski, the song was very heartfelt. Making another appearance, Nick Krager and Elliot Bowman performed Keeping Clean and It Doesn’t Stick Around. This time, they were accompanied by drummer Ben Fox who has been playing the drums for about one year and we also learned that Nick has been playing the electric guitar for 5 years. Finishing out the show, the “Staff Infection” made their traditional appearance. They performed a mashup of  Folsom Prison Blues and Pinball Wizard featuring Mike Legvold on the bass, Peter Duggan on the piano, Steven Strauss on the drums, and Alexander Jones on the guitar.

Throughout the intermissions, Abby Dombeck, Riley Eddy, and Kelsie Wilcox-Laurel emceed the show and told some Cannon Falls trivia like “Who’s number 3 on the football team?” and “How many people live in Cannon Falls?”. Overall, the show was a success and the performances ran very smoothly. Next year we will hopefully see some familiar and recurring faces as well as some new ones in the talent show because Cannon has definitely got some talent.