Artists, magicians and storytellers reveal their crafts to fellow peers
Seven Palms Amphitheatre was full of talent on Friday night. Audience members filed in to take seats among a plethora of blankets on the damp grass. Although some were nervous to perform under the starry sky of the “Spring Open Mic Night”, friends and classmates cheered them on.
The event, which was hosted by the Office of Communiversity, is an annual talent show where members of the APU community are asked to perform something they are passionate about. Ruben Jay, the host of the event and master of ceremonies, said events like Open Mic Night are important because they give students the chance to build their confidence and skill set.
Freshman acting major Jasmine Hughes was among the eight performers of the night. She sang and played guitar, covering “Daytime” by Lunar Vacation.
“I have a love-hate relationship [with performing],” Hughes said. “There is a really hard aspect to performing because … there’s a lot of pressure and you feel, like, you’re going to die when you’re up there. But for some reason, it’s a worse feeling if you don’t make yourself do it. So you can be like, ‘I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to sign up for this, this is way too scary,’ especially as a solo artist … But at the end of the day, I would be more upset with myself if I didn’t try.”
Hughes was among many student artists at the event who plan to practice music professionally and have already performed elsewhere in the Azusa area.
Most performers were musicians, such as Chris Honda, a senior music major, who covered “Tennessee Whiskey” by Chris Stapleton alongside bandmates. Other performers included Autumn North, a senior social work major, who performed two original songs with two of her friends. North said both songs were personal to her, one of which was about the unhealthy patterns people fall into in life.
Not all performers were singers and instrumentalists. Some students performed stand-up comedy while others told short stories and even conducted magic tricks. One student’s trick involved swallowing a sewing pin and having a student “fish it out” with a string. A comic, introduced simply as Jeremy, told several jokes in a casual manner.
“Christmas break was good for me, personally,” Jeremy said. “I was very productive. I got a lot done. I finished a book, even. Yeah, it was roughly 500 pages. Let me tell you man, it was so hard. Like after a while my hand just started cramping up because there was so much coloring … I would have finished sooner but my mom took away my crayons.”
The show had a few technical difficulties, such as when the background music disappeared right before Sarah Stewart, a junior criminal justice major, took the stage. Stewart sang “Fallen Angel” by Three Days Grace, and when she began experiencing technical difficulties. Instead of giving up, she picked up the microphone and told the crowd, “Yeah, sorry about that. No background music today.” Then, after applause from the audience, she began to sing acapella.
Honda, who had been the first to perform that night, was proud of Stewart.
“You could see she was nervous, especially when her music didn’t work,” Honda said. “But … she had the courage to do that and to not turn around and give up.”
As the night drew on, students proceeded to roast marshmallows over a controlled fire.
They also sang along with their peers and danced as Autumn North and a performer named Janelle sang the night to a close with an acoustic version of “Honey” by Kehlani, which transformed into a cover of “Valerie” by Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse.
“I think [the event] went really well,” said Leylani Orozco, a graduate assistant for Communiversity. “Putting on a free event is what we really like to do for students, and just to have entertainment on a Friday night is always fun.”