Some of my favorite memories from Semester at Sea weren’t necessarily the time spent in countries, but rather the fun had aboard ship: Sea Olympics, intramurals, Halloween, Neptune Day … and the Semester at Sea talent show. Oh wait, I neglected to tell you that we entered the talent show? But of course we did. The Field and Admin Offices from the Fall 2011 voyage had a particular affinity for being in the spotlight, so we took advantage of having all eyes on the ship on us. Luckily, our work study students were keen on participating, too—safety in numbers, you know, especially when faced with potentially making a fool out of yourself in front of more than 700 people.
Judging by the above photos and title of this post, can you tell what—or rather, who—we were for this given occasion?
Lady Gaga, naturally! Or rather, varying takes on the wacky pop star.
Originally, we were going to do the Christmas routine from Mean Girls, but then figured getting candy cane costumes would just be too difficult. I mean, obviously, finding Lady Gaga clothing in the middle of the Pacific was so much easier…heh.
We only began to splice together our routine and costumes five days before the actual show, a bit of a burdensome task when you’re working with limited time, means and resources out at sea.
Still—and don’t ask how (though it helped that work study student Mikey actually brought dozens of Beanie Babies on board!)—we managed to come up with some rather creative ensembles, using tulle, aluminum foil, and other odds and ends we borrowed from our shipmates.
And because we didn’t want anyone to know what we were doing ahead of time, we had secret choreography sessions and wouldn’t even give the talent show coordinator our routine number, nor would we practice it at the dress rehearsal. “Discreet” was the key word; we wanted everyone to be wowed (which I’m pretty sure they were).
That’s partially because we had a secret weapon…a rapping MeMaw! Paula’s grandmother joined the ship in Japan all the way from Newport Beach and brought her own Gaga wig and sparkles to contribute to the ensemble. Not only that, but she learned the rap to Poker Face down to the count, which instantly made her the most popular MeMaw on the M/V Explorer.
We started the routine with one lone Gaga, Trina, out on stage, and had the emcee Dave announce the number as “The Trina White Experience.” That was so the audience would feel super awkward and uncomfortable when everyone thought Trina was going to do a dance by herself. Then, one by one, we added more Gagas to the stage.
Well, I’ll let you just watch and see what happened from there (paying particular attention to each of the three boys’ entries, my favorite parts of the whole number).
We got to do the routine a second time, too, at Pride Night a few days later, where they let us be the closing act. And now I can’t hear Poker Face when it randomly plays on my iPod without busting out my best sprinkler while running. That’s the nice thing about memories; they come on when you least expect them.
And because I had the following video footage on hand before SVV ran out of memory card space, here are two of the other talent show routines. A modern dance visual feast from my pals Gina, Adam and Rikki:
(Semester at Sea students are incredibly and unfairly multifaceted. Check out the fantastic video Gina put together from our voyage on dancing around the world.)
And a Bieberiffic lip sync from the hysterical Aria:
Doesn’t this just make you want to join the shipboard community more than ever?
Thanks for refreshing our memories about this awesome voyage and next month you’ll be back onboard kicking it up.
17 days! Though no talent shows this time around (I don’t think).
OMG this is awesome! And so perfectly timed, as not even 2 hours ago I bought Gaga tickets for when she plays in Nice this October!! Although thinking about it, I might have been better off buying Talent Show tickets for SAS instead as you guys were amazing!!
Oh we were probably more worth the money, given that the show is FREE (uh, other than that whole pay-to-go-around-the-world fee…). Though I am green with envy!
Lol, in that case I think the round- the- world fee is definitely the way forward-next time for sure! 🙂
It’s 6 months away still but I’m *so* excited for the Gaga show!
Remember to take your beany babies for your next stint at sea!
Haha..seems like you guys had good fun!
Words can’t even convey how amazing this is. One, you all look fantastic. Two, the rapping MeMaw is the best thing ever. Three, are those forks in your hair?!
EPIC.
Haha, no, rather they’re clip-on, rainbow-colored braids and some sort of weird plastic party thingie that we managed to tie around my chin with wrapping ribbon that someone (not sure who) just happened to pack in one of the two suitcases allowed for the four-month voyage! What people packed for such an occasion (mainly, my co-worker Paula) was just baffling (but very handy for both Halloween and the talent show).
Kristin, it takes a lot to get me to watch a video from beginning to end. Amazing!!!!
I jump at any chance to make a fool out of myself, you know.
Hilarious!! I love that you all did this!
I feel like those beanie babies were molested lol! This is awesome.
Why do I have the distinct feeling if you’d been on the ship, you would have been up there with me? And you’ve already got colorful hair, so a wig wouldn’t have even been necessary!
Would have been there with bells on!
Gaga? Oh la la!!! 🙂
My real goal was to put that in your head for the rest of the day. Did it work??
It did indeed. And now I’ve got it in my head again today. Thanks for that. 🙂
Your butterfly glasses are awesome!
Hong Kong Ladies’ Market!
So this is what happens when a bunch of people are stuck on a boat too long 😉
haha this looks like it was a great time!
I am comfortable being a man and admitting that Gaga puts on the best, and most exciting, show of any entertainer working.
And she’s not terrible to look at either!
I love it! All the Gagas!
Loving you with pink hair!
Now why doesn’t that surprise me…I mean, I thought you didn’t like pink! 😉
I had no idea you did a semester at sea. This looks so fun!
Yep! I was on the ship from August through December 2011 as staff, and I’ll be back in eight days =)
Scott and I are considering doing that. Any suggestions?