Engineers prove multi-talented at show

Engineering students took the stage Tuesday night to display their skills in the traditional… Engineering students took the stage Tuesday night to display their skills in the traditional E-Week Talent Show, bringing the audience in Pitt’s Engineering Auditorium an eclectic mix of music, dance, magic and comedy.

The show was only one of 20 events included in E-Week. Students representing different departments of the School of Engineering competed in hopes of bringing home a win for their department.

Marlayna Vaaler, who announced the acts of the evening, said that in her five years of attending the show, she has seen some interesting talents.

“One year, a kid did the marble madness game and solved it in 10 minutes,” she said, recalling that the act was “very engineering-like.”

While no one attempted to solve a mind puzzle in public this year, the show did contain some unusual talent.

Vaaler introduced Caleb Abraham, representing the freshman engineers, as a “foot-bag champion.” He encouraged the crowd to make some noise as he did his routine, kicking a Hacky Sack and jumping to a loud, upbeat song.

Next, Evan Wallace, an industrial engineering student, said that he chose to do stand-up comedy because he liked wearing the suit. Wallace joked with the crowd about his desire to be a kid again.

“When you were a kid, you could make a game out of anything,” he said, running back and forth demonstrating his “Who Can Touch the TV First” game.

Representing the mechanical engineers, Tom Morse took the stage holding only a rope, a black sheet and a deck of cards.

“What do you think I am going to do tonight?” Morse asked the audience, who already knew the answer: a magic trick.

Adam Balawejeer, also an engineering student, stepped up as Morse’s audience volunteer. He shuffled the cards, drew one from the deck and placed it in Morse’s shirt pocket.

After about 10 minutes of trying to untie his own hands behind a black sheet that concealed him from the audience, Morse emerged with the black-suited card that had been in his shirt pocket, completing the trick.

“I didn’t really understand the magic trick,” Balawejder said about the routine he had participated in spontaneously.

Students from the electrical and computer engineering departments set up stage during an intermission, preparing for the first appearance of their band, Yinz Guys.

With the help of professor Steven Jacobs on saxophone, Yinz Guys played “Superstition,” by Stevie Wonder. Brian Venus, who sang lead vocals, said Jacobs chose the song because he is a big fan of Stevie Wonder.

Yinz Guys took first place in the talent show, earning a point for their department in the 12-day-long series of events that also includes competitions in poker, Olympic sports and float building.

“It fosters a healthy competition between the departments and allows you to get to know people that you wouldn’t normally see on a day-to-day basis in class,” Vaaler said of E-Week.

As the band cleared its equipment from the stage, Jason Woods, also known as Mr. Benedum, prepared for his turn.

“I was going to do an encore performance of ‘It’s Raining Men,’ but that is something one should only have to go through once,” he joked, referring to the routine that won him E-Week’s Mr. Benedum drag contest.

Dressed in his normal attire — and not the dress he sported last Thursday night — Woods sang “Make Them Hear You,” from the musical “Ragtime.”

Next, Vaaler announced that Keith Turner, from the civil engineering department, would do a dance. He reenacted the popular final dance scene from “Napoleon Dynamite,” sporting a “Vote for Pedro” T-shirt and black moon boots. The music stopped abruptly and, still in character, Turner ran off the stage. Just as in the movie, the crowd clapped and gave him a standing ovation.

“That’s what makes this talent show great — you don’t know what an engineer’s mind is capable of,” Turner said of the evening’s unusual performances.

Steve Melervey, of the mechanical engineers, followed “Napoleon” with a dance of his own. Except Melervey had a partner: a large brown box, which represented the Benedum building.

Melervey did a skit about taking Benedum as a date to his engineering formal, The Shamrock Ball. With a red bikini drawn on the front of the box, Tom Reavey remained hidden underneath as he danced with Melervey to Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” and Def Leopard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me.”

“We rock the dance floor,” Melervey and Reavey said about their act, which included five or six songs performed under makeshift strobe lighting.

“Benedum got dressed up to the nines,” they added.