BBC, Where Have You Gone?

The traditional Benjamin talent show, which takes place quarterly, has yet to happen this year.

Current+eighth+grader+Jenny+Maciejko+performs+Girl+on+Fire+by+Alicia+Keys+during+last+years+quarter+one+BBC.

Mr. Crisafi

Current eighth grader Jenny Maciejko performs “Girl on Fire” by Alicia Keys during last year’s quarter one BBC.

Usually, The Middle School holds BBC, the School’s term for a talent show, at the end of each quarter in the quad. However, there has not been a BBC yet this year. According to English Department Chair and BBC coordinator Mrs. Kathleen Devine, there was due to a few reasons: a week of school was lost because of Hurricane Irma, so the teachers and students were especially busy trying to make up their curriculum and work, respectively, in the first quarter. Also, only three people were signed up for acts in the first and second quarter combined, making a successful BBC an impossibility.

Some students, though, have their own opinions. “I think that people are too scared to perform in front of their peers, and that’s why we haven’t had BBC,” said eighth grader Martin Cvetas.

Mr. Crisafi
Current seventh graders Kate Grande (handstand) and Jessica Holland perform a gymnastics routine on Kennerly Field during last year’s quarter one BBC.

Although last semester was a let down to BBC fans, the Middle School does have plans for two BBCs before the end of the year. “We are having a BBC before Field Day [to end the third quarter] and before yearbook autographing [to end the year.],” said Devine.

Eighth graders Camilo Saiz and Jacob Steinger have volunteered to be the emcees. “I really like BBC and enjoy how it is set up, how Mrs. Devine and the maintenance team puts the stage together,” said Steinger. “I am excited to perform as the emcee this year because I like performing for an audience and making myself known as an emcee.”

So what is the BBC? The BBC stands for the Benjamin Breakfast Club because back when TBS had less students, the School served breakfast for them while the talent show took place. Now that there are more than two hundred students attending the Middle School, it is not feasible to feed that many people in a short period of time. Usually during each BBC, a couple of eighth graders act as the emcees, telling jokes and introducing the acts. The past few years have also featured strong performances, some of the most memorable of which were Dean Silvers ’20 memorizing the whole periodic table of elements, his hijacking of current eighth grader Emeline Smith’s rendition of “X’s and O’s” by Elle King, The Sparklers – the middle school dance team – performing on the football field, and the eighth graders’ doughnut-eating contest.

Many of the students enjoy the performances because, according to eighth grader Ben Taylor, “you just see people you see everyday outside of their normal element.”

“I like how it gives everyone a chance to show or perform something that many people might not know about them,” added eighth-grade student council member Emeline Smith. “I think it would be cool if we had it more often. It is a really fun event that I feel brings the Middle School together.”

One of Smith’s major platforms in running for student council president at the beginning of the year was to make the BBC even more of a signature event and hold it in the Barker Performing Arts Center.

While the plan is to still hold BBC in the quad, there are already a few acts on the docket for the first one of the year which will be at the end of the third quarter. Eighth graders Ryan Casey, Jack Horgen, Matt Roundtree, Camilo Saiz, and Jacob Steinger will be singing Taylor Swift’s “Love Story.”

“Basically, for the TBS varsity lacrosse team, I had to sing a song picked by a senior player in front of the whole team,” said Horgen. “They do this to anyone who’s new to varsity, and the song I was given was ‘Love Story.’ Ryan [Casey] said as a joke that we should sing it at BBC, so now we’re going to.”

That number alone may make up for the fact that there hasn’t yet been a BBC this year. It will be fun for all of the middle school students to celebrate the end of the quarter and the beginning of spring break with the traditional talent show, even if it is seven months in the making.