RAT Q&A: Ali Azeem

Name: Ali Azeem

Grade: 12

1. What is your act? 

“Pitch Imperfect. Basically, it’s a bunch of senior guys. We get up on stage and sing a cappella. I don’t want to spoil it, but it’s basically what you’d expect from a bunch of kids who don’t sing professionally. “

2. How did you prepare?

“We printed out the lyrics to our music and just sent it. Very little preparation. Everything clicked from the beginning, so there was little to perfect.”

3. What made you audition with your act? 

“Basically, Grant Cardin said something like, “Hey you know what would be sick? If a bunch of senior guys got together for RAT and sang extremely well.” Half of that happened.”

4. How do you feel about cilantro?

“Cilantro is a stuck-up punk who stole my wife back in ‘13. I hate it. I’d really prefer not to discuss it.”

5. Money, power, or good looks: which would you rather have an unlimited supply of and why?

“I’d go with power so I could destroy Cilantro once and for all.”

6. Are you friends with the stage?

“For sure! It’s always made me nervous—I get very jumpy inside about musical and improv, but I keep coming back. Once you catch the bug, it’s impossible to shake. I’m excited to add this experience to the small group of shows I’ve already done.”

7. Tell us the moment you were selected for RAT.

“Believe it or not, we told Ms. Demeester what our act would be, and she immediately loved the idea and basically said we were in. We had a brief moment where we thought it all fell apart, but it came back together and now, we’re well in business.”