FHC’s Got Talent Q&As: Iman Hammad
Grade: 11
Performance: Stand-up comedy
Give an elevator pitch for your performance:
“Hopefully, I can make people laugh. I feel like people who smile [show] the best of themselves. The best feature of someone is their smile, and I really like and enjoy making people laugh, so hopefully, I can entertain them and allow people to have a good night with a good smile.”
What specific qualities make your performance intriguing?
“I feel it’s being different from the crowd. You have different stories to tell than others; being an Arab comedian is different than being a comedian who happens to be Arab. So it’s very interesting [and] it’s really rare you find jokes about your culture and how you like to have fun in yourself.”
How does your performance reflect you as a person/group?
“I feel like it’s gonna affect me, how I present myself to people, how I want people to know me, [and] how people view me as an entertainer on the stage too. So I think it depends on if you’re [a] really laughable person, you laugh a lot, but if you’re a really serious person, you’ll be this girl’s at her mind.”
Does stage fright impact you at all?
“It does a lot because I have a nervous laughter, so I have to cut that out every time, so I can’t laugh during my own performance. That’s not my job, and also I say ‘like’ a lot, so it’s hard for me to stop those words when I’m so used to [them].”
Why did you choose to try out for the talent show?
“Well, I really wanted to try out something new. It’s my junior year, and I barely got to experience my freshman year, so I want to try everything during my last two years, as well as it’s [Theatre director Robbin] Demeter’s last year, so I want to [let het] leave with a bang.”
How long have you been preparing for this?
“I’ve been preparing for it ever since the audition, so I’ve been thinking of ways to transition between each joke and how each joke might be funny in its own way and all of that.
If you could have one pet, any pet, what would it be?
“I really want a parrot from Africa, the type that talks back and has beautiful gray feathers.”
Ivana Webb
1. What was your reaction to finding out?
“I was happy cause I’m excited to do the dance with all my friends, and I’ve been saying that, throughout the four years, I’ve always wanted to do [the dance] and I think it will be fun. [It’s the] last year, [and] I’ve come full circle and do everything with my friends. I think it’ll be cute.”
2. What does it mean to you to be nominated?
“I’m just really happy. It was nice that everyone took [the] time to vote for me.”
3. What is your favorite Winterfest tradition and why?
“I like seeing all the different dances [at the assembly]. For football, everything gets super spread out and I feel like you can’t really see everything. But then for Winterfest, when you walk out on the court, everything’s so compact. I feel like everyone has a better experience with it, and everyone’s more intimate. I kind of like that.”
4. If your dance was on Dancing with the Stars, how do you think you would fare?
“I don’t know. We haven’t really practiced very much, so I don’t know if the show would be very put together. But if it was voted on for being funny, maybe [we would win]. But not for being good.”
5. What color do you identify with and why?
“What color’s like really soft? Like a light color because I’m very quiet. I’m not like a bold color.”
6. Can you make any campaign promises or tell why you would be the queenliest queen?
“Hour delay every day.”
7. Is there anyone who wasn’t nominated that you want to recognize for their greatness?
“I feel like there is but, I mean, there’s so many good people that got nominated for Homecoming.”
8. Do you have any closing statements?
“[I’d like to thank] everyone who voted for me; it made me really happy.”