byNicholas Frank
Season 19 of popular television show “America’s Got Talent” may have just wrapped, but Senior Centers in San Antonio had their own season finale to celebrate.
On Friday morning at Southside Lions Senior Center, more than 200 members, volunteers and judges gathered for the final round of a monthlong competition dubbed Senior Centers Got Talent.
The City of San Antonio Department of Human Services (DHS) followed last year’s Olympics-themed competition among members of its 11 senior centers with a talent contest, encouraging San Antonians 60 years of age and above to show off their musical, dance and comedic skills.
Worth a fortune
Roland Martinez, DHS public relations manager, said starting Sept. 4 in celebration of National Senior Center Month, each center held its own competition, selecting three winners to send to the Sept. 20 semifinals at Walker Ranch Senior Center. From there, 13 finalists were selected by DHS staff judges to send to Friday’s finals.
The Southside Lions events room was packed with an eager audience seated around 17 festively decorated tables, with chairs lining the side and back walls and staff setting more chairs along the window wall just outside the room to accommodate an influx of onlookers.
Hosts Phillip Banks and Catherine Garcia began the show at 9:30 a.m., warming up the crowd by calling out each senior center’s name to loud cheers. Contestant Jim Patterson of Walker Ranch then took the stage, guitar in hand and harmonica poised around his neck, joking that his bluesy song was written to see how many words he could rhyme with “hey.”
Remedios Holder of Doris Griffin Senior Center next took the stage, admitting to the crowd that, “of course I’m nervous,” but that she prayed so she could do well. Holder launched into an elaborate comedy routine about a gerontology study that found, “old people are worth a fortune.” They have silver in their hair, gold in their teeth, stones in their kidneys, lead in their feet and gas in their stomachs, she joked, receiving boisterous laughter.
Making people happy
The crowd was treated to freshly baked conchas, fresh fruit, soda and lemonade, and made frequent use of noisemakers set on each table by volunteers helping with the festivities.
After a brief intermission following the first four performers, percussionist and Northeast Senior Center member Milton Wilson took the stage with two large hand drums and a set of marimbas. Wilson had Banks announce his song as an homage to humankind arising long ago in Africa’s Serengeti Plains.
While Walker Ranch Senior Center member Eric Gustafson sang a gently humorous folk tune about a failed relationship, saxophonist BJ Yang practiced in the green room adjacent to the events room. Yang said she’d picked up the saxophone four years earlier to take lessons. “I love to make people happy. I’m not really good, but I will try my best,” she said before performing during the second intermission.
Eighty-five year-old District 2 resident Norma Crawford, cane in hand, was helped to the stage by DHS Social Services Manager Victor Obevoen. She traded her cane for the microphone stand and praised the crowd. “Well you all look just like a bed of roses,” she said before entrancing the crowd with her full-throated rendition of a B.B. King blues song, “Don’t Answer The Door,” earning sustained applause.
Jazzy charisma wins
Other contestants kept the room entertained with comedy and song, including Griffin Senior Center member Nick Treviño’s “Que Manera de Perder” by Cuco Sánchez, which won appreciation before Northeast member Terri Okie wowed the crowd with her distinctly San Antonio version of Frank Sinatra’s famous “New York, New York.”
Judges Marcos Carmona, Natalie Zertuche and Manuel Garcia, all DHS staffers, gathered their score sheets and decamped to a private room to deliberate.
Before the competition, Zertuche said she’d be looking for charisma, a performer “who looks like they’re having an absolutely good time, because I think that inspires the audience.”
In the judges room as votes were tallied, she declared, “This was the best time ever!” The judges’ tally proved close, with only two points separating first and third place.
The top seven and top five contestants each received certificates marking their accomplishments, while the top three received trophies and “bragging rights” for next year’s contest, as Obevoen said.
Wilson took third place, Treviño took second, and Crawford took top honors and the first place trophy.
“That jazzy woman should have been in a club,” Zertuche said. “She was just rocking it in red, she had personality.”
Martinez summed up the day’s festive contest by saying, “That’s what these [senior] centers are all about, is to bring out that energy and all that they’ve accomplished, to showcase it here.” He hinted that at age 61, he’s eligible to become a senior center member and just might join next year’s event.
This article has been updated to correct the term for the senior centers’ clientele. They are members.
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Nicholas Frank
Senior Reporter Nicholas Frank moved from Milwaukee to San Antonio following a 2017 Artpace residency. Prior to that he taught college fine arts, curated a university contemporary art program, toured with...More by Nicholas Frank