A report from the taping for those who were asking for one... Kalan-centric again, and unfortunately not as interesting/detailed as last week's. On performance night, I'm afraid my brain kind of shut down the second Kalan finished singing Moon River - I try to be an Objective Journalist Type, but I can't help it; I love that child and the performer in me thinks he is a huge star in the making.
Performance Show:
Nothing too interesting happened on performance night. Gary Beals was in the crowd again, with Toya tagging along. Ben seemed to be having teleprompter problems in the first segment, because he tripped over his lines three times. As he likes to say himself, he is not a smart man. Former MuchMusic VJ Erica Ehm was in the crowd, as were two kids from Degrassi: The New Generation that I would never have recognized if I'd run into them on the street, but I'm sure all my students would.
Everyone sounded quite a bit better live than they did on TV. Jason actually sounded shockingly decent on his first number, but promptly destroyed that by being completely off-pitch in his second. Kalan was, to me, the clear star of the night, despite the fact that the Jacob fans seemed bound and determined to screech Jacob to victory. I swear to God, I've never heard such high-pitched, endless shrieking in my life. Supremely annoying. Anyhow, the thing with Kalan to me was not only vocal, but a stage presence thing - he just looked entirely comfortable and happy on stage on Wednesday night, and radiated presence as a result. It was one of those I own this stage and you will love me moments that turns a performer into a star. It's also the intangible element I feel is missing in the other two members of the Top 3 - Jacob tries way too hard to get it and never quite manages (IMHO), and Theresa is, I would agree with Zack, "just short of wonderful."
When they were running the recap reel at the end of the show, Jacob was trying to dance against Kalan, and Kalan, after trying to move out of the way three times, turned around and punched him. Okay, so it was a playful-ish punch, but I internally cheered and laughed, because the kid just looks so darned uncomfortable every time Jacob tries that stuff with him that I've been secretly hoping he'd get violent for weeks now. I just can't get into the supposed Jacob/Kalan slashiness (even though I was all about the Ryan/Billy last season) because Kalan never seems like he's entirely pleased with any of it. Quite the opposite, a lot of the time.
Kalan then continued his reign of cuteness by super-politely shaking hands with every single member of the orchestra. All twenty of them. The child is just endlessly adorable.
Results Show:
When they were filming the teaser, which was done miraculously in one take (it usually takes at least three), Kalan was grinning ear-to-ear and then, shock of shocks, the child started dancing. Dancing, people! KALAN! So yeah, it wasn't, like, real dancing, it was more a kind of "I'm going to shuffle from side to side and wave my hands around a bit", but OMG! I think the boy is finally coming into his element.
Jason and Theresa clearly knew they were in the Bottom Two - I don't know if you could see this on TV (because my VCR went beserko and didn't tape it, gah!), but Jason actually got up off his stool the second Ben said, "And the first person in tonight's Bottom Two is..." and Theresa got up off hers the second Jacob was declared safe. It was kind of sad, in a way. I thought Jacob's reaction to being safe was, yet again, obnoxious. When Theresa went to centre stage, Kalan turned ghostly white and looked like he was going to keel over. When she did her re-sing, he was cheering and "woo hoo!"ing throughout, and during the commercial break, he went straight up to her and hugged her and would not let her go even after the hug was over. It was hella cute, and it is pretty obvious that these two are close friends. They've had a sibling-esque dynamic for awhile now.
When Theresa went back to the stools, Kalan looked like someone had given him his life back and stopped looking like he was going to faint. He put his arm around her and squeezed her hand and just... supercuteness.
The remaining three contestants seemed a lot less upset over Jason's departure than they had over Shane's, although part of it could've simply been relief that they were still standing. Jacob and Jason hugged about four times, and Kalan and Theresa were hugging every time they got within arm's length distance of each other. Jason grabbed a mic and gave props to some of the CTV staff who take care of them, and his parents and family members came up on stage and genuinely hugged all the remaining contestants, which earns them grace points.