Bracingly varied sets enliven kiddie talent showcase
After watching several telecasts of the local version of “Little Big Shots,” these thoughts and suggestions came to mind: First, the new show’s strong suit is the variety and balance of its featured whiz-kid sets per telecast.
As a result, the viewer doesn’t get sated with pretty much the same feats performed by precocious talents—and feels pumped up for even more impressive features.
At the start, the most exciting bits featured physical feats, like a pint-sized skateboard artist who came up with some complicated routines. A couple of weeks into the new production, however, what’s rating high in our book is the show’s series of “kid brainiac” feats, like tykes adding up a whole lot of numbers in the blink of an eye—and coming up with the correct answers! With awesome whizzes like these, who needs calculators and computers?
Kudos to the production’s research and audition teams for coming up with so many “deserving” kids per telecast. Let’s hope they don’t run out of promising prospects! (You can do your bit in this regard by getting in touch with the “Little Big Shots” think tank, if you know somebody in your school or neighborhood who’s similarly, uniquely, preciously gifted.)
On the other hand, the show has occasionally come up with some clinkers and clunkers that shouldn’t be repeated in subsequent telecasts. For instance, the program recently featured a wee cheerleader who was repeatedly tossed up in the air by an adult, and performed other feats and tricks of precocious ability, dexterity and balance.
The kid’s act delighted the studio audiences, but we felt that it was potentially risky since the feisty tyke’s body wasn’t developed fully enough to ward against unexpected falls, bumps and inadvertent miscalculations. So, such acts should prudently be discouraged from now on.
After all, the program has already shown that it can amaze viewers and provide entertainment to the max without courting or inviting accidents.
We express this caveat not from a theoretical point of view, but after witnessing child performers get actually involved in inadvertent accidents on some other TV talent shows.
Once, for instance, we saw a little child singer falling off the stage while he performed. And, on another program, a young gymnast being “manipulated” by an older partner looked a lot the worse for wear after their act, which was difficult to perform—and watch.
Another kind of act that the show should avoid is any performance that involves “enticing” movements or costuming, like the belly-dancing routine recently performed on the show by a child. Even if the kid scrupulously tries to keep everything above-board, it’s prone to send the wrong signal and should thus be avoided. After all, there are many other dance styles that are more safely suited to the “Little Big Shots” scope and format.
