What is talent?

Considering that my career is based around songwriters, concerts, and talent management, it’s funny that I can remember first learning what a show was and what talent meant.

It was the early 80s and some kids I knew were passing by my house. They looked considerably more glammed-up than normal. The hair gel and big-brother’s-pass-me-downs factor was sky high. They told me they’d just been up at the talent show in the Ballybrack Workman’s Club.

‘I got 50p for dancing The Bop,’ a skinny boy in drainpipe jeans told me.

I certainly knew what a dance was and I knew that people liked to do it together in the same room. But I couldn’t understand how someone would get money for doing one. They told me how kids would show their talent on the stage and the auld-lads and auld-ones would give prizes. Show business had arrived into my life.

‘The auld lads love The Bop,’ the skinny boy said. When I asked, ‘What’s The Bop?’ he did a dance that involved lifting the heels of his feet with his toes still on the ground. It was pretty cool looking and it conjured up music that wasn’t playing. With the benefit of YouTube I can look back and see that this kid’s moves were pretty accurate.

Back in the house, between cups of tea and Benson & Hedges cigarette smoke, my auntie told me that a talent is a gift some people have inside them…