TV VIEWERS VOICE

The Viewers Voice Conference that took place in October has a luncheon that is dedicated to the young performers of the entertainment business. Every year it gets bigger and bigger and this year we had to move to another area of the Sportsmen’s Lodge, the Evergreen Gardens to accommodate all the young performers that attended. The event took place in back of The Sportsmen’s Lodge where the ducks and swans reside. It was an excellent area for the kids to let loose and have some fun.

The luncheon had a Halloween feeling with craved pumpkins at the entrance and a big black cauldron pot filled with candy where the kids could fill up a bag of their favorite candies. This became a gathering spot for all with a sweet tooth. The weather cooperated with high sixties and sunny.

The afternoon started out with three young singers and one of our Viewers Voice favorites, Joey Pearson. Joey is 11 years old and was born to sing. He is a straight A student and loves animals. As soon as he started talking he started singing. He publicly sang for the first time when he was eight years old and received a standing ovation. Originally from Georgia, Joey moved with his family to California to pursue a career in music.  

Joey has been on the Jenny Jones Christmas Special, performed at the Del Mar fair in San Diego. He won the Ed McMahon’s Next Big Star Internet contest; the Billyheads Rising Star Award, the Kids Talk Young Achievers Award, and his song ranked #1 out of 3600 young singers on TalentedKids.com for 8 months running and won the honor of having his song included on their Best of TalentedKids compilation CD. Joey now has his own CD out, Something to Say,” written, produced and recorded by his father Tony Pearson.

Joey sang a number of songs at the luncheon and started out with “God Bless the USA”

where he memorized his audience, especially a group of swooning young girls sitting right down in the front row. This young man is headed to stardom, not only because of his talent but he has the charisma to capture the hearts of both the young and the old.

Our next performer Tabatha Aponte is just starting out in the entertainment business and has never had a singing lesson. You’d never know it; she has an excellent voice and performs like a pro. Our luncheon was her first big gig and if she makes it in this tough business Viewers Voice can take a little credit for getting her started.

Our last young performer, Scarlett Powers some of you might recognize if you watch The WB’s comedy series  “Reba” on Friday nights at 8:00 PM, CST. Scarlett Powers plays Reba McEntire’s youngest daughter Kyra. Scarlett finds playing the daughter of a music super star is teaching her more than how to perfect her comedic timing. “Working on “Reba” has been one of the greatest experience’s I’ve ever had!” says Scarlett. “I’d like to pursue a music career too, and my dream is to combine my passion for singing with my love of acting, just like Reba.

Scarlett’s previous acting roles include three years as Namomi Wildman, on “Star Trek: Voyager, and the recurring role of Abigail Leski on CBS’s acclaimed show, “That’s Life.” Named for the “Gone with the Wind” heroine,  Scarlett also played in the Julia Roberts hit movie “Erin Brockovich.

At the luncheon Powers sang her heart out with two back-up dancers and one could see and hear that she was no amateur. She would have made Reba proud. 

After our entertainment Paul Petersen from the old “Donna Reed Show” and one of the original mouseateers, gave his speech to all the young performers and actors on some of the pitfalls of being a child star. He tried to emphasize that being in the entertainment business as child is not a normal situation and there would be many disappointments.

Paul started his speech by saying “First of all for all you little kids some credentials: I was one of the original mousekateers forty seven years ago and it took them seven weeks to fire me because I didn’t know that being a young performer had a lot of professional requirements. I was fired for conduct unbecoming a mouse. I did not understand the discipline, more importantly my family did not understand the discipline and the requirements. So I made a mess of things at the beginning, but in my family when you lose a job your main task is to get another job because by the time I was discharge from the Mousekateers I had an agent. I started to go out on interviews right away, I started to get little parts then bigger parts and pretty soon they were really great parts; big movies and major national commercials. Then one day I got a job that changed everything in my life, I was twelve years old and I got a series called “The Donna Reed Show,” this was in 1958. That job, you know how actors are you’re so excited if you’re up for a series you think oh I’ll  do a pilot, but you don’t think much beyond that. Then you get an air date and you think oh great maybe this series will run a year, in our case we ran for eight years and there where a lot of consequences with to that kind of success. A lot of things can be sacrificed if you don’t pay attention. Education is first and foremost. In this stage in my life I look back and the risks I took with my education were not always addressed by the structure that surrounded me. Thank goodness I had a person like Donna Reed. Donna Reed cared more about my education than my performance and if you’re lucky when you work as a kid and you have an adult co-star that cares about things like that, things go pretty smoothly. But let me tell you there’s a difference between Donna Reed and Rosanne Barr.”

This is just a small portion of what Paul had to say to the parents of young actors and performers and the rest of his talk brought home some very important points to these kids and parents. Now all they have to do is listen to this man who went through it all as a child actor and managed to survive. Watch Paul’s whole speech on The Viewers Voice TV Show, Mondays at 6:00 PM on West Allis Cable’s Channel 14.

Paul apologized for having to leave right after his talk because he was just voted on the board of the Screen Actors Guild and had an important meeting he left to join us.

In my next column I’ll talk about a few of the awards we presented at the luncheon. One award went to Tyler Hoechlin, the fifteen year old who played Tom Hanks son in “Road to Perdition. Until then let your voice be heard.