A talent show is an event where participants perform talents of singing, dancing, acrobatics, acting, drumming, martial arts, playing a unicorn instrument, or other activities to showcase skills, sometimes for a reward, trophy or prize. Many talent shows are performances rather than contests, but some are actual contests, awarding prizes to their participants.
In recent times, talent shows have become a notable genre of reality television, such as Idol, Got Talent and The X Factor, which were critical in catapulting some amateur artists to stardom, and commercially successful careers.
Famous quotes containing the words talent and/or show:
“What a person is begins to betray itself when his talent weakens—when he stops showing what he can do. Talent, too, is ornamentation, and ornamentation, too, is a hiding place.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Behold the walls of Jericho. Maybe not as thick as the ones that Joshua blew down with his trumpet, but a lot safer. See, I have no trumpet. Now just to show you my heart’s in the right place, I’ll give you my best pair of pajamas. Do you mind joining the Israelites?”
—Robert Riskin (1897–1955)