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:
“Desponding Phyllis was endu’d
With ev’ry Talent of a Prude,
She trembled when a Man drew near;
Salute her, and she turn’d her Ear:
If o’er against her you were plac’d
She durst not look above your Waist;”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio. A slight acquaintance with numbers will show the immensity of the first power in comparison of the second.”
—Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834)