Hokies in the Hot Seat - Episode 1

Hi, I'm Dean. Hi, I'm Nicole. and I'm ready for the Hokie Hot Seat! So where are you from? Tell me a little bit about yourself. I'm from Williamsburg, Virginia. You know, where everybody goes in their elementary school field trip to see Colonial, Williamsburg. And I've been here in Blacksburg for two years now, so I almost kind of consider this place my home. So, why did you choose Virginia Tech? I only applied to two colleges. One was JMU and one was Virginia Tech. My brother went here. My older brother who's two years older than me, he'd been here for two years. I said, "Well, that's a good enough reason to join Tech." So I'm going to teach you how to do the Hokie Pokey. The same one we do. [Jolly music playing] The MV's and all the tubas are at the front and they're during their solo, their solely. All us MV's do the same thing we do with our instruments. -- Okay. I'm going to show you how to do it. -- Okay. I'm going to walk you through it. Okay? -- Okay, sounds good. So, this is my instrument, the baritone. It's the heaviest handheld instrument. The tubas, they wrap around their bodies. We hold ours like this. When we do the Hokie Pokey, we are like this. And we bring our hands up. We put our foot out and we go "Wooo!" So we go 1, 2, 3, 4 out 2, 3, 4. In 2, 3, 4, kick, kick, kick, kick. Right, left, right, left, left, right, left, right, left, right plant. And then we play again. -- Okay. Does that makes sense? -- Yes. You want me run through it one more time? -- Maybe I'll do it with you. Instrument is going to be in your right hand. [Nicole] Instrument is going to be in my right hand? --Uh huh. [Nicole] I have to hold it like that. [Nicole] You just don't hold it a certain way? You just hold it like that. -- Oh. And you just have a good grip on it. [Dean] Just have a really good grip on it. -- So it's always in the right hand? [Dean] Yeah. [Dean] For the Hokie Pokey. So yeah, and you have to do the "Wooo." -- I liked the grip on the left hand. The right hand though [Laughter] is the way to go because everybody... So that's the thing with the baritone. Everybody else's instrument is light enough. They can hold it in their right hand, they're fine. But us baritones, we suffer. -- Okay. We just hold it in our right hand, and we just suffer. -- Alright, I can suffer. Bah-bah, bah, bah, bah Bah-dah, dah, daaah, Wooo! [Singing Hokey Pokey melody] Kick, kick, kick, kick. Right, left, right, left. Left, right left, right, left, right. Plant. [Turntable scratch - music stops] -- I can't get this like sixteen count of choreography. Oh, yeah. And the best part is that you have to get your legs that high! -- Oh my gosh. I believe in you. I believe in you. Bah-bah, bah, bah, bah Bah-dah, dah, daaah Wooo! One more time? -- One more time. Alright. [MV's playing Hokie Pokie] Bah-bah, bah, bah, bah Bah-dah, dah, daaah Wooo! [Singing Hokey Pokey melody] Kick, kick, kick, kick. Right, left, right, left. Left, right, left , right. Left, right, left, right. Plant! Bah, bah, bah. Oh yeah. [Crowd cheers] -- Oh my gosh, that's so fun! [Heavy breathing] -- I can't even imagine. [Heavy breathing] That's why we really only do it once or twice a game. -- Here's your baby back. Thank you very much. So, how did you get into being in the Marching Virginians? Playing? And everything? Everything? How did you get into all of this? Music is just like in our families. It's what we love to do. I knew in high school, like after middle school going into high school, I wanted to do marching band. And that kept snowballing into college when I came here to VT and said if there's anything music I want to do I want it to be the marching band. Now I'm a section leader of the baritone section. -- Oh, cool! Where are you from? -- So, I'm from Virginia Beach, Virginia. So, I always thought of Blacksburg as like this far away and cold place because my brothers went here, and that's the only two things I knew about it. It's only five hours. It's not that far and it's really not that cold. Today it's like 60. -- Yeah. But yeah, coming from Virginia Beach. This is such a small town compared to like what I grew up in. But I absolutely love it. -- How did you join Tech? So both of my brothers went to Virginia Tech and I didn't want to go to the same school as them. So, I was like I'm going to do something else. And so, I visited my brother and he gave me like his own personal tour of Tech. And I saw the campus, and we talked about the number 1 food, and I was like, wait a second. [Laughter] He talked about the professors, and the people, and the football. And I was just like hooked. So, I was thinking about what I was going do. So I'm an English major and Human Development major. So I was like, do you read poetry? What do you do with that? And then I realized I'm also a Theatre minor. -- Ah. So, I have a monologue for you to perform. -- Alright. [Giggles] It's from "Clueless." -- I don't know what that is. Oh "Clueless" is a movie. [Laughter] -- A comedy? Drama? What? A comedy. Yeah. -- Ok. I got you Ok so, first thing you're going to do is you're going to slate. So slating, you're going to say your name, the title of the piece you're doing it from or the title of the piece and then the movie. -- Okay. And you're going to put your head down. And then right when your hand goes up, you're like in character reading. And then once you're done, you're going to put your head back down. -- Alright. To signal that you're finished. Just kind of like read over that. Get lines where you don't have to memorize it. But make sure that you like project and you're like, -- Oh, projection I can do. Yeah, really be into character. We have high hopes for this. -- Alright. I will have you know, I did theatre in middle school for three years. So, I might [Laughter] I might have this one down. Alright. So, my name is Dean McDonough. The title is "Tardiness." And the movie is "Clueless." [Audio excerpt from "Clueless"] -- Travis Berkingstock, 38 tardies. -- By far the most tardies in the class! -- Congratulations! [Applause] Thank you. Thank you! This is so unexpected. I didn't have a speech prepared. But wait I do, but I would like to say this, tardiness is not something you can all do on your own. Many, many people have contributed to this. I like to thank my parents, for never driving me to school and the LA bus drivers for never taking a chance on an unknown kid. And last but not least, the wonderful crew at McDonald's for the long hours they spent making Egg McMuffins without which I would never be tardy. Thank you. [Applause] -- Yaay! That was awesome! [Applause] Alright. We're going to do it again. -- Okay. Now you're going to do it a little different. -- Alright. So, now you're pretending like you are a very, very shy person delivering this monologue. --Oh! This is going to be hard. Mmm hmm. Mmm hmm. [Sad music playing] Thank... thank you. Ah, thank thank you. This is so unexpected. I don't have a speech prepared. But I would like to say this one... one thing. Ah, tardiness is not something you could all do on your own. Many, m, many people had to contribute. I, I, I'd like to thank my parents for never driving me to school, and the LA bus drivers, for n, n, n, never taking a chance on an uh, uh, unknown kid. And last but not least, the wonderful crew at McDonald's, uh for the long hours they spend making Egg McMuffins without which I might never be tardy. Thank you. [Laughter] [Nicole] That was awesome! [Applause] -- I like the stutters. That was sick. How did you get involved in what you do? I started theater in high-school and loved it. And I've always kind of known I wanted to be a high school teacher, but also want to have like in my back pocket that like theater minor. So maybe one day I think it would be so fun to be a theater teacher. I'm actually in Human Development too. -- Really? Yeah. And I want to be an elementary school teacher. -- Wait, shut up. That's so cool! Yes. -- Yeah. I was on that track for Human Development -- for so long. Oh my gosh. And then I was like, I have to choose a subject -- I want to finish school. Right. -- I can't do the little ones. I don't have the patience. I love them. -- I like to be friends with them. Yeah. -- Yeah. [Laughter] We survived the Hot Seat. Go Hokies!