American Eagle’s St. Patrick’s Day

Ah, St. Patrick’s Day. Also known as St. Patty’s Day, the holiday was first created to commemorate Saint Patrick and other patron Saints of Ireland. Nowadays, the holiday has been commercialised to the extent that almost all Christian connections have been removed and the day is now commemorated by dyeing various bodies of water green and drink ridiculous amounts of beer.

While the actual St. Patty’s Day is held on the 17^th of March, the American Eagle threw their own party on the 18^th for practicality’s sake, and also in adherence of their true Malaysian roots and the timing that is such a part of our culture. Nevertheless, the common hall at the HELP Residence was decked out in green finery, with green and silver balloons floating around and gold chocolate coins on the green and silver tables. 

 

Also true to Malaysian form, the festivities started a wee bit later than the stated time, but quickly got into the groove with a rendition of Zee Avi’s “Honeybee” by the talented Michelle Cheah and James Choong. Easing the transition of the performances and other highlights of the night was Tung Jit Sun, who kept the audience entertained with his rather – endearing attempt at an Irish accent. After the usual opening speeches by the Heads of the American Degree Programme and the American Eagle, the performances were back in full swing with more performances by our talented students.

After a mellow medley performed by Woon Kheng, Jane and James Choong, the audience was treated to a very unusual lip-syncing performance by Marivin Ravintharan and Bryan Kenn who put a very unusual spin on a Bollywood song by having the former dress up as the female protagonist. The feedback for the performance have been somewhat mixed, but for what it’s worth, Marivin makes for a very attractive girl. Topping it all off was a quick nomination of the best-dressed and best costume, the latter category rendered null by the fact that no one actually wore a costume. 

After dinner, the Cantata Choir charmed the audience with exceptional renditions of popular songs before a comedy troupe formed by members of the American Eagle put on an insanely hilarious skit parodying “I Am Number Four”. The group made great use of the audience’s imagination and their limited budget by coming up with creative ways to replicate special effects commonly found in movies, with one notable example being a character sitting astride a desk with a sign reading YAMAHA on it while a slideshow played in the background. The whole show was insanely hilarious, not just because of the writing, but because the actors and everyone involved in its production were fully able to take things lightly and play up their lack of expertise and resources.

Remember the nominations for Best Dressed? Well, those nominations came back to haunt those involved, as the selected students were called up on stage. Of course, no contest of any sort is complete without some form of mild humiliation, and in the spirit of things, the contestants were asked to do their best impression of a moonwalk and an Irish accent (this being St. Patrick’s Day, after all). After some valiant efforts by the students (and two lecturers), the judges were left to deliberate while the students mingled and socialised.

Eventually, the judges came to a final conclusion and granted Junn Tan and Mr. Yong San Loo the prize for best dressed, ending the night’s festivities. As the night wound down, the students ended the evening with picture taking and casual chatting before everyone eventually dispersed back home.

Was anything learned about St. Patrick that night? Not really. Was anything dyed green, or were large amounts of alcohol consumed? Definitely not. But in the end, everyone had a good time, and that –after all- is what the night was all about.  

-American Flyer-