1. Nanaimo singer passes audition, gets American Idol golden ticket, March 22

Another Nanaimo singer impressed the judges and was shifting on with an opportunity to be the subsequent American Idol.

Cameron Whitcomb, 19, handed his audition in entrance of movie star judges throughout a March episode of the ABC actuality TV expertise competitors. It’s the second time in three seasons {that a} Nanaimo contestant has been a part of American Idol after Lauren Spencer-Smith made it to the highest 20 in 2020.

On the episode, Whitcomb began his audition with a standing backflip, then carried out Waylon Jennings’ Rock, Salt and Nails. Lionel Richie remained unconvinced, however Katy Perry and Luke Bryan each mentioned ‘yes,’ which means Whitcomb obtained a ‘golden ticket’ to advance to the subsequent stage of the competitors, Hollywood Week.

“I lost my mind,” Whitcomb mentioned. “I remember celebrating and I had to lock myself in a bathroom somewhere and hyperventilate because it really happened. It’s a huge thing.”

2. Nanaimo man one of the houseguests in new season of Big Brother Canada, March 1

A Nanaimo man entered the Big Brother home with 15 roommates to attempt to be the final one left.

Hermon Nizghi, basic supervisor at Nanaimo Mitsubishi, was one in all 16 contestants in Season 10 of Big Brother Canada. The Global TV actuality collection packs the contestants into one home and places them beneath fixed video surveillance, and throws in extra challenges which may reward houseguests by preserving them protected from being voted out of the home that week, for instance.

Prior to the beginning of the season, Nizghi was interviewed by the present’s producers earlier than the competitors.

“My strategy to win Big Brother Canada is to get everyone to fall in love with me at the house and then turn it on in Week 2,” he mentioned in a video posted on the present’s web site.

Nizghi was one in all 4 houseguests from B.C. – the others included Haleena Gill from Surrey, Jessica Gowling from Cranbrook and Josh Nash from Vancouver.

The winner obtained a grand prize of $100,000 plus a $10,000 wardrobe from Winners and a visit courtesy Expedia.

3. Vancouver Island’s Funkanometry nails audition at America’s Got Talent, June 8

The large ‘X’ on the America’s Got Talent stage marked the spot for Vancouver Island’s Funkanometry dance duo Jacksun Fryer and Carlow Rush.

Fryer and Rush, from Nanaimo and Duncan, respectively, didn’t miss their cue with a two-minute audition efficiency in June. Their debut on the expertise competitors present wowed the viewers and judges Simon Cowell, Sofia Vergara, Howie Mandel and Heidi Klum, with their choreography to September by Earth, Wind and Fire and Rick James’ Super Freak.

Funkanometry constructed an enormous following on TikTok, however Klum mentioned following the efficiency she fearful if their routine would translate to a big stage and venue.

“When you look on TikTok you have this tiny little screen and now you have this gigantic space and will it translate?” Klum mentioned. “But I think it worked. I really liked it.”

Cowell mentioned his solely grievance with the efficiency was that it wasn’t lengthy sufficient, and that he thought it was enjoyable and authentic. Mandel mentioned the efficiency was good “on so many levels.”

Cowell, Klum and Vergara adopted swimsuit, sending the duo to the subsequent spherical of the competitors.

4. Nanaimo woman wins TV cooking competition Wall of Chefs, Feb. 1

A Nanaimo girl cooked for a complete ‘wall of chefs’ and got here out victorious.

Kenna Deo was the winner of an episode of Wall of Chefs, a Food Network Canada TV culinary competitors, that aired in February.

Deo mentioned it was her husband who noticed a call-out for purposes for the present, and “mentioned it very audibly in front of my young daughter.” At the lady’s insistence, Deo utilized and ended up getting chosen.

Wall of Chefs includes 4 house cooks who put together as much as three dishes for a ‘wall’ of 12 movie star chef judges resembling Massimo Capra and Mark McEwan.

Being introduced because the winner, she mentioned, was unimaginable.

“I was really honoured by the win and I’m still riding that elated high,” Deo mentioned.

She gained $10,000, which she used to take her household on a visit to Disneyland that she mentioned was “really magical” for her daughters.

Wall of Chefs might need been her “15 minutes,” she mentioned, however she can be concerned about doing one thing else alongside these traces. She’s additionally considered having her personal little café or meals truck, “but that will come when it comes.”

5. Pamela Anderson’s Ladysmith home renovation reality TV series premieres, Nov. 3

Model, actress and environmental crusader Pamela Anderson is on a mission of rehabilitation.

Speaking from her house in Ladysmith, she mentioned the purpose at hand is to overtake the two.4-hectare (six-acre) Vancouver Island property the place spent her earliest years and now hopes to determine as a multi-generational haven for herself, her dad and mom and her sons. It’s the main focus of her new HGTV Canada actuality present, Pamela’s Garden of Eden, which premiered in early November.

Anderson says she purchased the property about 30 years in the past from her grandmother, believing she “just needed some Canadian roots” and that she would transfer there sooner or later. She mentioned it was “gut-wrenching” at first to return to the sprawling waterfront property, which incorporates three buildings generally known as the roadhouse, the boathouse and the cabin.

Pamela’s Garden of Eden might be seen on HGTV Canada and streams on StackTV.

6. Nanaimo TikTok creator gains millions of views posting ‘body hacks,’ March 19

A Nanaimo TikTok creator has attracted thousands and thousands of views posting suggestions and tips in regards to the human physique, and is at all times looking for the subsequent viral video.

Mike DeVries, a 20-year-old Vancouver Island University pupil, is the person behind the @yomikez TikTok account. He claims credit score for beginning the hashtag #bodyhacks, which has helped him construct an account with near 390,000 followers, 14 million likes, and almost 100 million views.

“It’s curiosity. When you hear ‘body hack,’ it’s like, what?” he mentioned. “There’s different ways that you can exploit your body into doing things that you want.”

His most-watched TikTok reveals viewers make one’s breath seem to appear like smoke. He’s additionally created movies about meals to eat earlier than mattress to make goals extra vivid, how to go to sleep sooner, and enhance one’s reminiscence.

7. Funkanometry dances its way onto America’s Got Talent, March 17

Funkanometry, Vancouver Island’s dance duo of Carlow Rush from Duncan and Jacksun Fryer from Nanaimo, had their sights set on one other large leisure competitors.

The duo appeared on seasons three and 4 of World of Dance and this yr that they had their sights set on the massive stage as soon as once more on America’s Got Talent.

Judged by Terry Crews, Sofia Vergara, Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum and Howie Mandel, the present claims it’s about “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of talent.”

8. Notorious Nanaimo cult leader’s story re-imagined in new musical, March 18

A made-in-Nanaimo theatre manufacturing was a ‘cult’ favorite.

Western Edge Theatre introduced the musical The Cult of Brother 12 to the OV Arts Centre in March.

The play, written and directed by Nanaimo’s Bill Miner, was primarily based on actual historic occasions surrounding Edward Wilson, a British sailor, mystic and cult chief who established the Aquarian Foundation and a colony of followers at Cedar-by-the-Sea within the Nineteen Twenties.

“Brother XII told his acolytes that he channeled the ‘ascended masters,’ supposedly mystical beings who were guiding the Earth towards a spiritual awakening…” famous a press launch from Western Edge. “Things took a decidedly unenlightened turn, however, when he was accused of pilfering colony funds and began an affair with Zee, who helped him turn his utopian encampment into something more like a slave colony. The turmoil ended up in court in Nanaimo, where it is said Brother XII used black magic to render his accusers speechless … Then there were the jars of buried gold.”

9. New York rocker playing Nanaimo as part of rare West Coast tour, Aug. 9

New York’s Willie Nile and his band performed Nanaimo in a uncommon West Coast look.

Nile and his all-star band had been on the Queen’s in August with Stephen Stanley and Chris Bennet from the Lowest of the Low opening, based on a launch.

“This is a real rock ‘n’ roll show, the type rarely seen around these parts,” famous the discharge.

The Willie Nile Band continued its tour by way of August with reveals in Kamloops, Salmon Arm and Whitehorse. The band as soon as once more opened for the Who in Woodstock, N.Y., to wrap up the tour.

10. Nanaimo singer Lauren Spencer-Smith performs at Juno awards, May 15

Canada’s greatest evening of music featured a efficiency by a Nanaimo singer whose star continues to rise.

Lauren Spencer-Smith sang her platinum single Fingers Crossed throughout the occasion in May from Toronto’s outside Budweiser Stage. She additionally introduced the Arkells with the Group of the Year award.

Spencer-Smith, the previous American Idol contestant, was one in all 11 performers on the Junos. Avril Lavigne and Arcade Fire had been a number of the different acts to take the stage.

“The hotly anticipated event featured exhilarating performances from the nation’s biggest movers in music along with appearances from some of Canada’s most recognizable personalities,” famous an occasion press launch.

arts@nanaimobulletin.com
Like us on Facebook and comply with us on Twitter

Year in Review