The 85th annual Varieties performances showcased the talent at Iowa State on Friday and Saturday. The show consists of short, small group or single person performances called Vignettes and mini-musicals performed by greek houses called pairings. 

Finals will take place at 7 p.m. Feb. 19 and 20. Tickets are on sale now at MidwestTIX.com. 

Kicking off at 6 p.m., the show started with an introduction from Varieties student director Rachel Welsh and a humorous video introduction from emceed performers George Melookaran, Zachary Alban and Emily Karsten.

The first performance was a vignette from a Scottish exchange student, Leo Helm. He entertained the crowd with a song called “Delta Girl” in which he poked good-natured fun at the sorority Delta Delta Delta. He also treated the audience to the first song he wrote in the United States that included a little rap. 

The first pairing that performed, titled “The Music Inside,” featured an actor who had forgotten why he wanted to perform. He and his director go through a series of shows in which the characters tell them why they perform. These shows included parodies of “High School Musical,” “Grease” and the “Wizard of Oz.” At the end, a girl in his play sings a song that pulled together the elements of the various songs. The actor realized that everyone has a different inspiration, which is what makes performing special.

Before the next act, the emceed performers came out again and announced that five lucky winners had a prize under their chairs. The prizes included three boxes of candy and a sock monkey.

The next vignette was Tad Johnson, Kip Krehbiel and Nicolas Corbett. They were a group made up of three guys with three guitars. They played two songs, “Only Thing I Know” and “Not Today.” The songs were both about love that seemed to melt the audience’s hearts.

This time, the emceed performers announced that they would be playing the “Social Media Game Show.” They then proceeded to pick two audience members and go through their phones on stage.

The final pairing before intermission was titled “Discovering the Beat.” It was a story about a young cave girl who wasn’t accepted by her village until she saved them from a dinosaur attack by discovering music. The crowd seemed especially impressed with the dancing in the final number.

Intermission ended with the introduction of Varieties’ next vignette, which was performed by Christian Weiland, featuring Turner Sundby. He started with a parody of “Love Yourself” originally by Justin Beiber. Sundby entered for the second number, which was a parody of “Hotline Bling.” The audience clapped and laughed along to the whole performance.

The next emceed performance featured a humorous representation of a poetry reading that eluded to the next vignette in which Madelyn Ilten sang “Roses are Red” while Molly Widener played the keyboard. 

The emceed performers went at it again, bringing Weiland and Sundby out on stage to “wrestle.” Emily brought the antics to a halt, so they thumb wrestled instead. Sundby won.

The last pairing of the evening, “Suesscapades”, starred a brother and sister, Matt and Caroline. While searching for a box in the attic, Matt falls into the box. While Caroline tries to find him, she too tumbles in. They find themselves in a Dr. Suess-esque world. Matt enjoys the rhymes and adventure, but Caroline seems fed up and impatient with all of the nonsense. In order to get home, they go on and adventure to Whoville and retrieve their box from Thing 1 and Thing 2. They concluded the night with a fantastic parody of “Sweet Caroline.”

Saturday night started with an introduction similar to Friday’s.

The first performance of the evening was a vignette performed by Alyssa Arble on vocals, Tad Johnson on guitar and Ben Morrison on a box drum. They sang a beautiful song called “Cherry Wine” and left the audience feeling light hearted with an upbeat song that the performers claimed was their favorite.

Saturday’s emceed performers, Connor Klein, Sammy Jordan and Kaitlyn Trampel introduced the next pairing with a skit in which they decided band practice and experiments with time travel are the best things to do in a garage.

The next pairing was titled “Time Warped” and seemed to be a spin off of “Back to the Future.” The main character, Marty McFly, accidentally took herself, her friend and her mother back to 1977 by playing a chord into what she thought was an amp but was actually her mother’s time machine. In order to get home, Marty had to play a legendary song in each decade. They “rocked through the ages” and got home just in time for their talent show.

The emceed performers introduced the next vignette as “two dudes who really like to play music.” Justin Booth and Garrett Janzen sang “Goodbye to Earth” and “The Sickness.” They made the audience laugh by saying the songs were about dragons.

“High School of Rock” was the next pairing to take the stage. A new student, Paul, comes to the school in the middle of auditions for the Battle of the Bands. The “nerds” and the “jocks” fight over who’s band he will join. In the end, Paul unites the bands so they become even greater than before.

After intermission, “Two Hearts Beat as One” took the stage. This pairing was about a city girl and a country boy who meet and fall in love. Their friends don’t approve but by the end they realize they can all be friends and get along. This mini-musical also featured an on-stage kiss that got the audience riled up.

Ryan Sulsberger, who sang “Here’s Looking at You Kid” and “Murdered in the City,” performed the last vignette.

The last pairing was called “Unbroken: A Toy’s Story.” It was about a sock monkey named Sam who joined a young girl’s collection, but her arrival was met with resistance from another sock monkey. In the end, she feels bad and realized that every one of them are special and loved.

The conclusion of the evening came on the Varieties Facebook Page. It was announced that the pairings moving to the finals are “Discovering the Beat,” “Two Hearts Beat as One,” “Unbroken: A Toy’s Story” and “The Music Inside.” The vingettes moving on are Leo Helm, Ryan Sulsberger and Christian Weiland feat. Turner Sundby.