The show raised approximately $2,500, benefitting the Atascadero Printery Foundation 

ATASCADERO — On Friday, Aug. 5, a large crowd of residents gathered in the courtyard on the side of the Printery building to watch 11 talented acts perform in the Printery’s inaugural North County has Talent Show. The show kicked off at 6:30 p.m., sold 150 tickets, had food and drinks available for purchase, and displayed all the North County has to offer artistically.

Emmy Award-nominated Doriana Sanchez returned to the Printery to act as one of the two judges for the night’s competition. Sanchez is known for her disco choreography on “So You Think You Can Dance” and has collaborated with a plethora of our favorite musicians. The night’s second judge was Jeannie Malik of the Malik Real Estate Group, who also has a background in the arts.

“This building did have really cool stuff happening, and I feel like it’s such a great opportunity that this beautiful structure is here, and how we can all save it and support the arts,” said Sanchez, who used to attend classes at the Printery before it was red-tagged. “As we know, arts save lives, they save your mind, they save your spirit, and it’s really the most pure thing that we can do as human beings, to have beautiful music, poetry, dance, theatre in our community.”

The talent show, emceed by Rick Evans, featured performances from all ages, highlighting seasoned vets to youngsters just starting out. There were local singer-songwriters with original tunes, multiple musical theatre songs, patriotic music, and even a dance routine. 

“What a lot of great talent we have in Atascadero, and it was so nice to be able to showcase that,” said the Printery Foundation’s President Karen McNamara. “We hope that this is our first of many [talent shows]. We want to make this an annual event.” 

A generous donor put forth $700 worth of prize money to be split among the top three acts. After the judges tallied their votes, Class Act Dance from Paso Robles took home the main prize of $400 for their hip hop dance routine to “Perm” by Bruno Mars. Shay Angles landed the $200 second-place prize for her cover of “Every Girl Like Me,” originally performed by Sugarland. Finally, world-renowned crooner Eddie Davin took the $100 third-place prize for his rendition of The Righteous Brother’s “Unchained Melody.”

This summer’s talent show raised approximately $2,500 to go towards getting the Printery building open to the public. Currently, the building is red-tagged, and the Printery can only host events outside, where they use an old skate ramp as a stage. The Printery has raised almost $200,000 towards removing the red-tag, but the total retrofit cost will be closer to about $2 million.

“We’re trying to get the community excited because this building is for you,” McNamara stated to the audience during her speech during the talent show.

For more information on the Atascadero Printery Foundation, go to: atascaderoprintery.org/