Drew’s cup flipping has heads spinning

BY ROB HEDELT

TODAY’S column, about an 8-year-old’s impromptu performance, is just for fun.

And why shouldn’t it be? Crossing into February, the cruelest month of the year, we can all use something guaranteed to put a smile on our faces.

Young Drew Mann’s nailing of “The Cup Song” from the recent movie “Pitch Perfect” is just the ticket.

For those who haven’t seen the movie, actress Anna Kendrick’s performance of “The Cup Song—I’m Gonna’ Miss You When I’m Gone” is a rhythmic combination of singing, hand-tapping and spinning a large cup on a hard surface.

Drew joined sister Makenna and parents, Justin and Paulette Mann, on a recent Saturday night to watch “Pitch Perfect” at their home in Spotsylvania County’s Post Oak area. And he was hooked.

Drew, whose parents say he’s been singing and dancing almost as long as he’s been breathing, was struck by the tune and its rhythmic nature.

He watched when his sister went online to see a video about the routine and others who’d performed it.

“I wanted to try it, so I watched and started working on it,” said the sharp-looking third-grader at Robert E. Lee Elementary School.

He spent some time that Saturday night and another hour or two the following day perfecting the routine, which isn’t easy with all the hand beats and cup flips.

By Sunday night, he asked his mother to record him on her iPad.

Within a few days, friends and family members were struck by seeing the smiling Drew in his Redskins jersey on Facebook. Most raved about how smoothly and effortlessly he nailed it.

“My daughter looked into how to get it on YouTube and posted it there,” said Paulette Mann. (To watch, use the link below.) “In just a little while he’s got more than 500 hits.”

The Manns—Justin helps manage The Hat Barn on Southpoint Parkway and Paulette works in Spotsylvania County’s planning department—say this is all just for fun.

The couple works at nurturing all of their son’s talents, enrolling him in various sports as well as a dance class and providing him musical opportunities.

“He was playing the drums when he was 2,” Justin Mann said. “And if there’s music playing, he’s singing with it and dancing along.”

Mann, a basketball buddy of mine, said he and his wife didn’t know their son had worked out the routine until he called them in to see him.

“He really had it down,” said his mom.

Though his working life is still a ways off, the youngster says at this point he’d love to be a singer or dancer.

“His grandmother thinks he’s going to be a super-star,” said Paulette Mann, who noted that his sister has sent a copy of the routine to the “Ellen” show with hopes it might be featured.

Drew says performing it there would be really cool.

He says the toughest thing about learning the routine was timing the flipping of the cup with the singing and tapping.

“I’d like to do another version,” he said. “I think I could get it better.”

After that, he might do some other performances on the YouTube channel his sister created for him.

The amazing aspect of all this is how blasé and matter-of-fact the youngster is about the fact that people all over are now watching him perform something he worked up at home one night after watching a movie.

Back when I was growing up in what now truly seems like The Dark Ages, the biggest outlet for youngsters was singing a tune for the folks next door.

Now, the whole world’s next door.

You go, Drew. Someday the world may be your oyster.

youtube.com/feed/UCd17ntYXMlZQg8dzMWxZHLw/u

Rob Hedelt: 540/374-5415

rhedelt@freelancestar.com

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