GOTG 2013 - Round 5 - February 2013

Winner - Scott Alexander Young

If you watch AXN SciFi, you may already have some idea how this professional scriptwriter and character actor’s mind works: which is to say, really rather strangely. Scott Alexander Young is the wild imagination behind both Max’s Midnight Movies, and Space Cadets, screening across Central Europe, even as we speak. Scott is also host of the 3D TV documentary The Medieval Trip, available VOD on the Orange Network in the UK, France, Germany and beyond.  As an actor, Scott has played a medieval lawman in TV series World Without End, a KGB spy in The Company and even a Buffalo monster on Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers(!) Born in New Zealand by mistake in the same month the Beatles released their key transitional album (Rubber Soul), Scott has since lived far and wide, including Argentina, Lebanon, Italy and of course Hungary. Indeed, Budapest has been his ‘home office’ for a couple of years now. A socialite who never goes out, a slacker in tailor made clothes, and a lush who works out every day, Scott is preternaturally equipped to enjoy living in this part of the world, with all its contradictions.

Round 5 Speakers

Ilona Hegedus is a Hungarian who graduated as an English teacher and but works in IT. In her IT support jobs she has worked with people from more than 20 countries so far. Ilona also does creative writing of different types and has recently become brave enough to perform at English-language events. (So far there have been only two, the Write Like Bukowski Contest and BBB's Open Mic Comedy Night for Charity). These did not scare her away. Fortunately enough, alcoholic beverages were served at both places.
Her writing, mainly poems and reviews, have been appearing in English since 2004.

Zita Harsányi is a Hungarian and English teacher from Budapest. A great storyteller, she developed her entertaining style of teaching English and Hungarian particularly while working at the Hungarian-Chinese School in Budapest. She spent a year in Yorkshire, England perfecting her English and in 2011 did a spell working in an orphanage in Transylvania. Now a mother of a very young son generally known as kis Tim, she promises a bright entertaining experience for all.    

Viktor Morandini is a fresh grad - he finished his MSc in geography a little more than a year ago, and now works with something completely different... for an American plastics company. He is more or less pure Hungarian, despite the fancy Italian sounding name. From time to time he feels the urge to speak on a stage, in front of people, in a foreign language, which led him to playing Caliban in Shakespeare's The Tempest; to becoming a regular member of Toastmasters International (and sometimes even competing in speech competitions), and eventually to finding the GotG. He quickly realized that he'd have to try this as well. Viktor's love of strange and/or dangerous sports such as orienteering, krav maga, and urban cycling will probably feature in his GOTG appearance.

Still being a university student, with matching age, Miklós Morandini  is probably one of the youngest taking part in Gift of the Gab. Life somehow always steered him towards the English language, so when deciding what to major in, the choice was obvious. During his first week he was involuntarily enrolled in the Brown Cow drama club and has been charged with and found guilty of amateur acting on multiple occasions since.  This being mixed with the humble Christian morals he grew up with created a complex thought in the deep recesses of what could be classified as his mind. He decided that it is his life to make the people around him just a little more joyful and content, while trying to be as subtle about it as possible. Not an easy task, he is often forced onto centre stage, no matter how hard he tries to avoid it.  The Gift of the Gab is different. It is a challenge, mostly for himself, to see how far he has come over the years. And of course to have an awesome memory to share with his brother (but that’s a secret! Don’t tell him!)