Uploaded: Wed, Mar 29, 2017, 2:35 pm
Valley View kindergartner showing off kung fu skills on NBC
Calleigh Tsay is 2nd Pleasanton girl on 'Little Big Shots' this season
by Jeremy Walsh / Pleasanton Weekly
Pleasanton kindergartner Calleigh Tsay shows off her kung fu moves for host Steve Harvey during a taping for NBC's "Little Big Shots." (Photo by Evans Vestal Ward/NBC)
Martial arts are a popular activity for children throughout the Tri-Valley.
For 6-year-old Calleigh Tsay, kung fu is a passion that runs in the family and something she looks forward to every week.
And this weekend, the Valley View Elementary kindergartner's passion is set to be on display on national television.
"Exciting," the Pleasanton girl said of her experience last summer taping a segment for NBC's "Little Big Shots," which is set to air for the first time this Sunday at 8 p.m. "I kicked over (Steve Harvey's) hand ... I got to kick through a board."
Calleigh will be among a handful of charismatic youngsters demonstrating their various talents on the latest episode of the kids' talent show hosted by comedian Harvey. Her appearance will come almost a month after 6-year-old Lucy Szela represented Pleasanton on the show's second-season premiere, showing off her Abraham Lincoln knowledge and fandom.
Calleigh was 5 when she filmed her segment in the "Little Big Shots" studio in Burbank last August. She said she wasn't nervous at all performing onstage in front of a studio audience that also included her parents, four siblings, grandparents and other family members.
After sitting down on the couch for an interview with Harvey, Calleigh demonstrated some forms and moves for the audience, and even tried to teach Harvey a thing or two in the art of kung fu.
And it sounds like Calleigh threw some comedic punches as well, like many of the young kids who appear on "Little Big Shots."
"I told him, 'Why don't you have no hair?'" she remembered -- a comment that drew a trademark surprised look from Harvey and laughter from the studio audience. "And I think I asked him why he has a big nose."
"It's an exciting experience," her father, James Tsay, said looking ahead to her episode airing Sunday night.
Calleigh has been studying kung fu for almost two years, going to practice twice a week. Her brothers and sisters also train in kung fu.
It was her teacher from Kungfu Dragon USA in Pleasanton who sent in video clips of several students to "Little Big Shots" producers, and they picked Calleigh out of the group, James Tsay recalled.
Calleigh said she has fun practicing kung fu and likes how it challenges her. "It's good to defend yourself ... and they have different levels."
And she plans to continue her kung fu training throughout her childhood. "I want to be the very best," she said.