After nearly three hours of good, bad and rank amateur performances, Gabriel Ash emerged the winner of the "Showtime at the Apollo Tour" in a rowdy evening in which the audience booed many of the contestants off the Benedum stage.

Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette CAPA senior Gabriel Ash, of Hazelwood, mesmerizes the Benedum Center crowd with his dance moves. Click photo for larger image. More pictures From Men with a Vision to the Little G's, more pictures in the daily photo journal.

The 18-year-old Hazelwood resident and senior at the High School for Creative and Performing Arts dazzled the crowd with his hip-hop dance routine, twisting, gyrating and contorting his slim frame into a human pretzel.

Ash received $1,000 and two round-trip airline tickets to perform at New York City's famed Apollo Theater.

After the event, Ash said he was overwhelmed by the experience and was looking forward to competing in New York. The winner there will earn a spot on a nationally televised program.

Presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and the African American Cultural Trust, "Showtime at the Apollo on Tour" was patterned after the original talent competition: Apollo Amateur Night, "where stars are born and legends are made."

The Apollo Amateur Night began in 1934 and has launched the careers of such entertainers as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, James Brown, The Jackson 5 and others.

While the Apollo is a platform for emerging stars, it is also a place where the audiences are legendary for vocalizing their displeasure for the unseasoned or unprepared.

And Sunday night's show at the Benedum was no different.

More than half of the 19 performers were heckled and booed off stage within seconds of starting their performances.

They then were further ridiculed by the emcee and host, Capone, a professional comedian who had the crowd in tears all evening with his quick-witted cracks.

Host Capone, right, introduces Gabriel Ash as the winner of Sunday's competition. Click photo for larger image.

"That was a sharp suit my man had on," Capone remarked about one of the contestants who was booted. "He came up trying to look all sexy, sliding and dipping and carrying on, but when he started singing he didn't even know the words."

Comedian Jermaine "One Eye" Callwood got about 30 seconds before he was whisked off the stage by the executioner C.P. Lacey.

Gemini, a South Side vocalist, also had little time to make an impression. He was run off stage in hailstorms of boos. On his way offstage, he shouted, "They played the wrong song."

In April, more than 150 Pittsburgh-area performers auditioned for an opportunity to perform in Sunday night's event. Each act got only 90 seconds to impress the judges. At the end the number of performers selected was reduced to 19. And now there is one.