A Stella Performance

## *The Loud House*"A Stella Performance"

**"A Stella Performance"** is the twenty-eighth episode of the sixth season, and the two-hundred-seventy-fourth episode of *The Loud House*.

## Plot

Stella wins a school competition and is super excited – until she learns she has to give a public presentation.

## Synopsis

The middle school is hosting a science fair. Stella's invention, the Coaster Toaster, which makes perfect grilled cheese sandwiches, ends up winning over the judges and they give her the blue ribbon. Upon winning, Principal Ramirez arrives and tells Stella that she wants to enter her in the state science fair, since the winner gets a trip to Robotics Camp, and an annual pass to the science museum. Interested, Stella agrees to join, but her joy is quickly cut short when Ramirez reveals that she will be giving a public presentation to the board of middle school scientists and a crowd of people. Later, in the hallway, Stella tells her friends that she's going to be dropping out of the fair, saying that she's afraid of public speaking, explaining that it all started after an incident at her old school where she accidentally called her teacher "mommy" while presenting her with an award during Teacher Appreciation Week. Rusty tells her that he can help her, claiming to be "the King of Confidence".

Later, Rusty begins to teach Stella about his three-step plan to boost confidence.

* For the first step, positive affirmation, Stella has to look at her reflection and give off positive compliments to make herself feel good about herself. However, Stella is unable to come up with motivational compliments, instead making basic ones like brushing her teeth and having hair.
* For the second step, Rusty says that one way to feel good is to smell good. Rusty lends her a cologne from his dad's shop called "Spicy Confidence," but Stella ends up spraying so much of it on herself, that she ends up burning herself.
* For the last step, the swagger strut, Stella has to strut with confidence. However, this results into bumping into other students and falling into a locker.

When Stella says that she still isn't over her fear, Ramirez reveals that she printed shirts with Stella's face on them to let the school know about her participating in the state science fair. Liam steps in to help by saying that Stella should practice talking in front of a crowd and has his farm animals be her audience. After being given some index cards with jokes, Stella tries to deliver them, but her anxieties kick, making her jumble up her cards in the process, and upon uttering the word *butchering*, the scared animals trample her. With Liam's plan busted, Zach reveals that he knows how to help Stella: through hypnosis. That night, as Stella sleeps, she listens to a cassette tape where Zach gives her instructions on what to do.

The next day, Stella arrives to the cafeteria to meet up with her friends and they ask her if Zach's hypnosis worked. She tests it out by publicly announcing to all the middle schoolers that she'll be giving a presentation at the state science fair and seeing how she managed to convey it without any issues, she believes that she finally conquered her fear of public speaking. However, as the day progresses, Stella's friends discover that she is exhibiting rather strange behaviors, like speaking in an unintelligible language, running backwards, and slamming face first into her food. Perplexed by her newfound strangeness, Zach says that he'll drop by Stella's house to see what went wrong with his hypnosis tape.

At the state science fair, Stella is prepared to give her presentation on the Coaster Toaster to the judges and the crowd. After some words of encouragement from Ramirez, Stella walks onto the stage to present the Coaster Toaster. Unfortunately, the strange mannerisms Stella exhibited earlier kick in, and she ends up blowing her presentation by knocking down her invention. Upon witnessing this, Stella's friends quickly excuse her; once backstage, Stella snaps out of her hypnosis and discovers that she knocked down her invention. Zach admits fault, telling Stella that he unknowingly recorded his hypnosis audio over a tape his parents made about what to do when encountered by aliens, and that she inadvertently listened to their audio once Zach's audio ended (which has Mrs. Gurdle saying that the best way to blend in with aliens to mimic their mannerisms, like speaking their language, running backwards and eating face first). Realizing how much of a fool she made of herself onstage, Stella proclaims that she's never going to do public speaking again, but Ramirez, having just learned about her fear, gives her some motivation by bringing up her first experience of being a teacher, and says that while it was embarrassing, that didn't stop her from giving in. Motivated, Stella eagerly goes onto the stage to give her presentation, but not before asking Zach to un-hypnotize her.

Later, the gang is leaving the state science fair, and Stella's friends are upset that she didn't win after all. However, Stella doesn't mind, saying that she's finally over her fear of public speaking.

## Cast

* Bentley Griffin as Lincoln
* Nika Futterman as Mrs. Salter / Judge
* Jessica DiCicco as Zach / Male Student
* Grey Griffin as Mrs. Gurdle
* Lara Jill Miller as Liam / Student
* Jahzir Bruno as Clyde
* Diego Alexander as Rusty
* Haley Tju as Stella
* Marisol Nichols as Principal Ramirez

## Moral/Lesson

* You should be willing to face your fears and be manageable; don't feel scared.

## Trivia

* This is the second episode to have Stella's name in the title, the first being her introductory episode.
	+ This is also the first episode since "Tails of Woe" to focus on Stella.
* Lincoln appears on the title card as the star on Stella's shirt, as indicated by his two strands of hair sticking out.
* This, "Present Danger"/"Stressed for the Part" and "Crashed Course" are the only Season 6 episodes thus far to not air on a Friday.
* The premise of the episode is similar to that of "Face the Music with the Casagrandes", as both episodes are about a character having to overcome stage fright caused by an embarrassing incident during their childhood.
* Stella obeying the mixed messages from the tape recordings is similar to Leni obeying Lori's false driving instructions in "Driving Miss Hazy".
	+ However, unlike "Driving Miss Hazy", the mixed instructions were unintentionally included.
* This is the first episode to show a flashback to Stella's life before she moved to Royal Woods.
	+ This is the second episode (following "Antiqued Off") to depict Stella's place of residence. This episode also reveals that Stella lives in a house.
* This episode reveals that Stella was glossophobic. This fear started after Stella was ridiculed for calling a teacher at her previous school "mommy" during an award ceremony.
* This episode reveals that Liam's animals hate the word *butchering*, as they think it means that they are being prepared to be slaughtered.
* This episode uses the same title card music as "Diss the Cook", "Stressed for the Part" and "Sleepstakes".
* This is the last episode where Jahzir Bruno voices Clyde.

## External Links

* The Loud House wiki
* Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_The\_Loud\_House\_episodes#Season\_6\_(2022)