By Pat Ellard Special to The Packet
“The Man of the Year,” a show put on by the Interact Club of Montgomery High School, is like beauty pageants everywhere. Contestants strut their stuff in formal wear and swimsuits, show off their talent, and answer questions designed to highlight their character or personality. However, in this beauty pageant, the contestants are all guys.
“The Man of the Year” is a popular fundraiser; this year, Interact will donate the proceeds to Water for Sudan. Interact sponsors the show, which is open to young men grades 9 through 12, whether they are in the club or not. I’m told the guys volunteer as contestants for a number of reasons: A spirit of adventure, the desire to help a worthy cause, because it’s fun, because someone dared them, or just because they can.
There are girls involved in the show, too. Each contestant has an escort —– a young lady — and the MCs are girls. All the judges are female, and the audience is packed with girls. Friends of the contestants —other guys — are there to cheer them on and to support their personal favorite. Two rows behind me were boys carrying a pair of vuvuvzelas, the long plastic horns so popular at soccer games. (I’ve often wondered where the inventor of those horns might be spending eternity, but that’s a subject for another day.)
The entrance to the Montgomery High School auditorium is decorated with streamers, each one looking like a drop of water. Interact is serious about this project. A video being aired inside shows the work of drilling a well in one of Susan’s villages. Just getting well drilling equipment to villages is a complicated task; sometimes there are no roads to get to the locations that need wells. The well will make life in the village both easier and healthier. The Interact Club is proud to help.
As I sat there thinking how lucky we are in America, the screen went dark and a spotlight came on. It caressed two absolutely gorgeous girls, Hunter Mulford and Alayna Treene, the emcees for the evening. They welcomed us and the beauty pageant began, with Hunter and Alayna introducing the opening act — a dance.
Nine young men with hats and canes sauntered out and did a creditable soft shoe number. Most of them looked a little bit shy, perhaps embarrassed at what they had gotten themselves into. Polite applause greeted them; the horns were silent.
Next was an exhibition of the young men in formal wear. Each contestant was accompanied by an escort, the better to show off how good he looked. The young men’s suits were colorful, the ties more so; the young ladies wore basic black. The music was not interrupted by horns. Thank goodness for small favors.
The bathing suit competition followed the formal wear. For those of you who haven’t been to the beach lately, you may not realize that as women’s bikinis have gotten smaller, men’s swim trunks have gotten longer and baggier — not exactly eye candy. The mandatory trunks were complemented by shirts or towels — to protect the guys from the cold, I guess. No ogling opportunities here — at least, not until one young man stepped front and center and, with a practiced move, ripped his tee shirt from top to bottom and flexed his muscles. The audience squealed, loving it. The horns came to life, registering approval.
The talent competition was next. I was glad I wasn’t a judge. How do you compare Dan Danovsky’s dance, “Hot Moves” (real dancing, nicely performed), against a thoughtful recitation of the soliloquy from “Hamlet” by Andre Santos? Or Robert Weisblatt’s reading of his original poem while David Gibbs skillfully and silently interpreted it? Or Kai Okada playing the piano and singing a current hit song? Or James Sha vaulting over tables and doing gymnastic moves? Or Sandy August lip-syncing, to a popular song, with some background support from the talented David Gibbs? Or Brandon Smith doing some marvelous imitations of pop artists showing the evolution of dancing, starting with Elvis? His dancing brought the vuvuzelas to life, this time accompanied by shrieking from the audience.
And just when you thought you’d seen it all, Nishan Ravichandran, pretending to be Dr. Phil, went roaming through the audience looking for questions to answer. He can be proud of himself — his answers were PG13.And PG13 describes all the answers to the “character questions.” Hunter and Alayna warned the young men to stay within the bounds of good taste while making their answers interesting.
The Rose Ceremony was a lovely touch. Each contestant was given a rose to present to the person of his choice. Most did, but Robert Weisblatt, instead of giving his rose to one person, placed his rose on the front of the stage and told the audience that by coming and supporting the show, they had made a difference to people half a world away. It was a thoughtful moment in a fun evening.
The judges huddled for quite a while before declaring a winner. The horns celebrated one more time as Brandon Smith was honored as “Man of the Year.” The truth is, each of the contestants was a special man, standing a little taller, having volunteered time and talent to help raise money for others — more than $1,500, as a matter of fact. Montgomery should be proud of each and every participant.
