Judgmental Again

Tonight was my second annual time serving as a judge for the third annual Miss(ter) Bluehawk Beauty Pageant at the university.  It's a fundraiser put on by students in the Theodore Roosevelt Honors Leadership Program, and they donate all the proceeds to charity.  The format was the same as last year's event, but tonight there were 11 contestants (compared to 8 last year).  Everybody looked stylish for the formal wear competition . . . except for one guy, who wore a Burger King costume instead of a suit and tie or tuxedo, as the others did.  He was also the guy who wore a mermaid costume for the swimsuit competition instead of a man's swimsuit, as the others did (albeit with humorous variations: one guy wore arm floaties, another wore a life jacket, etc.).  He was also . . .

. . . the guy who was disqualified after the talent show competition for his stand-up comedy routine, which was definitely not family-friendly (as the night's event was advertised--the student organizers were not impressed, nor were the parents of the little kids in the auditorium, I'm sure).  But the man who ended up winning did have an amazing talent routine.  He came out wearing gangsta clothes and a long-billed baseball cap; and as he danced, he made that cap flip, roll down his arm, flick up in the air, land back on his head, etc.  Then someone threw him a basketball from offstage, and he did a series of Harlem Globetrotters-ish tricks with the ball, spinning it and making it roll across his shoulders and up and down his arms, etc.

Then he stripped out of his sweatshirt and sweatpants to reveal cowboy gear underneath, and someone offstage tossed him a cowboy hat and a lasso, which he used to do several rope tricks, including leaping through the spinning lariat and making it go up and down his body vertically as he stood in place and kept it spinning.  It had the most impact on the audience of all the performances during the talent competition, that's for sure.

After the formal wear, swimsuit, and talent competitions, the student organizers tallied the scores from us four judges to determine the top five, who advanced to the last competition: the formal interview.  The questions ranged from serious (e.g., "How can you make the world a better place?") to silly (e.g., "What are you words of advice for those guys out there who didn't feel pretty enough to enter the pageant?"), but they allowed us to see who could come up with an intelligent response on-the-spot, and the guy who impressed us all with his talent emerged as the winner.  Last year's winner returned to give this year's Miss(ter) Bluehawk a bouquet of roses and to place on his head a lady's tiara, bringing to a close another fun and funny night of entertainment and charitable fundraising.