Mr. Mav has been a well-loved tradition for the past 10 years, with students attending each year to laugh along to an evening of dashing boys parading around the cafeteria stage. This year’s Mr. Mav pageant was a particular success, with Mr. LULAC Adam Gill emerging as the winner.
The night opened with banter between theater teacher Aaron Johnson and social studies teacher Dan Nguyen, who acted as emcees for the night. This transitioned into the Mr. Mav dance, in which all candidates appeared on stage in pink Mr. Mav shirts and Nike shorts and showed off their sassy moves.
“It was really funny,” Mr. Mu Alpha Theta Sahit Reddy said. “At first I thought it would be really embarrassing. As the dance went on, I could hear the cheers of the people. Afterwards, I felt pretty good about myself.”
The dance required time and effort on both the candidates’ and choreographer Laurie Trudeau’s part.
“The dance practices were probably my favorite part of this whole experience,” Reddy said. “Anthony Nguyen (Mr. Junior Class) always wore his short shorts to practice and made everyone laugh so hard.”
Then came the casual wear portion of the pageant, in which each candidate strutted and posed down the runway, accompanied by Johnson and Nguyen’s commentary. The outfits ranged from tame, such as khaki pants and club T-shirts, to outrageous, such as ponchos and cowboy hats.
During the second portion of the show, each candidate entertained the crowd by displaying a particular talent, including juggling while hula hooping (Mr. Film Club Alex Lewis), playing a piano medley featuring songs such as the Harry Potter theme and Thrift Shop (Reddy), singing and playing the ukulele (Nguyen), beat-boxing (Gill), comic skits (Mr. Diversity Club Tara Ma) and improv stand-up comedy (Mr. BITS Lukas Friedrich).
“I do improv at Plucker’s every other Tuesday,” Friedrich said. “I was a little bit nervous, but once the crowd started laughing I had a really good time.”
Many other talents were also a success with the audience, producing enthusiastic responses.
“I did a nail salon skit, and it was a last minute thing because I couldn’t think of any talents,” Ma said. “But I heard people laughing and cheering, and I think I pulled it off.”
For the formal wear portion, candidates walked across the stage a final time accompanied by teacher escorts. After that, the top five were announced: Gareth Deakes, Friedrich, Gill, Anthony Nguyen, and Michael Nguyen. These candidates then answered an in-depth interview question.
While the judges made their final decisions, candidates held an impromptu dance competition to pass the time. Finally, the winners were announced, with Michael Nguyen winning Mr. Congeniality and Gill winning the title of Mr. Mav.
“I was surprised to be perfectly honest,” Gill said. “I didn’t really expect to win. They said my name and I was kind of in shock, but I was really grateful to have won.”
The night closed with the same air of comedy and fun, with all candidates spontaneously posing both backstage and onstage in their formal-wear tops and Nike shorts bottoms. Even for the other candidates who did not win, the Mr. Mav competition offered a great time.
“I liked showing off my talent to impress the ladies,” Anthony Nguyen said.
Other candidates, such as Ma and Reddy, said the best part was having a good time with friends and representing their clubs.
“Overall it was a really fun experience,” Friedrich said. “It was a great group of guys this year.”
