Mr. Basic

Some of the Senior guys at Basic High School sign up up compete in a pageant called . . . you guessed it, Mr. Basic. Before the big night they did school activities such as cake decorating and finishing song lyrics. The guys each chose a coach (a girl) to help learn dance moves, plan their talent, and generally get them ready for the rigors of pageantry. Tyce's coach was his good friend Maddy.

Practicing for their group dance.

Tyce's stage name was Mr. Batman. He wore a cape and purple tights. All the guys had pretty outrageous outfits. There were about 20 boys who competed.

His silhouette.

Some of the other silhouettes.

Cam and Bryce before the show started.

Part of the program.

Harrison studied the program.

When the lights dimmed and it was time to start, Nick Wheatley, last year's winner, MC'd with one of my former seminary students, Azia. They did great. I didn't take any pictures of the performances because it was so dark but this is how it went down:

The whole group did a very girly and slightly inappropriate dance.

The first activity was a pick-up line contest. Some of them were incredibly dumb, to be honest. They had weeks to choose the best lines they could think of, you know? I loved Tyce's though:  Tyce sang part of Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel" to Maddy:

The way you make me feel
You really turn me on
You knock me off of my feet
My lonely days are gone

Then he said, "Since you knocked me off my feet, let me sweep you off yours." Then he picked her up and walked across the stage. The crowd cheered a ton for that!

Tyce and Maddy

For the talent portion Tyce sang a mash-up of two songs, a duet with Maddy. They are both great singers. Tyce played the piano while they sang. It was very classy and I was really proud of them for choosing the high ground when some of the guys did not (for example, there was more than one "exotic dancer". I told The boys to shield their eyes and Cameron wrapped his fingers around his sock monkey's face and whispered, alarmed, "This is not appropriate for Bobby!")

At the end of Tyce's performance he said that he had one more thing he wanted to do. He asked his friend Kayley to prom right there in front of a standing-room only auditorium! Luckily for him she said yes!

Tyce and Kayley

Other pageant activities were a spirit round where the kids pumped up the crowd and threw candy (I got hit in the head with a Laffy Taffy; I learned to duck after that) and Basic High School trivia. Tyce's was easy: the first line of the alma mater. Some were hard (the size of the first graduating class, which was 90 years ago) and some were super easy (the first and last name of the principal, hello!). Some boys were eliminated at certain points but Tyce hung on until the the final round. He didn't make it into the top 3 but his friend Ziggy did--and he won the whole thing!!!

(Ziggy was Mr. Mrs. He was literally left half man, right half woman. He sang the song "Total Eclipse of the Heart" where the line "turn around" repeats frequently. Every time he sang that he turned around and went from man to woman, using a bass voice or a falsetto, and back again. It was well-done and hilarious.)

Ziggy, Kayley, Tyce

The guys after the show!

We were really proud of Tyce and I think he had a blast. We loved watching him.