Six boys who will try to be the next Mr. Saratoga during a pageant held in the Mcafee Center on Feb. 27 are busy trying to figure out what they will do in the talent portion of the show.
One of them, senior Isaiah Vivero, joked: “It was either I do a mini hoop dunk contest as a joined talent with [senior Roshan Verma] or an ASMR on stage, so it’s one of those.” Besides Vivero and Verma, the other contestants are seniors David Berkowitz-Sklar, Roshan Verma, Justin Chao, junior George Bian and sophomore Darwin Chow.
Because previously recruited judges are facing scheduling conflicts, the leadership class is still looking to find replacements for the event.
The contestants must pass four rounds of competition to gain the title of Mr. Saratoga — an introduction round, talent round, bathing suit round and question round. During the question round, random questions will be picked out of a box for contestants to answer.
In previous years, contestants were judged by audience members, who received tickets that they could put in jars to decide the winner. According to senior treasurer Khiara Berkowitz-Sklar, this process incentivized contestants to bring family and friends.
In previous years, the competition struggled due to a lack of publicity. To combat this problem, the senior class officers are creating a promotional video featuring the contestants as well as posts on Facebook and Instagram. The class officers will also look to promote the event through parent circles.
“Hopefully that will kind of draw some more attention to the event,” senior class vice president Hanlin Sun said.
Sun also said that they hope to get around a hundred or so people to watch the contest.
Contestants signed up through a sign-up sheet posted on Facebook. Vivero said that his enrollment in the contest started out as a joke between him and one of the organizers, senior Jennah El-Ashmawi, when they were discussing how to get more people to participate, but it quickly changed into reality.
“We started making jokes about different acts that I could do for the talent part, and then I was like, ‘That could be funny and kind of fun,’ and so we just decided to sign me up and do it,” Vivero said.
Vivero said that he is anticipating the experience of being on a stage alone and hopes to gain some confidence from the contest. Vivero also aims to gain support by being enthusiastic about the event and spreading that feeling to others.
“I’m just kind of going, doing my thing and seeing how that turns out,” Vivero said.