Two weeks of intra-campus competition ended on stage Friday night as Mr. 2009, Jeff Lambert, was named the winner of the Mr. American Pageant, the final event in the 2005-2006 Hall Wars, hosted by the Residence Hall Association.
"Two weeks ago, I declared the north side of campus to be at war with the south side of campus," said Will Mount, RHA president.
Other Hall War events, ranging from a dodgeball tournament to a charitable blood drive, left the two teams tied with three wins each going into the Mr. American pageant.
Besides Lambert, the nine contestants included Scott Henney, Mr. 2006; Guy Seeman, Mr. 2007; Ben Bamberger, Mr. Hughes; Zia Hassan, Mr. Leonard; Akeem Perry, Mr. Letts; Joseph Eberhard, Mr. McDowell; Derrick Milburn, Mr. Park Bethesda and Paul Jamain, Mr. RHA.
All contestants competed in four events before judges selected three finalists who competed in a final round titled a "Northwest Side Story."
"Am I Simon or am I Paula tonight?" asked judge Peter Brusoe jokingly, chairman of the Graduate Leadership Council.
The other judges included Susan Hoglund, Housing and Dining's Assistant Director of Student and Staff Development and Amber Lange, area director for South Campus.
The first competition was a group-choreographed dance.
"It was incredible," said Andrew Congdon, vice president of administration and finance at Hughes Hall. "I was really impressed the guys could remember all those steps," he said.
The talent competition began with Bamberger playing "Hot Cross Buns" on the piano as a joke and then breaking into a deep solo piano piece. Followed up by acts like Perry's salsa dancing, which was reminiscent of the movie "Dirty Dancing" and Seeman's karate take-downs of the other contestants, it seemed the other contestants had their work cut out for them.
Then Hassan played his self-written song about "making love on a New York city street," which led to an audience member shouting, "Your mom's in the audience." Featuring lyrics like, "Baby when you're around, it's like one giant PDA" that were purely his own, Hassan seemed to blow away the competition. Cue Lambert stage left.
Lambert, wearing red velvet pants, told the audience about his experience with rap during his time in Catholic high school with his best friend Ben.
"I'm from the Sunday school of hip-hop," he said.
The two-man group - rightly titled "Cashew," because Lambert is Catholic and his friend is Jewish - won a competition that allowed them to record a two-song EP called "Raptism." Rapping the title song of the album, Lambert got the largest audience response of any contestant. With original lyrics like "It's time to get Raptized" and "I'm a messenger of rap," Lambert stole the show.
"Mr. 2009 was my pick from the start," said Congdon. "I felt absolutely 'Raptized' in his presence," he said.
During the "Impromptu Questions" competition, Hassan was asked if he were an AU building, which one he would be. He said he'd be the Health Center because he was the "doctor of love." Perry said he'd be a pirate instead of a ninja because "he'd love the booty."
When asked what superhero he'd be, Lambert said Batman.
"I'd be Batman because he's human and you can identify with him," said Lambert. In response to the question of where the most romantic spot on campus was, Lambert topped Hassan's response about a fountain on Massachusetts Avenue with, "The most romantic spot on campus is my dorm room."
The three finalists were Mr. Letts, Mr. 2009 and Mr. Leonard.
After saying he'd enact legislation equalizing wages for women and minorities if he were President of the United States, Lambert told the audience about his perfect date.
"We'd go see a movie, since I get free passes from The Eagle," he said. "Then we each pay for our own lunch, since I'm all about equality, and then we'd go back to my dorm room and study."
When the final results were in, third place went to Hassan, second to Perry and the Mr. American title to Lambert.
"It feels great," he said. "The other contestants were really great and I hope I can do the title justice."
The event also signified the end of Hall Wars and the victory of the North side as 2006's best side of campus.
"This is such a unique, great event," Mount said. "Its something that you really can't duplicate"
