The seventh annual Mr. Key Club pageant was held at Palo Alto High School on Saturday evening, January 29. Senior Gary Yu, the school’s representative, won the “Hottest Hottie” award and placed fourth out of five contestants from schools around the area. [Watch videos of the talent competition and question competition here]

The five contestants participated in a variety of mini games and events that were categorized into four main groups: swimwear, spirit, talent and formal wear. Contestants were not allowed to know which mini games they would compete in prior to the competition. In swimwear, contestants dressed in swimwear and attached a pedometer to their heads. After, they were told to shake their heads to amass the most number of “steps.”

“The pedometer competition was a unique idea, but I didn’t really see the point of it, nor did I feel that the ‘event’ was well thought out before hand,” senior Arista Jusuf said. “The pedometers didn’t seem to work properly and weren’t tested, and the MCs didn’t even know how to use the pedometers at first, forcing some of the contestants to go through the event three times. The events were supposed to be Key Club related, but this one seemed kind of pointless to me. ”

However, despite this one non-Key Club related activity, the spirit section emboldened all the qualities of Key Club. Competitors dressed in the district color (purple) and had to recite a division cheer. The mini game for this portion of the competition was to grab materials and objects from the audience to create some sort of representation of Key Club. Unlike the other competitors, Gary took a unique spin on the event and grabbed his friends from the audience to create a pyramid to show how friends and support are the foundations of Key Club (video here).

“I think it was a really good idea, probably the best one among the contestants,” senior Chrissy Lum said. “The rest of the responses to the challenge were generic and cliché, but I feel that Gary’s idea was more sincere compared to the others.”

The activities for the rest of the evening were relatively consistent with past years. Contestants had to sprint for a plushie penguin and answer a trivia question correctly to score well. After that, there was a talent show portion where all the competitors did a singing or dancing act. Gary sang Please Don’t Go by Mike Posner (video here), sophomore Steve Hahn of Lynbrook High School and junior Justin Hsiung of Monta Vista High School both performed separate dance routines to remixed pop songs, and senior Chris Dam of Cupertino High School and junior Justin Robinson of Palo Alto High School also sang.

The pageant had many intermission acts between the transitions. LAHS senior Ian Palmer sang “Hey Soul Sister,” and a dance group named Reincarnation also performed a three part dance routine.

The final portion of the event was the formal wear. Contestants dressed in their formal clothing and were eliminated. Chris, Justin and Steve won the top three slots. They competed in a push-up contest and answered questions from the audience. After the Q&A session, the judges tallied up the scores, and the final winner of the pageant was Justin (from Monta Vista). Second place went to Chris, and third went to Steve.

Attendance to the event was not as high as it was in previous years.

“In general, Key Club membership rate in the district has dropped, and I think [the low attendance] is because of that,” District Project Chair Andrew Liu said. “We’ve planned it for the past two months. It’s kind of sad that we didn’t get as many people as we could have.”

Tickets to the event were $3, and all the extra funds go to Pediatric Trauma Prevention (PTP), Key Club’s main project.

“It was a lot more organized last year,” senior Michelline Tran said. “But the thing about Key Club is that even though it might be disorganized, we still have the spirit going on. Everyone is really pumped to be here.”

photos courtesy Jacqueline Hoang