The greatest show on earth comes to Nitze
SAISAPALOOZA and Mr. Sais will showcase talent, pageantry, bad life choices
By Nita Gojani

The time of the year when SAIS gets to celebrate talent and hold its very own male pageant has come. On Friday, April 4, students as well as maintenance staff, a professor and a security guard will show off their strange and wondrous abilities as part of the first-ever SAISAPALOOZA talent show. The show will also feature the annual Mr. SAIS competition, with the talent show performances happening in between Mr. SAIS rounds.

“We decided we should have one final, culminating event that would allow every member of the SAIS community to feel comfortable in performing their talent and have others support them,” said David Michaels, one of the SAISAPALOOZA organizers.

“And have the greatest time in the history of the universe,” added Justin Grosnick, the other organizer.

Michaels and Grosnick started planning the event at the end of last September. They started informally recruiting people for the show in November and formally in February. And they have managed to get 20 acts including singers, dancers, stand up comedians, and music bands – one of them with economics professor Michael Plummer and a mariachi band of the Spanish speaking maintenance staff. There will also be several skits, impressions and song parodies including Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” performed by Benjamin Krause and Ken, the security guard in the Rome building.

Hoa Tran is among the singers. She plans to sing two songs, one in English and the other in Vietnamese. Tran used to sing at various events in Vietnam and has previously amazed SAISers at the Karaoke happy hour in mid-February.

Another performance that SAIS students may have seen is that of the salsa club members at the International Dinner. Club member Max Montesino said that he and five others will dance salsa at the talent show, with new choreography by Tzyy Yeh.

But for many this will be the first time performing in front of a SAIS audience. Daniel Vecchi will perform with his rock/rock punk band Maybe Tomorrow. Though each of the three members has performed before, this will be the band’s first performance as Maybe Tomorrow. “We’re in the midst of finishing a demo recording, and plan to play some shows and make money to do a full record,” Vecchi said.

There were no criteria for participating in SAISAPALOOZA. “It’s not a competition,” Michaels said. “It’s a celebration of SAIS talent.”

In contrast, Mr. SAIS is a competition. Linh Lee, who organized this year's Mr. SAIS, explained that the competition will have five rounds: introductions, swimwear, evening wear, talent showcase and question and answer. Semifinalists will be chosen after the third round and only the top three will advance to the last round.

The competitors are judged by a panel of five judges who will be representatives of the faculty and the student body. Since “each candidate will bring something special to the table,” Lee said that the judges have no strict criteria they will be judging upon. In general “they will be looking for someone with a total package: look, personality, talent.”

Erica Shein, who was a judging coordinator last year, said that “last year’s judges preferred candidates who made the crowd laugh. It also doesn’t hurt to look good in a tux.”

This year the organizers are also planning on getting the audience involved in choosing Mr. SAIS. “Most likely by asking audience members to cheer for their favorite contestant,” Shein said. “The contestant with the loudest cheers will win.”

She is also helping with organizing the judging panel this year and said that “The perfect Mr. SAIS will be every SAIS girl’s dream guy: humorous, attractive, and able to perform well in an oral examination.”

It took personal contacts, emails, mobilized supporters and other things to convince SAISers to enter the competition, said Lee. “I think inside every man there is a certain interest and desire to win it. But it takes balls to actually join and put yourself out there,” Lee said. “We should admire those who sign up for themselves, because those are the guys that are confident enough to step it up.”

The prizes this year include a membership at Results gym and a gift certificate. Also, Shein adds “that it will help you [the competitors] on orals and to get girls (women LOVE guys who compete in beauty pageants).”

The organizers are convinced that this is a “once in a life-time event.” Grosnick added that “on Monday morning everybody will be talking about it and you don’t want to miss it.”

Tania Hamod, who will be singing at SAISAPALOOZA, said “I left last year with my jaw on the ground.”

The show will be hosted by first year student Brian Katz, second year DC student Mark Brininstool and Bologna student Jill Craig. The doors will open at 5 p.m. and one of the organizers, Michaels advises all “to come early to get their seats.” The show will start at 5:45 p.m. and last till around 11 p.m. when it will end with a surprise grand finale.

Nita Gojani is a 1st year MA candidate in International Law and an editor of the Observer