2008 Woodie Awards
Former game show makes comeback at SRU
By Caleb Pardick
Rocket Editor-in-Chief
Issue date: 12/2/05 Section: Life
| |
|
However, there was no portly cupid standing off stage, neither Jenny McCarthy or Carmen Electra were there to host, and much like MTV's version, the crowd's attention and patience dwindled as the night progressed.
Richard Graham and Sheena Strnisha hosted the makeshift event, which began shortly after 9 p.m.
While SRU's "Singled Out" followed a similar structure to its MTV predecessor; a few notable differences were in place.
The night began with about 20 male students leaving their auditorium seats and entering the contestant pool on stage. Vanessa Loar, a sophomore marketing major, was then introduced to the crowd and seated behind a small partition that separated her from the contestants. Loar then gave her answers to a few questions about her ideal man listed on a large board to eliminate potential suitors.
After the pool had shrunk to seven contestants, those remaining were subjected to that six-year-old birthday party staple: musical chairs.
The only aspect of the show that the audience seemed to truly enjoy occurred when two of the musical chairs competitors grabbed, clawed, tugged, and head-locked each other in a dispute over a final seat.
When three contestants remained, they joined the winner of the Golden Ticket, a pass given by Loar to an eliminated contestant to bring him back into the game. And like most college campus humor, the show turned to a surefire tactic: cross-dressing.
An audience vote then eliminated one of the four, leaving three to compete in the next round, which was called "It's the Thought That Counts."
The three contestants were given a crate full of random items and instructed to make a heartfelt gift for Loar. When Loar found a jar of colored beads to be the most less-than-desirable offering, she eliminated the creator of the gift, leaving only Matt Miller and Preston Gibbs to vie for a date with her.
Miller and Gibbs, still dressed in drag, were given a few moments to select a love song to serenade Loar with. Gibbs went first, swaying and smiling as he belted out K-Ci & Jo-Jo's "All My Life." Miller went next, singing Bryan Adams' "Everything I Do" to the semi-embarrassed Loar, who giggled and buried her face in her hands numerous times throughout both songs.
Loar chose in favor of Miller. The two were then finally allowed to see each other and given a $30 gift certificate to the Iron Bridge Inn restaurant in Mercer, courtesy of the Division of Residence Life.
Loar, 20, explained that her participation in the event was much like the entire evening, less than scientific.
"I grew up with Sheena, and she just asked me to do it a few weeks ago," Loar said with a smile. "I had a lot of fun."
Miller, a freshman secondary education major, explained that he had no real intention in taking part in the game when the night began.
"My buddy just talked me into it when they said they were looking for guys to go on stage," Miller said.
Gibbs said he was just happy he had a chance to participate.
"I'd have to say the singing was my favorite part…that was a lot of fun," Gibbs said.
The second phase of the show ran similar to the first, but instead with a single male student, Bruce Barr, behind the partition and a slew of female contestants trying to win a date with him.
After a series of questions eliminated the majority of the contestants, the four remaining competed in what UPB called "Bust-A-Move," a dance competition in which none of the four girls seemed interested in any way.
With three contestants left, a series of trivia questions that covered topics from sports to spark plugs started off somewhere near trivial and finished just short of mind-numbing, an event that seemed to push the crowd over the edge it had been standing on the moment "Singled Out" began.
Shouts of "This is boring!" came from the crowd, a response that Strnisha seemed to agree with; she put an abrupt end to the trivia and asked for audience input as to what the contestants should do next. A suggestion by one audience member to have the girls write a poem for Barr was acquiescently accepted by Strnisha.
After the three less-than stellar odes, Barr eliminated the most inferior of the inferior, leaving two contestants in a whipped-cream pie eating showdown. The audience then decided that Mary Sack, a junior theatre major, had eaten more than her competition.
Like Loar and Miller, Sack and Barr were given a gift certificate to the Iron Bridge Inn.
Barr, a senior elementary education major, said he was selected in the Student Union nearly a month ago.
"They just came up to me and asked me if I wanted to do it one day," Barr said. "It was me and two other guys and they picked me, so I just agreed to do it."
Sack, 21, said she was more entertained by the setup of the show than the show itself.
"My favorite part was that (the host) actually looks like Jenny McCarthy," Sack said, referring to the blonde Strnisha. "And the game was fun too."
