Sam Stavish hoists the coveted prize. photo by Kevin Fleming
The night was pure excitement. The mixture of the Spartan ladies’ shouts of exhilaration, the exuberant faces of many proud TJ mothers, and of course TJ’s finest gentlemen showing us all they had, created the Mr. TJ atmosphere we’ve come to love and expect.
The boys up for the title included: Andrew Briss, Christian Carpio-Thomas, Vince Crespin, Jalil DeBose, Ryan Diaz, Edgar Llamas, Aaron McMullen, Isaac Moore, Brandon Murray, Jordan Nelson, Kevin Palmer, Jay Pearson, Elie Reiss, PJ Sleichter, Sam Stavish, Sam Thomas, Xavier Williams, Efrem Woldu, Turner Wyatt, and Robert Lampert.
The opening act was the boy’s Macho Man dance with plenty of entertaining and borderline blush-worthy moments that the audience went crazy over. Next was the Swimsuit competition. Big crowd favorites were a slip-and-slide and a boy being drawn by a chariot. This was followed by a sweet performance by Luke DeGregori and Jessica Johnson on the violin. Up next, Formal Wear Competition. The boys were escorted by the lovely Thomas Jefferson senior ladies and had to create an inventive way to hand these ladies roses. Crowd favorites included a UPS delivery, a giant rose falling from the sky, an ice-cream man delivery, and a stick up. The boys also had to respond to questions. The emceeing was excellently executed by hilarious Hall Hupperts, the amazing Alexa Johnson, marvelous Mariah McCrea, and the daring Demi Sullivan. The crowd was also pleased by the Mr. TJ video painstakingly produced and edited by Rachel Walker.
After a performance by Luke DeGregori and Zach Salas, the top five were announced. They were chosen based on their scores from the swimsuit competition, rose presentation, and questions. The top five were Vince Crespin, Sam Stavish, Sam Thomas, Jordan Nelson, and Brandon Murray (in no particular order). Vince performed a crazy and compilation dance routine beginning with The Carlton and ending with Ginuwine’s My Pony, and a special guest duo somewhere in the middle. Sam Stavish performed his rendition of Mama Said Knock You Out by LL Cool J. One could have sworn it was Mr. Cool J up on stage himself. Thomas impressed the audience with his King Tut performance complete with authentic dance and costumes. It ended with a whole troop of dancers and Sam’s more-than-hilarious “stanky leg” dance. Nelson showed his athletic prowess in an excellently performed Vote for Pedro dance from Napoleon Dynamite ( curly wig and tight jeans included). Mr. Murray put on an awesome dance performance with songs including Beyonce’s Single Ladies, Jump On It, and I’m a Diva. His performance left the audience clapping their hands and smiling.
When the scores were finally tabulated Jordan Nelson took home 4th runner up, Vince Crespin took 3rd, Sam Thomas took 2nd, Brandon Murray took 1st runner up, and…SAM STAVISH was crowned Mr. TJ 2009.
Other winners on the Night included Sam Thomas as Mr. Talent, and Isaac Moore as Mr. Congeniality.
The true success of the evening must be handed to longtime TJ Parent, Kathy Wells who, despite being two years removed from having a student of her own at TJ, stepped back into the role as Mr. TJ Coordinator, and blew the audience away with another amazing job of painstaking planning, bringing all the contestants, the senior girls, and the judges together for one more outstanding Mr. TJ spectacular.
