Mr. Pennridge

Mr.Pennridge is a comedic male beauty pageant held at Pennridge High School every few years.  This year the program was run as a benefit to the Pennridge life skills program, with all proceeds going to the group. Tickets were five-dollars and all concessions were one-dollar, besides Rita’s. At the end of the night, the event raised over $3 thousand and a check was presented on stage at the conclusion of the event. It was held up proudly by one of the life skills teachers and two of the life skills students who were very excited about the money raised.

There were juniors and seniors who participated in the competition each with four participants. The senior class was represented by, Brian Lafty, Ian Livengood, Gian Carlo Cooper, and Joseph Ereifej. The junior class was represented by, Styles Martyn, Richie Rendone, Vincent Sordini, and Jimmy Mamrol. All of who looked dapper in their tuxedos provided by Fischer’s Tuxedo Rental. There were 2 hosts and a panel of judges. Hosts Josh Lawrence and Mj McPhelen and Judges Mr. Tatar, Mrs. Nash, Mr. Dubin, Mrs. Surface, and Mrs. Rissmiller added their own comedic moments to the show.

The event opened with an exciting intro video of hosts, Josh and Mj “Running the streets of Perkasie”, as Josh Lawrence later said. At the conclusion of the video where Mj and Josh enter the auditorium, they did just that and transitioned into a jog onto the stage. Josh and Mj gave their introductions for the event and themselves. But then it was time to bring in the acts.

To get everybody excited the first performance was from both the seniors and juniors. It was a dance routine, where each got their opportunity to move up on the stage and perform a solo. The first half of the routine was the seniors in the front. Then, the second half consisted of the juniors on the front line. The most exciting moments is when Brian Lafty had tear away pants, which he ripped off and threw them off the stage. Gian Carlo had a rap beat and when the bass dropped he hit a couple of well-known viral dances, some from the popular game “Fortnite”. This got the crowd really amped. But then after Gian Carlo, it switched to the juniors part, where Vincent Sordini stepped up to the intro song to the Nickelodeon show, The Backyardigans, where he did the chicken dance. Some would say the event was an up and down roller coaster of excitement but was mostly on the up part.

For the acts, Brian did the final dance from the 1987 movie, Dirty Dancing. He was accompanied by Vicent Sordini for the act, not only did they nail the dance, but Brian lifted Vincent into the air for the finale with the spotlight shining brightly down on them. Before the event Brian said, “I think the audience is going to get the most excited over our act”. Joseph Ereifej and Ian Livengood both sang and danced together also. Jimmy, for his act, decided to do one act then three at the same time. He started with doing the infamous “saw the lady in half”, with his female accomplice, but then went on to make slime with his feet, make balloon animals, and sing Lady Gaga’s, Bad Romance, All of which were successful besides when one balloon popped. Gian Carlo decided to give a   comedy performance for his bit. He explained the struggles of having the unique name he does. People are always mis-pronouncing it and mis-spelling it. Don’t even get him started on substitute teachers. Styles Martyn went with giving a brief history of lettuce and then proceed to eat three heads of lettuce. Which people seemed to find the funniest. Richie Rendone sang, Tribute, by Tenacious D, a rock song, with his friend playing guitar alongside him.  

In addition to the acts, there was an introduction segment where the guys had their personally made bios read to the audience and were accompanied by their female acquaintances. This was followed by short interviews given by the hosts and the judges, where they were given some opinion questions and some left field questions to see how they act under pressure with limited time. There was a lot of humor brought on by this segment. It seemed to be enjoyed just as much as the acts from the participants.

To conclude the event there was an intermission, to allow the audience to buy concessions one last time, to let the judges vote, and to allow student council to count the total amount that would be presented to the life skills program. Jimmy Mamrol won the junior section and announced he would be giving his $50 cash prize to the life skills program. While Brian Lafty won for the seniors, receiving 2 prom tickets, courtesy of the Class of 2019 Executive Council, and an edible arrangement. This event would not have been possible without the organization of Delaney Nichols. After the event she said, “I was approached by some students about Mr. Pennridge. At first I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it after just finishing Cinderella, the musical, but then somebody brought it to my attention that we can make it a fundraiser for the Life Skills program at the school.” Hopefully Mr. Pennridge continues for many years to come.