After a delayed start, the competition heated up at this year’s Mr. & Ms. BU, held last Thursday in the Metcalf Ballroom. Programming Council opened up the event with a series of clever and quirky video clips introducing participants from each of the University’s different colleges. After intros, all of the competitors charged onto the stage with a playful dance routine to Bruno Mars’ “Locked Out of Heaven,” readying the crowd for what lay ahead. With event-goers already riled up, BU’s own improv comedy group, Liquid Fun, took over for a bit while participants readied themselves for the first round of challenges.
With lots of love from the crowd for the College of Engineering, the Dress Your Major portion of the competition commenced. From the College of Fine Arts, Carly Keating and Chris Barberesi dressed the parts of conductor and vocal performer with a clever nod to their majors. Nick Petrillo and Fiona Donovan from the School of Management flaunted only the classiest business attire accessorized by bills, bills, bills—and appropriately so. Taylor Walker and Chris Schretzenmayer from the College of Communication represented their majors appropriately by storming the stage as a reporter and overexposed celebrity. These and other majors were equally as entertaining, but none were more so than Anna Sofia Camacho and Marvin Roxas from the College of Engineering, who absolutely owned the stage in chemist outfits, but hold it—they had graduated cylinders fixed to their heads with a thick fog emanating from the tips. In this challenge, ENG smoked out the competition by safe margins, and would continue to do so as the night progressed.
After the second fashion challenge, which saw outfit pairs such as the elderly couple from Disney’s Up, Olivia Pope and President Fitzgerald-Grant from ABC’s Scandal (which sent me into a frenzy of support–you go, Ms. Walker), and Peeta and Katniss from The Hunger Games, ENG dominated once more as Jessie and James from Pokémon’s notorious Team Rocket.
Liquid Fun recharged the crowd while participants readied themselves backstage for the Taboo portion of the night. In a slight technical blunder, the topic disappears from the screen and the BU logo appears, to which Taylor Walker frantically shouted, “We go here!” While ENG may have owned the competition in the fashion department, CFA absolutely ripped apart the competition in this challenge. Chris Barberesi fired off key words as Carly Keating fired back the correct words equally as fast.
As a final break before the talent portion of the night, Liquid Fun asked judges what they were looking for most in the competition to which professor Edward Downes, from COM, responded, “Talent.” It was short, simple, and repetitive as every other judge humorously reiterated the same response in increasingly satirical tone. The third and final round of the competition included acts such as the Pitch Perfect cup song from SED’s Olivia Costigan and Colin O’Neill, which transformed into an adorable mash-up of Taylor Swift and Jay-Z. SHA’s Gabby Yidi and Christopher Nguyen impressed with an Adele medley, and COM’s Taylor Walker commanded the stage with TLC’s “No Scrubs.” Once again, however, ENG kicked the competition into high gear with a heartwarming skit about how the nerd gets the girl, complete with off-the-cuff humor and a riveting opera number from Ms. Camacho.
Each pair of contenders represented their colleges appropriately and provided much entertainment and many laughs throughout the night, but when all was said and done, ENG took home the crown—and rightfully so. They showed devotion, cleverness, creativity, and ultimately made for an impeccable team in this year’s competition. As the night came to a close, Camacho and Roxas were appropriately given the awards and will hold onto them until next year’s Mr. & Ms. BU.
