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By Doug Carroll
Communications Staff
A formula for success has emerged in GCU’s student lip-sync contest, a full-on spectacle that moved into the Arena on Thursday night.
To score points with the crowd and the judges, contestants are advised to have (a) a killer look, (b) some smart dance moves or, preferably, (c) both.
The Frothy Boyz, who performed to the gone-but-not-forgotten “Ice Ice Baby,” brought the complete package and took first place before an enthusiastic crowd of about 800.
“They threw it down!” exclaimed Russ Pennell, head coach for men’s basketball, offering his impressions to the audience after the Boyz had left the stage. Pennell, Director of Student Housing Eric Andrews, Enrollment Counselor Jeff Ogne and University Relations Liaison Ruth Nsubuga served as judges.
The Boyz trio of Trent Bruns, Steve Fullerton and Steven Egeberg sported matching paint-splattered white pants, flat-brimmed baseball caps and sunglasses, but it was their precision choreography that instantly became the talk of the show.
Afterward, Bruns insisted that they hadn’t practiced at great length.
“The guys got rhythm, what can I say?” he said.
That they do, and so did several other acts among the 14 to perform over the course of two hours. The Biebsters, with Brandon Swiers as teen heartthrob Justin Bieber, took second place and the entire men’s basketball team, which pulled off a sacred/scary theme built around the heavy-metal song “Bodies” by Drowning Pool, took third.
Keeping the show going as emcees were James Rogers, resident director of Prescott Hall, and Matt Clayton, former vice president of ASGCU. The two played burned-out pirates Salty Dogg and Blackbeard with attitude and ineptitude, and their “history of rap” medley — though not part of the competition — was borderline mesmerizing.
That’s the thing about this event. Although it’s done for laughs — of which there are plenty — rays of talent manage to shine through.
Even intermittent sound problems couldn’t kill the buzz in the Arena, and where else would an infant (Luke Reiger, the 5-month-old son of Student Development Director John-Paul Reiger) be used as a prop? Yes, that was part of the Canyon Rawrs’ rendition of “Circle of Life” (from “The Lion King”).
Kind of hard to top, you know?
“Oh, you lip-sync? Well, we have a baby in our act,” Clayton quipped at the end of the song.
A video at intermission included hilarious performances by President Kathy Player and Provost Cheri St. Arnauld (teaming up on Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite”) and Chief Operating Officer Stan Meyer (on Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog,” using a baseball bat as his guitar).
Pulling it all together was ASGCU’s activities director, sophomore Caitlyn Hull, who didn’t seem the least bit intimidated by the move from the old site, North Gym, to the big house. Her “Wizard of Oz” theme was a masterpiece, right down to the yellow-brick-road theme in the lobby and on the Arena’s video boards.
“It’s one of my favorite musicals,” said Hull, whose team worked half of the day Wednesday and all day Thursday to get the Arena ready. “This was fun.”
Reach Doug Carroll at 639.8011 or [email protected].
