Mrs. International Pageant Preliminary Night 2010

As usual, I write these notes during the pageant and post them shortly after the pageant. I will attempt, as always, to post a wrapup LIVE from the Doubletree hotel next door after the event. Those are generally quite chaotic, so if you miss it, check out the archived copy at http://tv.pageantcast.com/

Also, our plan is to have a program this coming Tuesday AND FRIDAY. Tuesday’s show, of course, is very special as it will be the 250th episode of the PageantCast. Friday’s show should carry over any information or interviews not covered in the show on Tuesday. I will try to balance the shows as always so you won’t want to miss either program. We plan to not have Amazing-A-Tron segments during the LIVE! Pageant Review Tuesday and Friday.

Matt Davenport Productions once again put together the stage production and this year they sported a brand new set complete with two Jumbo-Tron screens and a fresh opening number done to Black Eyed Peas’ super hit “Tonights Going to be a Good Night” sung by Ryan Greenawalt (http://www.ryangreenawalt.com/). The ladies came in beautiful fuchsia outfits that seemed to have the effect of setting the audience completely on fire.

The ladies introduced themselves from ports of call all over the country and across the seas including Austrailia and India. All the ladies looked stunning and ready for an exciting competition!

After introductions and that knockout of an opening number, they introduced our MC’s for the evening Kyle Henry and Mrs. International 2008 Laine Berry. Laine, as expected, was decked out in RED from top to bottom; if you recall, Go Red for Women was her platform and the official platform of the International Pageant system (http://www.mrsinternational.com/).

Mrs. International 2009 Armaiti Shahidi-Fitzgerald was welcomed to the stage to say some brief words while the ladies backstage prepared for the next phase of competition. The MC’s introduced the judges, which I couldn’t catch everyone’s name, so I won’t list here. You can get that from the program books anyway. Go buy one. Sheesh.

Fitness Wear was the first phase of competition on stage. (The ladies had already done their interview the previous day with round-robin style 5 minute interviews.) Well, these ladies had obviously worked hard to get in the physical shape they were for this competition on stage. Most of the ladies came out in two-piece fitness wear outfits. The competition went quickly and professionally as we’ve come to expect at the International pageants. One snafu with announcing the wrong contestant was the only exception to that rule and it appears to me that the contestants must have gotten out of order backstage somewhere.

During breaks Kyle and Laine had some banter to work through and I have one thing to say: I think Laine Berry may speak faster than that guy that did the Federal Express commercials back in the 1980′s. I have never heard someone that could go through an entire page of script in approximately 20 seconds before. I’m just a Midwestern boy and we’re not used to such fast speaking.

The new set was deceptively simple in concept but by changing the lighting from time to time, it really could take on any character. For pageant directors that give lighting little to no attention, remember you can save a lot of money on a set by creating a simple set and just working with the lighting to give it best affect.

Once we completed Fitness Wear (which takes a while with this many contestants), I felt I didn’t have a good feel for who should be finalists yet. Despite my pleading that they go through the whole shebang again from beginning to end, the show must go on. (I guess I’ll need to get the DVD. You can get yours at the International website a few days after the pageant. http://www.mrsinternational.com/)

Really now. Just one more time.

Okay.

Moving on.

From Fitness Wear, we moved into Intermission or as I like to call it “Husband Wrangling Competition.” Eddie Peterson was equal to the task.

So during intermission, had a couple wonderful conversations. The concensus was that we have a highly talented and exciting group of women competing this year and that the production is simply glorious. The second act started with a wonderful tune sung by Ryan Greenawalt and a quick move into the Evening Gown competition.

The ladies, as always, were escorted by their husbands which always, for me, adds to the drama of the event. I typically check out the ladies gown and enjoy watching the husband as they nearly pass out from fear of somehow screwing it up for their wives. Yet another reason I am a bachelor. I would fall into the first row or something. These guys were all so smooth…I thought at least a few of them looked a little like James Bond.

And the Bond girls were up to the glamour of the evening. The sparkle-o-meter was flashing like a 60′s hippy on a progressive campus. We saw an unusual amount of black gowns this year, with the BLING moving to the jewelry and accessories. There were some of the glitzy jewelfests (the Jessica Rabbit look if you will) we’ve become accustomed to at the Mrs. International competition, but less than previous years. White is still very popular in competition, but I did see a few striking strong color gowns, particularly some gorgeous red gowns this year.

So I’ve heard the new arch in the set called the “Stargate” but as I watch this competition, I call it the compass as we lead ourselves on a magical journey around the world. Can we agree on calling it the International compass???

I just realized this article is more random than some in the past. I do not apologize. Continuing with the random, this year I saw a lot less uniformed gentlemen escorting their wives. I know at least in one case that is due to the husband having been recently deployed. To them, I thank them all for their service to our country.

By the way, all the production music was new that I heard this year. The production music last year  had been used a few years, so I was happy to hear the change. After 50 contestants, any piece of looping music becomes trying.

After 2 phases of competition with 3 groups of contestants, the preliminary competitions were now complete. They welcomed Ryan Greenawalt to sing “Better Days” to the stage. By the way, all this was accomplished by 2 hours into the pageant. Plenty of smaller pageants can’t churn with that much content in that kind of time frame. Congratulations to the International Pageant team.

Midway through the song Ryan reintroduced the ladies and they took the stage. This led us into the preliminary awards ceremony. That means, of course, the naming of the Photogenic Winner. It is decided by the judges based on the candid photos taken during the week. Mrs. Southeast International, Shannon Devine, won the award in her stunning white gown.

Tomorrow night there will be the final competition. Remember to check us out at http://tv.pageantcast.com/ for a live update directly after the event.