Pageant Day

You can definitely tell it's pageant day.  You wouldn't have to ask anyone, but the girls are all anxious and looking for the reward to their efforts.  Although I'm supposed to be backstage, I feel like I'm seconds away from getting kicked out by a bouncer.  Some of the girls are prepping in a common area, I feel like I'm not supposed to be here.  The power of the pass I suppose. 

The Secrets of the Pageant

The girls have this magic concoction that keeps the bottoms of their bikinis in place.  They call it butt glue.  In actuality it's an acrylic adhesive that they're getting sprayed onto their posterior.  I wonder if the manufacturers know that what their making is being used to hold bikini bottoms in place.  That would make for a whole new marketing campaign.  Do you need to attach lightweight foam to something?  Do you need to prevent your bikini from riding up?  Use our adhesive.  And apparently it's not fun to take off.  I can't imagine why.  I mean it seems natural that you're supposed to apply it to your skin and then rip it off.  

The Green Room

I've made my way to the talent green room.  John Salley and Gary Payton, both pageant judges, are getting a pre-pageant meal.  Then in walks John Daly.  This is a treat for me, who doesn't want to meet John Daly? The PGA tour's black sheep.  The everyman who beats the white collar world of golf.  He meets expectations.  He sat down and immediately sparked up a cigarette and cracked a beer.  I actually had to leave the room, but when I came back there was a bottle with extinguished butts and a few bottle caps where he had been sitting.  I love it.

John Daly Pt 2

I'm sitting backstage left when John Daly walked back there to greet some of the Hooters execs.  Off against the wall, a stage hand is actually playing a golf video game as John Daly.  They call John over to show him and as he sees the video game version of himself he quips, "Fat f---!"  Then he yells at the stage hand for pulling out driver on a hole where he'd clearly hit 2 iron.  Golf is all about course management.

The Pageant Continues

I'm sitting in a chair backstage as the girls are getting into position.  I turn my head and I'm greeted by a, ahem, backside right bent over in my face.  One of the contestants is getting here lower-back tattoo covered up with makeup.  It caught me off guard, but you'd think I'd be somewhat immune to it by now.  Nope, I'm not.  The 2007 winner, Breanne Ashley is waiting in the wings and I chat her up about her experiences and who she thinks is going to win.  I'll let you know if she got it right.

The Top 10 and Winner

I moved out to the crowd to watch the announcement of the Top 10 and the winner.  Somewhat surprisingly a lot of first timers have made the Top 10.  Like Brittany Johnson, appropriately from Johnson City, Tennessee.  As she stood in the Top 10 line, her smile stretched all the way back to Tennessee. 

Fifteen minutes after I asked for a prediction from Breanne Ashley, it came true.  Chris Rose announced the winner to be Sara Hoots from San Antonio.  Hoots was one of the favorites to win, she just carried herself differently from most of the girls.  As Rose called her name as the winner, she pumped her fist much like Kobe Bryant does after sinking a game winning shot.  Except Kobe's not as cute, and Sara did it without Shaq.

Reflection

It was quite the week blogging about what goes on at the Hooters International Swimsuit Pageant.  For me, it was an awesome experience and hopefully I gave you guys a taste of what it was like to be an average guy surrounded by beautiful women. 

 

 

 

 

Best Damn Taping 
It's always fun bringing a Best Damn taping to a different part of the country. There's always a great vibe and the crowds are pumped up to have a national television show in their neck of the woods. Not only did we have the Hooters girls all over the pool, we had Dwyane Wade and Alonzo Mourning drop by to talk sports. 'Zo is a pretty intense dude. I had to produce his segment that day so I was chatting him up before the show. He could break me in half by blinking if he wanted to.  Throughout the show, I also made sure the girls had enough water and sunscreen. Also, took the job of Mr. Mister this year, a job that our art guy Johnny usually carries. Misting girls with cold water, the week just gets better and better.  Several of the girls had the chance to be featured on the show as valets for the guest to the stage as well as being in the Blondes vs Brunettes challenge. After walking Alonzo Mourning to the stage, Megan Dedousis of Delaware jumped into the pool with a full cannonball. Quite impressive if you ask me. My suggestion of mudwrestling got shot down for the challenge. Bummer. As taping went on, clouds started gathering and the rain threatened to pour. Luckily it was just a light rain and we were able to finish the show. A keen viewer may have noticed some continuity issues with the sunny sky and the cloudy sky. The weather foiled our attempts at TV magic. 

Rain aside, it was a pretty successful show. Hopefully we'll be able to do it here again next year. 

Sexy and Silver Party 
This is the 25th anniversary of Hooters, so the girls are celebrating in silver dresses. Yowsa. If he knew silver could look this good, Michael Phelps would be going for second place in all his races. There's a good food spread for the party of barbecue. I love it cause I don't have to parade in a bikini in 2 days, but it's a bit odd to me that the food of choice is so heavy before a pageant. I do find it cool that the girls are chowing down. I would think they'd just want to eat salads or something but I like a girl who isn't afraid to put away a plate of ribs. 
I like to consider my self hip to the new dances that young people are doing. The girls have all gathered on stage to do the Cupid Something. Shuffle? I don't know. But the girls are all doing it on stage. What ever happened to the Electric Slide? Now the girls are crankin' dat Soulja Boy. I can sort of stumble my way through this one. My favorite part was overhearing an older gentleman trying to do the dance. "Maybe I should learn?" he said. I hope he does learn then starts doing it at a club. 

Am I Old? 
I debate this question in my head all the time. 28... is that old? Sometimes I think the answer is no considering I recently got carded trying to see a rated R movie. Then a band like Third Eye Blind makes me feel old. They were hired to play a set at the party and I'm stoked. Although I realize that it's very possible that the girls really don't know the band at all. They haven't been in the spotlight lately and hit their peak 10 years ago. I conducted a quick survey and luckily over 80% of the girls I asked knew the band. Whew. I don't feel that old. 

Third Eye Blind
They released "Semi-Charmed Life" when I was a junior in high school and I have some great memories listening to their debut CD. Despite the fact that most of the Best Damn producers don't think they're all that, I know better. "Graduate", "How's It Gonna Be", "Losing A Whole Year", "Jumper", "Motorcycle Drive By"... all great tunes. And that's just one album. And that one hugely successful album landed lead singer Stephan Jenkins Charlize Theron. Yeah, that's how good they were. I was very impressed that Hooters was able to land them for the party and they put on a solid show. 

Dedication 
The party has rapped up, and while it's somewhat late, some of the girls are staying dedicated to the pageant. They have late night spray tan sessions scheduled. I tell ya, these girls are in it to win it. Spray tans at midnight... Sounds like some B movie. I wouldn't last a day as a pageant contestant. I'm just too lazy. 

Not much more to report on for the night. We'll see what happens tomorrow.   


Pageant Preview 
We've fast forwarded to the Pageant Preview show because the action was a little slow today. The preview is basically for corporate sponsors and special VIPs. All the girls are in their swimsuits and they walk the stage, hence pageant preview. The judges sit by the runway and get their first glimpse of the girls. Dick Vitale's sitting stage-side and I haven't seen him so excited since Coach K sent him a pair of Duke basketball shorts. The whole preview took over an hour as all 128 girls walked the stage and a couple dozen women were honored as Hooters Girl Hall of Famers. I wonder what the busts will look like at this Hall of Fame. The preview has ended and some of the girls look pretty worn out. They've been busy all week with shoots and rehearsals and it looks like some are just drained. Especially, Emma Cam from Australia. She's far from home and has that look like she's ready to curl up in her bed and not wake up until she's home. 


Tomorrow's the actual pageant, I'll have more to report then.

Editor's Note: These events happened during Hooters Week around July 4th weekend. You can catch the 2008 Hooters International Swimsuit Pageant on Sunday August 24th at 9pm on FSN

First Rehearsal Morning

Today's wake up is easier.  Headed down to the lobby to join the girls on their way to the theater for rehearsal.  There's four buses filled with the contestants and all the girls are wearing their white warm-up track suits.  You can tell the girls are anxious for the pageant and ready to strut their stuff on stage.  I spoke to a bunch of girls on the boat about the pageant and just about everyone said they're not competitive when it comes to winning crown and they don't care who wins.  While they seemed good intentioned with their answers, I'd say about 98% of them were serious about winning, despite saying they weren't.  I don't blame them though.  These girls go to great lengths to keep their bodies in shape and they want a reward for the effort they put in.  But I would like to have heard someone say, "Oh yeah, I want to win...big time."  Although, I suppose if I did hear that, I'd probably be writing an entry about a super-competitive fireball.

Rehearsal

I'm still not over the fact that I'm in the midst of over 100 Hooters Girls, but I'll be honest, rehearsal is a snoozer.  The end result of the rehearsal is great but there's a lot of standing around while the contestants learn where to stand and when to walk and how to wave and so on and so on.  I do feel bad that they have to stand for extended lengths of time in these tall heels.  Does not look fun.  Plus, I think at one point they were standing, smiling and waving into the camera for 30 minutes.  I think my arm would have fallen off after 30 seconds.  I'm heading back to the hotel to help out with tomorrow's taping of Best Damn. Best Damn Runthrough This hotel is one of the best places we've ever filmed a road show.  Very much looking forward to tomorrow when the pool is filled with people and we give South Florida a taste of our show. One of the best parts of Best Damn road shows with the Hooters Girls is the Blondes vs Brunettes challenges.  This year, I'm around for the obstacle course design.  We're tossing around ideas of what games would work best on the beach and we actually have 2 local Hooters girls helping test out the games.

 

I would never have thought that I would have more fun with the guys that I work with every day than I did in a room with the pageant contestants but I did.  Rehearsal, as I wrote earlier, is a snoozer and testing out these games is a blast. It's like being the Macgyver of games: here's an inflatable ball, some cones and a slip 'n slide, now make something happen.  Can't wait to see the events on tomorrow's show. 

Wedding

After rehearsal, I was walking to my room when something caught my attention.  There's a sign for a wedding that's taking place at the hotel.  What awful luck for the bride-to-be.  It's her big weekend and she has to compete for attention against the Hooters girls.  And how about the groom-to-be?  What if he's one of those guys that used to be afraid of commitment then took the big leap and decided to get married.  He's probably pacing around the room before coming to the hotel saying "God, give me a sign that getting married is the right decision."  Then he gets to the hotel and BAM!  He has temptation all over the place.  Cruel fate.  Cruel fate I say.

4th of July Party

Hooters has lined up a giant cruise ship to celebrate our great nation's birthday.  As I'm milling around the boat I have one thought: Unbelievable ratio (great looking girl to dude that is). But I'm bound by the moral obligations to my job this week.  After all, I'm a true professional.  If I weren't here to be an objective journalist, I'd really be on my game and turning it on with the ladies.  HA! What I really am is professionally delusional.  Seriously though, my buddies and I roam Los Angeles for bars full of hot women and free of d***e bags.  We fail just about every weekend.  Now I'm on a cruise with 130 bikini pageant contestants and the thing is, they can't go anywhere!  They are stuck on this boat with me for the entire night!  

Shocker of the Night

There's a lot of good food being served, but the most ignored food? Chicken wings.  Maybe it's that these girls have served so many wings that they wanted other foods or maybe they're just good company women and eat only Hooters brand wings.  Either way the wings are being neglected.

Interview

 

So I'm talking to various girls about their time in Florida for the pageant.  I chatted up Jenny Lester from Philly about some of her experiences over the last couple of days and the excitement of being in an international pageant.  As the interview is winding up, I say thanks for the chat and head off.  As I was walking away, I realized that I had pretty much said goodbye immediately after she had mentioned the fact that she had a boyfriend and I felt like a creep!  As I realized how that could have looked from her perspective, I hustled back and let her know that I just didn't have any more questions and didn't leave because she mentioned her boyfriend.  She said she believed me but I'll never know.  I'll also never know if I had subconsciously tuned out as soon as I heard a girl say the word "boyfriend."  I am a dude you know. 

The Night Progresses

Most of the time what I'm doing tonight is called stalking.  This week it's called blogging.  I feel like I'm at some sort of strange fantasy camp except I'm not surrounded by old guys hanging onto a dream.  I'm literally surrounded by stunners all over the place.  They dance, they mingle, they respond to my attempts at conversation. Yeah, I suppose I am at fantasy camp.

 

10:02 PM

Dancing is fun. That's all I have to say about that.  It's been a fun 4th of July.