Contributor Review by Michael Berney: Rocket Men Show Another Side of Richard Montgomery
Mar 14, 2008 8:30 - 1 Comment
Posted by: Cindy Cotte Griffiths
Department: Events In Rockville
Tags: by Michael Berney, contributor review, Lifestyle, reviews, RMHS
Department: Events In Rockville
Tags: by Michael Berney, contributor review, Lifestyle, reviews, RMHS
>The following contributor review is by Michael Berney:
And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time
Till touch down brings me round again to find
I’m not the man they think I am at home
No, no, no, no—I’m a Rocket Man
–Bernie Taupin (sung by Elton John)
Its close to midnight and something evils lurking in the dark
her inability to answer a question on geography. The humor displayed by the Richard Montgomery students could not have differed more.
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The Richard Montgomery High School Rocket Men busted a few stereotypes last Friday night March 7,
2008. This is a group of kids who attend the number one school in the D.C. metropolitan area on the Washington Post’s Challenge Index for Rigor. Three quarters of the student body are enrolled in honors and advance placement courses. The student graduation rate is 92.7% and the attendance rate is 94.9%. These are high school students whose academic achievement is out of this world.
But there is another, more playful, side to these young men.
Introductions
Sixteen Richard Montgomery seniors competed for the title of “Mr. RM” on Friday in a two-and-a-half hour competition. Participants displayed unique talents, dressed up in formal wear and beachwear, and tried out pick-up lines on female classmates. As judges whittled the group down to ten and then five contestants, the final set had to answer a pair of questions in an interview phase.
When the curtain opened on the evening, the entire group danced in formation to “It’s Raining Men.” The audience, of parents and siblings, fellow students and RM alumni, howled and applauded. Then the evening’s hosts called up the contestants one by one. The hosts read introductions penned by the contestant themselves.
Ian Richter: “He is the mortal enemy of new age philosophy in all its forms, and he will never ‘just chill’.”
Kishan Thadikonda: “He plans to one day settle down in an arranged marriage and make beautiful Indian babies.”
Talents
Kevin Chung led off the opening event of the competition: a talent demonstration. He took center stage with a traditional Chinese yo-yo. This toy, which has a history dating to China’s Ming Dynasty (1386-1644 AD), is kept spinning on a string tied to two sticks at its ends. Kevin manipulated the yo-yo, tossing it in the air, around his back, and through his legs.
Then the curtains on the stage closed and a screen descended. Michael Rosenthal—in real life an accomplished RM athlete—appeared in a video, poking fun at himself playing football, basketball, and lacrosse. “But the one thing I’ve always wanted to do,” Michael said at the video’s end, “was dance Thriller with the RM Poms.”At that moment the curtains opened and Michael, taking the Michael Jackson role as head zombie, led a group of costumed POMS to the rock song:
Under the moonlight you see a sight that almost stops your heart
Formal and Informal Clothing When all of the young men had displayed talents, they appeared as a group on stage wearing formal wear. Most wore tuxedos, but the group also included variations such as traditional Indian formal wear.
Beachwear followed formal wear. Here clothes ranged from swimwear to an 8-foot tall red lobster. One “misguided” contestant showed up in a head-to-toe snowboarding outfit.
Pick-Up Lines
The next portion of the Mr. RM contest required each contestant to approach a pair of girls seated mid-stage. The contestant had to display his best pick-up line.
Kevin Chung: “My love for you is like an exponential function: it’s boundless.”
Jake Rosner: “My friend just bet me that I wouldn’t get a date with the most beautiful girl in school. Can you help me win that bet?”
Zach Sandberg: “Girl, you put the ‘fine’ in ‘sunshine’.”—To which the reply was, “There is no ‘fine’ in ‘sunshine’.”
Winning Through Humor
When Ms. South Carolina competed in this year’s Miss Teen USA contest, she humore
d the audience with
Friday night’s contestants poked fun at themselves. They competed in a good-natured competition where, in a sense, everyone won. These young men showed another side of a school remarkable for its academic excellence.
One father compressed the entire competition down to a 10-second collage of still photographs and also has some very funny footage of the evening. View them here.
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Congratulations to RMHS students on a program that looks like a lot of fun. Sorry I missed seeing the talented performances. I would love to view the 10-second collage at a slower speed. Can it be slowed down?>
Brigitta Mullican
RMHS Class of ‘68