Seniors Erika Glass and Daniel Acosta, representing Federacion de los Estudiantes Cubanos (FEC) and Association of Commuter Students respectively, were announced king and queen of the Homecoming’s King and Queen Superhero Showdown in the SAC ballrooms Wednesday night.
This year’s Homecoming court also includes junior Tequille Jackson, representing United Black Students as the prince, and freshman Jennifer Cooke, representing Stanford Residential College as the princess.
“I decided to participate in the pageant because I always wanted to do king and queen, and I never really had a chance earlier … I decided to just go for it,” Glass said.
The winners were judged on their skits, spirit, talent and their resumes. Emma Guller, the co-chair of the pageant, said it was to ensure that the winners were involved outside of the competition.
“Resumes are used to help make sure the person who wins is a good representative of someone involved in the UM community, not just someone who performs well,” Guller said.
Acosta’s talent brought crowd members to their feet as he appeared fully decked out in a wig, make up and a dress to sing “I Put a Spell on You” from Disney’s “Hocus Pocus” movie.
“The hardest part of the pageant was getting ready for my talent,” Acosta said. “It took a lot of makeup to make that happen.”
Glass, who has been singing since age 5, sang the song “Gimme Gimme,” from the Broadway show “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” Despite representing FEC, students from other organizations cheered her on as she hit the difficult notes.
Last year’s pageant separated the talent portion of the show from the skit portion, but to make things more interesting, the two sections were combined this year. Guller said they wanted to keep the students on their feet to keep them from getting bored.
The skits focused on UM traditions with a superhero twist.
The fan favorites, chosen after a vote during intermission, were junior Maya Underwood and senior Derik Madorma, who portrayed characters Lady CSA and Mr. Hechtastic.
After getting spectators to sing part of the Alma Mater with their fingers swaying in the air, Lady CSA gained a new superpower (as part of the skit) that allowed her to make beach parties appear out of nowhere. She used this new power on the audience, and smiles spread across students’ faces as they jumped up to catch beach balls released into the crowd.
After the skits and talent portion, the 16 participants were narrowed down to 8. The final 4 were chosen after the question round.
Questions included, “What would you do if you were president for a day?” and “What has been your greatest UM memory thus far?”