Junior Bernie Bruso recently beat out seniors Josh Larner, Eliot Sands and Anthony Patten as well as fellow juniors Clinton Mungeta and Claufy Bongambe for the title of Mr. CHS 2016.
The competition took place Friday, March 25, in the Christa McAuliffe Auditorium.
Each contestant had to express a hidden talent and lip sync a song. Last year, Shane Hilton was crowned victor after re-enacting “Single Ladies” by Beyoncé.
Bruso performed “Banana Man” by Tally Hall after wowing the judges with his ability to down (and keep down) random food concoctions. “To win, I will be eating a concoction of random mystery ingredients and trying not to throw up,” Bruso said prior to the start of the competition.
Afterward he said, “It feels amazing. I didn’t even care if I won, I just had fun.”
This year’s judges included Latin teacher Katie McDonough, Chemistry teacher Lyn Vinskus, English teacher Angella Mullins and student teacher Joseph Kleinhenz.
At the beginning of the evening judges said they had no idea who would win though McDonough “accidentally wore a Bernie T-shirt so that might mean something.” And Vinskus said Bongambe had been “talking up a storm all week.”
Every contestant planned to win.
“I am going to try to pull out the bro look as much as possible: pull out the brocabulary,” said Larner, another repeat competitor. “I’m going to dance to ‘Power’ by Kanye West because that is the cockiest song I know.”
Students also planned their attire. Sands and Patten (who also lost to Hilton last year) walked out in suits. Bruso, on the other hand, competed in a four-leaf clover hoodie and jeans: a simple man.
Although the show is to crown the next Mr CHS, this year’s show kicked off with a performance by past contestant physics teacher Phil Clarner. To warm up the crowd, Clarner performed a song he wrote.
The first part of the show was talent. Contestants were given the chance to show the judges and the audience what they could do.
Sands, who performed first, proved a highlight in the talent competition. He utilized his stutter during a rap of “Alexander Hamilton” from Hamilton, demanding a stop to the instrumental accompaniment.
When he began to spit the verses acapella, the crowd went wild.
Patten showed off his singing talent by performing “The Wanderer” by Dion.
He received criticism from the judges, though, because the music he provided included lyrics rather than just the instrumental.
Patten jokingly lashed back and was ushered out by security.
Mungeta took advantage of the latest dance craze, “dabbin,” and showed off his own dab skills along with a sidekick, David Tumain. The two performed to, of course, the song “Dab on Em” by Big Will.
The judges thought that Mungeta did well but his sidekick was a bit “distracting.”
Bongambe also performed a dance routine for his talent. His song of choice was “It’s Tricky” by Run DMC.
The judges loved it as they all thought the DMC song is a “classic.”
Larner decided to change it all up by performing something very different. He recited a piece he wrote using all the BRO-cabulary words he knew.
This influenced many people, including Ms Vinskus, who said, “I can’t stop saying bro, bro.”
Other judges, including Mullins, only gave Larner a 5.
Bruso thought way out of the box for his talent.
He had a friend prepare several concoctions of liquid mixes which included ingredients such as vinegar to bananas all blended into a bottle.
This disgusted everyone in the crowd except for the “Bernie support group” formed by Bruso’s friends and followers.
The next event in the competition was the Lip-Sync contest wherein students were judged on their lip sync abilities as well as their interactions with the judges and crowd.
Prior to taking the stage, Sands declared, “I am Billy Joel” and then went out to perform Joel’s “The Entertainer.”

Mungeta, again with Tumain, lip synced was “I Know What You Did Last Summer” by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello.
This time Mungeta received higher scores from the judges. He sang the male part of the song and Tumain sang the female part.
Patten pumped up the crowd when he began his lip sync to Macklemore’s latest song, “Downtown,” but what really got the crowd going was the outfit he wore: a gray cut off T-shirt, a headband, and some tight compression pants.

Bongambe performed “Where Them Girls At” by David Guetta for his lip sync, surprising the judges when he brought two girls from the crowd to help him perform a dance routine.
“That sounds like a 10 to me!” said Kleinhenz after the act.
Larner really fired up the crowd when rushed out to the social media viral song “The Time is Now,” which was created as a theme song for WWE wrestler John Cena.
Larner had to cut the song short, though, when he ran out of breath, stating, “I had lacrosse practice before this. I’m winded!”
Mr CHS ended with interviews in which contestants were asked a series of questions and used their wit to make answers funny.
When asked about what he thinks about the Illuminati, Sands said,“I am pro Illuminati and I welcome our shadow overlords.” He also provided insight on what calculator he uses, the TI80, because “it is the single best calculator in the world.”
Asked about the CHS lifestyle, Patten replied, “Roooooll Tide! Keeping it rowdy is what we do.”
Asked where he would fly to if he was a butterfly, Patten showed off his patriotism by replying, “None better than our nation’s capital.”
Bongambe tried flattery to sway the judges.
When asked about his favorite teacher, Bongambe said, “Ms V (Vinsksus) of course.”
Asked whether beauty was on the outside or inside, he replied back, “It’s all.”
Larner said that “whoever can hype the tide and roll the tide the hardest, that’s who should be Mr CHS.”
Bruso talked about why he has such a large following.
 
“Well, these guys, most of them are hired actors and the rest of them are just homeless people I found on the streets. They’ll do anything for money,” he said, ending his interview to “I love you!” shouts from the crowd.
Bongambe placed second in the competition. Sands was declared runner up.