Thursday, Feb. 12, Klein Standleaders hosted the 10th annual Mr. TopKat Competition. Personally, I’ve always wondered why it was so close to Valentine’s Day, and I have yet to find that out.

I stayed backstage for the duration of Mr. TopKat in order to experience it firsthand. Let me just say, it was a very interesting evening with the Standleaders and the contestants. Everyone was in high spirits and, though they were busy, enjoyed their time on stage.

The dressing room was bustling when I arrived backstage. Standleaders were getting ready in their pink tutus and golden Converse while practicing for the opening number of “Uptown Funk” with the contestants.

Throughout the pageant, I went between stage left and the dressing room so I could stay out of the way, yet still be in the middle of things. I saw each contestant go out onto the stage for each of the competitions, and each time I was thoroughly amused by the outfits that the contestants had chosen, especially for swimwear. When I was there, Rodney Whitfield, Karthik Satish, and Yannik Zengler stood out the most, for me anyway.

I was expecting to see seniors in actual swimsuit, with no shirt, being serious. Instead, I discovered that these boys had great senses of humor and just had a lot of fun with it. I saw one contestant – Harry Sale, I believe – wearing large flippers, floaties, and a snorkeling mask, being somewhat of a dork backstage. Everyone was amused by his look, I’m sure.

As for formal wear, they looked great and still had fun. I saw Yannik Zengler had a rose with him and was acting as if he was on “The Bachelor” with his two Standleader escorts. At one point, he was “choosing” between them and ended up handing the rose to me instead, as a little joke. I believe that when he did this on stage, he threw the rose into the audience or at the judges.

I didn’t have many expectations for who would win: I hadn’t seen their performances from the perspective of the audience, who was voting for the winners. The only surprise I had when watching the final results was with the winner of Best Personality. Drew Chricton deserved that award, but I myself would have voted for Yannik Zengler just from seeing him backstage (he did win Best Smile though).

The best part of the competition, however, was Rodney Whitfield’s reaction when he won Mr. TopKat. His excitement was priceless, and so was his thank-you speech when the Standleader girls put the robe and crown on him. I heard him say, “Thank you” to Jesus before he was drowned out by the audience laughing.

Being backstage during such an event was interesting to say the least. Just to see all energy and effort put in by all the Standleaders was amazing, in and of itself.