by Brendan G-W

Over the years, I have been a part of or witnessed plenty of oddball, goofy, off-the-wall and flat out weird shit. But not much has come close to the obscurity that is the Mr. O’Leaver’s Man Pageant. The premise: Ms. America gone awry. The brain child of a few creative women, the pageant has seen growth in its second year. Too large to fit in the bar, it was moved outdoors to the parking lot, with VIP seating that sold out a few months ago and general admittance tickets for everyone else.

 “Mantestants” compete against each other in several categories. Their fashion sense is critiqued for formal, casual and swim wear. The Q&A category poses hypotheticals such as “If you were a color…” or “If you had a $25 gift certificate to the mall…” with answers as varied as you could possibly imagine. Each “mantestant” performs a talent, something to set themselves apart from the field, one chose to play the National Anthem through a kazoo while ripping a phone book in half, another lifted the heaviest objects that the crowd could come up with (two people, one bench press style above his head), while the fan favorite was a magic act complete with pyrotechnics. Seriously. The final challenge was a gunnysack race in the volleyball courts involving shots of Rumpleminze and chugging beers. I would be remiss to not mention that the backbone of Mr. O’Leaver’s is plenty of libations.

In the end, four judges added up the scores and took into account the popular opinion to crown Mr. O’Leaver’s 2011. This year, Zach Hollowell took top honors while Landon Hedges was crowned Prince Rumpleminze. Other notable awards were: Mr. Disqualified (most DQ’s) Ian Douglas Terry, Mr. Class (most classy) Mike Tulis and Mr. Model (best fashions) Craig Fort. 

Words certainly cannot explain this spectacle. Check out this magical photo journey to really understand what Mr. O'Leaver's is all about. Photos by Robert Little, Jodeen Durham and Zach Hollowell (Disclaimer: May contain brief nudity/more skin than you would care to see)

Brendan G-W is an Omaha native. He usually nerds it up writing for GearNebraska, but has taken a summer vacay for really important things, like Mr. O'Leaver's. Were you offended by the meat show? Complaints can be directed to brendan.gwalsh@gmail.com.