Q and A

The Good Life with Eli F.J. Tajanlangit

One of the things that make beauty pageants such compelling entertainment is the obligatory Q and A, the question and answer portion that is supposed to draw out the level of wit, wisdom, composure and confidence of the candidates. It is also meant to see how articulate they are – you know, how capable they are in communicating themselves.

It is not really intelligence we look for there, because otherwise, that can be gauged, and properly so, by an IQ examination. Besides, pageants are really a search for beauties, not for Mensa members.

Many of my friends go to these contests precisely to enjoy how the girls, and gays, and now men, comport themselves during the Q and A. In fact, my Good Friend J, who wouldn’t hesitate to go to purok pageants at night for this portion has a collection of hilarious quotes she has memorized by heart, and shares these when prompted, a no-fail party perker, or even ice-breaker. There’s that story, for instance, of a candidate who dramatically and publicly declared, “I would like to thank my parents, especially my father and my mother…”

You cannot quite prepare for the words, or even the actions, these candidates can say or do under the bright lights, in front of a potentially cruel crowd which would boo at the slightest provocation, and on the edge of the life-changing possibility of going home tonight with a crown on one’s head, a sash slanting from the shoulder to the mid-section, and a title that will forever stay in the resume. “A beautiful question,” answered one candidate, “deserves a beautiful answer. Can you please repeat the question?”

Some questions are so silly, they really deserve the silly answers candidates dish out. There was a time when situational questions like “If given the chance to…” or “If you are marooned in an island…” were popular. One such question was, “If you have the chance to travel to any part of the universe, where would you want to go and why?” Answer: “I’d like to go to Jupiter because I want to meet a lot of people. The biggest planet should have the biggest population…”

One candidate was asked to name the world’s neutral country, where dictators usually deposit their loot. To help her, the host gave her several clues. Still unable to answer the question, she was given one final clue: it sounds like “swisssss…swisssss…” said the host. Oh, the candidate broke into a knowing smile, “An airplane!”

Recently, we got  the classic “major, major” quote, courtesy  of our Venus Raj who nearly made it as the world’s most beautiful woman, except for how she handled her Q and A. That quote reverberated on the Vegas stage, where she famously said it, and across the world, making for good stand-up comic act line, advertising copy, and dinner conversation. Fortunately, she was able to turn that around and use it in fact to her advantage. Other girls have not lived down their unintentional quotes on the beauty contest stage.

I recently received this text message, and I don’t know if this came from an actual contest. But given the kind of quotes we get from there, I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.

Top 5 finalists Q and A:

Question to Candidate No 1: What can you say about the demoralization of our nation because of globalization?

Answer of Candidate No 1: Thank you for that beautiful, edgy and mind-blowing question sir and for that, I consider myself 4th runner up. Thank you.*

For feedback, go to www.lifestylesbacolod.com, check Bacolod Lifestyles on Facebook and follow @bacolodtweets on Twitter

back to top