Gansett’s Hot Winter Night
The midwinter doldrums can be shaken off, at least temporarily, tomorrow night when the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett roars back to life to host the sixth annual Mr. Amagansett Pageant, a fund-raiser for the Donald T. Sharkey Memorial Community Fund.
The event traditionally showcases the good, the bad, and the downright weird in a lighthearted competition to benefit the fund named for a former East Hampton Town chief building inspector who died in 2009. The fund benefits the community in myriad ways, including financial assistance to families in need, a scholarship, and donations to fire departments. It also makes an annual donation to the Wounded Warrior Project, the veterans-care organization that has been the beneficiary of many fund-raising events held by Talkhouse employees and patrons.
In a twist on previous years’ pageants, the contestants, numbering at least eight, will face a panel of male judges. Also new this year is a silent auction with more than 30 prizes, including a private plane ride over East Hampton, a two-night stay in New York City, gift certificates to some of the South Fork’s finest restaurants, and sewing, tennis, and golf lessons.
“I’m proud to be a part of it, proud that the community has continued to keep his memory alive,” Nick Kraus, a promoter at the Talkhouse, said. Mr. Sharkey, he said, was “bigger than life in life, so it’s nice to keep him in our thoughts. Good things are happening around town even without him here any longer.”
Mr. Kraus, a former winner of the pageant, is ineligible to be crowned again, “but for some odd reason I’m allowed to enter again.” He promised to continue a tradition of competing via video, presenting “a winter version of the Showtime show ‘The Affair,’ ” he confided.
Other contestants will include Town Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, last year’s winner; Gordon Ryan, who previously performed as part of a duo called Boo Bonac and the Plague but promised an all-new act, and, said Tina Piette, one of the event’s organizers, “a local character” sponsored by American Legion Post 419.
“It’s going to be the event of the winter,” said Britton Bistrian, another organizer. “Some regulars, some new blood, much laughter.”
The Talkhouse will open at 6 p.m. tomorrow, with the pageant beginning at 7:30. The cost to compete or to sponsor a contestant is $250. Admission is $20.