By Mary Deardeuff

maryd@newsroom.byu.edu

The story of the summer is not the movie "Shaft," but the shaft that was given to three long-time "X-Men" fans on Saturday, July 15.

Jake Willis, Matt Cooper and Jon Madsen have been fans of the "X-Men" for some 20 odd years --- practically their whole lives. So when they heard about the "X-Men" costume contest held on Saturday morning in the Provo Towne Centre, they jumped at the chance to dress up and pay homage to their favorite "X-Men" characters.

"We would've dressed up anyway for the movie, but I wouldn't have gone so far if there were no contest," said Willis, 25, from Orem, who was dressed up as Wolverine, a character whose powers include retractable blades in his hands.

Willis said he spent hours getting his costume ready, including placing butter knives in gloves so he would look just like the character Wolverine.

"I heard that there weren't many registered contestants, and I thought this is great, I'm a shoe-in," Willis said.

The contestants were grouped into two categories, 12 and under in one, and those 13 and older in the other. The prize for each winner was a Sega Dreamcast.

When the contest started in the mall's Centre Court, there were five contestants in the younger category and three in the older -- Willis, Cooper and Madsen.

Each contestant was interviewed briefly on stage by the emcee, KZHT's Danger Boy, and showed their costume to the judging panel, which consisted of a few reporters from the Daily Herald.

When it came time to announce the winners, Danger Boy said one of the contestants judged in the younger category was actually 13 years old, and belonged in the older category.

She ended up winning.

"I'm (upset)," Willis said.

"All of those kids were from Santaquin. The boy who won in the kids' category was from Santaquin; she was from Santaquin -- it was a fix!" Willis said.

Madsen, 23, from Provo, said, "There were three of us; we had a 75 percent chance of winning. One of us should have won! I mean, how many Sega Dreamcasts can Santaquin take?"

Cooper, from Payson, said he was consoled somewhat by the free pass given to each contestant to see the movie "X-Men" in the Provo Towne Centre theater.

"At least I will have a Halloween costume now," Cooper said.



Copyright Brigham Young University 17 Jul 2000