AFTER greeting the audience, he said “I know what you’re thinking--What is Steve Harvey doing here?”
YouTube.com describes Harvey as “a TV personality, comedian, and radio show host … with a unique comedic spin.”
But his comedic spin was sour, showing instead a shameless unpreparedness and awkwardness with the kind of event.
Declaring one woman Miss Universe and then after she’s waved to the crowd countless times, bowed to the audience to acknowledge their applause, blew kisses to avid supporters and then wiped away tears of happiness… only to have her crown and sash taken away minutes later… are not comedic at all, but downright cruelty.
True, he apologized, but it will take some time to live down his newly instituted reputation as clumsy and blundering host. He should just stick to comedy, instead of forcing the comedic spin on foreign grounds like multinational pageants.
I did not watch Miss Universe pageants religiously all these years, but Bob Barker remains my standard for complete host. For 20 years from 1967 to 1987, lady co-hosts changed five times, but Barker mastered those two decades in his characteristic effortless, suave, charming and handsome manner.
All of which Harvey miserably lacked.
Students can pick many lessons from this pageant on how NOT to emcee. Never be unprepared and disorganized. Rather, commit your script to memory. Making small notes helps to keep you on task.
Harvey’s co-host, Roselyn Sanchez, herself was helpless without the teleprompter. Her body frontally faced the camera while she side-glanced at the judges to address the question. Awkward.
Unpreparedness exposes the emcee to fumbles and foibles anytime. With preparedness, Sanchez could have avoided silly voice-overs during the contestants’ swimming competition.
Sanchez said Miss Indonesia “tends to walk too fast,” Miss Japan “smiles too much on stage,” Miss Venezuela “was not consistent during rehearsals and sometimes skipped the details,” Miss Thailand’s “walk is more like, you know, a strut,” and Miss Philippines succeeded only on her third attempt to represent her country.
At a loss for words about Miss Belgium, Sanchez decided to focus on the latter’s shoes.
Excuse me, but where’s the relevance of those comments?
The emcee should remember that he/she is not the celebrity. His/Her role is to make the stars of the show remember that they are the celebrity, and feel just that.
Sanchez certainly forgot this. Her comments showed bias, thus putting some contestants under negative light.
Despite putting his foot in his mouth, Harvey will host the pageant again next year. This, despite the ad lib that the candidates had to show confidence and presence, and “what a lot of garbage that was.”
Harvey must have momentarily spun out of orbit and thought he was hosting his own daily show where going verbally ballistic was okay.
Earlier in the pageant, Harvey said that for the contestants, “everything could change at the blink of an eye.” How prophetic.
Miss Colombia was declared Miss Universe, and then not. Miss Philippines was first runner-up and then the real winner.
And Harvey himself answered our question: What was Steve Harvey doing in the Miss Universe pageant?
(lelani.echaves@gmail.com)