Mr. Amagansett Pageant raises funds for East End groups

It’s a gender role reversal idea hatched seven years ago after too many drinks at a local bar.

Why not have men show off their talents and compete for a title, a coveted crown and a dozen red roses to benefit a community fund?

Proceeds from the Mr. Amagansett Pageant go to East Hampton Town fire departments, help pay medical bills of needy local residents, and provide scholarships for Amagansett residents going to college or attending adult education classes.

“It’s a spoof of the Miss America contest and it’s become a really fun fundraiser,” explained Tina Piette, an Amagansett attorney and one of the pageant organizers. “We never know who’s going to show up or what’s going to happen.”

The Mr. Amagansett Pageant will be held at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the Stephen Talkhouse live music club on Main Street. This will be its seventh year and it benefits the Donald T. Sharkey Memorial Community Fund.

Admission to see the pageant is $20 and those who want to enter have to be residents of East Hampton Town. Contestants and sponsors are asked to pay $250. Approximately $6,000 has been raised through the pageant so far.

Sharkey, a friend of Piette’s, was a popular East Hampton Town chief building inspector, Amagansett firefighter and member of the local ambulance squad who died of a heart attack in 2009 at age 46.

“Don Sharkey helped with the Little League and was a friend of mine,” said the reigning Mr. Amagansett, Gordon Ryan, 66. The father of two is a real estate and criminal attorney who lives in Amagansett and has his law office in Montauk.

Ryan said that participating in the competition was a way to honor his friend, have a lot of fun doing it and raise money all at the same time.

“This year coming up will be my fifth,” Ryan said. His shtick has been to sing — because he can’t — and to have a friend play the guitar who doesn’t know how to play.

Others who have participated over the years have included firefighters, county legislators, a tree surgeon, bartenders and chefs.

Former Suffolk County legislator and new Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman was a 2011 competitor. He played the drums as the winner, Ken Wessberg, led a conga line dressed in a white bathrobe and carrying a golden “scepter” — a clam rake.

“I was roped into it by Tina Piette and I’ve never been back,” Schneiderman said. “There were people really prepared. They made videos and practiced presentations — I was completely out of my league.”

Piette, who is planning the contest along with some of Sharkey’s other friends, Kristine Gaudy and Britton Bistrian, said there’s still plenty of time to enter and the men don’t have to live in Amagansett.

“People can just walk up and get in,” she said.