The lights dimmed, the crowd quieted and the spotlights shined. There were 11 UW-Platteville students who sang or joked their way to the top of the fifth annual Campus Programming and Relations Presents Pioneer Idol, which took place on March 7. Pioneer Idol doubled as Stand-Up Saturday with comedian, magician and emcee Derek Hughes.

Hughes wowed the crowd during his first trick when three same size pieces of rope magically became three different sizes.

“I will now walk through the crowd so you can touch me,” Hughes said after the cheesy trick.

Math major Courtney Wiegel won the Best Seat in the House after signing up for the raffle. Wiegel and her friend, criminal justice major Jamie Licht, sat on a couch at the front of the stage.

Licht was chosen by Hughes to perform the second trick of the night, a card trick where Licht picked a card, showed the crowd, then put it back in the deck. Hughes then made the card disappear from the pile and the card showed up in his coat pocket.

Hughes grew up as an only child from Minnesota, where he didn’t get involved in sports. He compared his experience being the only child to people with siblings. He said people who are the only child tend to not like sports. After asking the audience if there were any “only childs,” one response came from a woman in the crowd.

The woman responded by saying she likes sports, causing Hughes to refute his original theory.

After a few more jokes, Hughes introduced the judges to the audience. The judges included: criminal justice professor Amy Nemmetz; business administartion and accounting professor LaVon Blum; resident hall director Trapper Mitchell; mathamatical professor Tony Thomas; Admission Advisor Patricia Pothour; and private music instructor Jeff Schoonover.

There was a wide variety of entertainment throughout the night, including both famous songs and original music. Even a Hughes want-to-be performed.

Derek Janish, an undeclared sophomore, performed original material causing some boos from the crowd due to the joke he performed on him and his girlfriend having their first child together but not having sex. He joked that it must be a miracle baby, but that he didn’t know God was black.

Heather McClary, senior business administration major, and Natalie Talbott, junior field biology major, tied for third place, winning a cooler and a DVD player. Ben Barlow, junior mathematics major, won second place after performing original music entitled “Past the Break.” Kalynn Raifsnider, sophomore psychology major, won first place with a song shw wrote entitled “Traffic.”

“I had tried out last year and enjoyed it,” Raifsnider said. “Ben [Barlow] said I should try out again, so I did.”