The “Night of Firsts” was truly magical for Noah Price, who portrayed the famous magician, Harry Houdini. Price was crowned the winner, with Morgan Fink and Ryan McFadden as runners up.

Based on Price’s pre competitions points, talent, entrance, formal wear, and dance, he made it to the final three. The top three were all asked the same final question and after hearing each response, the judges named Price the winner.

Price, influenced by his love for magic, chose to portray Harry Houdini for his entrance. In his magic act, he fooled the audience into thinking he was chopping off his hand. The audience was in shock. He also did a series of card tricks with audience participation.

Junior Juliana Zeller said, “His talent was really intriguing. I really enjoyed how he involved the audience.”

As well as being a magician, Price is also a dancer and has a scholarship to Point Park University in Pittsburgh. Price and his escort, Maggie Adams, who is in the same dance company,  scored first in the dance portion of the show.  

Jeremy Brown, master of ceremonies, ribbed Price when they saw the first place standing. “I bet you’re relieved.”  

Brown also took shots at some other contestants, such as Charlie Rasmussen and his friends for dancing to “Single Ladies” by Beyonce. Some other notable memories from the show were Jake Santis’ entrance with a full size row boat and Tre Briscoe’s twist on the well-known Napoleon Dynamite dance.

Natalie Rebetsky, sporting a blue wig, joined Brown on stage, even though she “retired” from the event in 2018.  Brown introduced her as his new co-host, Natalia Rebetskia, his Russian mail-order co-host.

The runners up, McFadden and Fink also had scored well in the different aspects of the show. McFadden played guitar and sang “Take it easy” by The Eagles, and Fink had a hilarious dance battle with Earl Blake.

Price did well throughout the whole competition. Despite this, he was surprised to be crowned the winner.

“It feels good to win, but, honestly, there was so much talent here tonight, it was a little unexpected,” said Price.

For the winning question, Price talked about what advice he was going to take with him in the next chapter of his life. He immediately mentioned something that his mother always advises. “Be loud and be proud.” Price described the backlash he gets for being a male dancer, but through it all he remains confident, comfortable, loud, and proud.

Congratulations to Noah Price for earning the title of Mr. Linganore 2019.