Chris Beans stood in front of a crowd of about 300 last night, serenading them with his rendition of "Build Me Up Buttercup."

Beans (sophomore-division of undergraduate students) beat out nine other contestants to win the title of Penn State's first Mr. Fraternity.

He was awarded a $350 scholarship, along with a dozen roses and an olive-leaf crown, during the Mr. Fraternity Pageant, one of the many Greek Week events being held this week.

"It is such an honor to be the first Mr. Fraternity at Penn State," Beans said.

In addition to his talented musical performance, Beans, adorned with a big blue wig, ran around HUB Heritage Hall screaming "Let's Go PSU" during the pride portion of the contest.

During the question-and-answer session, the crowd cheered as Beans, a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, 200 E. Beaver Ave., told the audience he would like to start the tradition of a block party at Penn State.

The fraternity members competed in four contests: a Penn State pride section, a talent showcase, a formal attire portion, and a question-and-answer session.

Eric Kelley (senior-comparative literature), of Theta Delta Chi fraternity, 305 E. Prospect Ave., was named the first runner up of the pageant.

Decorated with a blue and white wig and pompoms, Kelley showed his spirit during the pride section.

For the talent segment, he performed a potpourri of skills, including performing yo-yo tricks and juggling balls.

Joseph Massa (freshman-architecture), a member of Delta Chi fraternity, 424 E. Fairmount Ave., won the title of Mr. Congeniality.

During the talent portion, wearing a seashell bikini and a red-haired wig, Massa wooed the crowd with an animated version of The Little Mermaid song, "Part of Your World".

Another crowd-pleaser was an aviator sunglasses- and leather coat-wearing Evan DeBow (junior-business management), of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, 409 E. Fairmount Ave., who recreated the famous Top Gun scene where Tom Cruise sings "You've Lost That Loving Feeling."

The audience also enjoyed a Michael Bolton routine of "How Can We Be Lovers", performed by Kurt Voelker (sophomore-mechanical engineering), of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, 321 E. Fairmount Ave, who donned a big, curly wig.

Erica Marshall, Greek Week programming chair, said each fraternity picked a member and submitted a two-page application to the committee for the pageant.

"We read through them all and performed on-camera interviews," she said.

"It was a hard decision, but we had to pick 10 contestants from there," Marshall added.

Panhellenic Council President Colleen Briley helped judge the competition.

"Five other judges and me graded each of the contestants on a scale of one to 10," she said. "If they were really good we could have given everyone 10s, if we wanted to."

Interfraternity Council Vice President of Standards Jason Yanushonis said, as a judge, he was impressed with the fraternity members' performances.

"There was so much effort put into this contest," he said. "This was a great way to showcase some of the best talent in our greek system."