The cultural phenomenon of look-alike contests carries on at Queen’s. This time without Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander, but with the equally iconic Kevin Deluzio, Sci ’88, the Dean of Smith Engineering.
On Oct. 23 at 11:00 a.m., the Clark Hall patio filled with a small crowd of about 30 engineering students and passers-by, with two dressed in their best blue suits to participate in the contest. Hosted by Golden Words, the first-place prize was a custom “DoppelDean” jacket bar to adorn the sleeve of battered golden party armour.
The judging panel, who all matched in their GoldenWords jerseys, consisted of Golden Words Editors Amanda Clayman and Payton Marsh, alongside “the man, the myth, the legend” himself,” Kevin Deluzio.
Before the contest began, Marsh announced this was their “first and last ever Dean Deluzio lookalike contest,” and thanked Deluzio for booking off his Friday morning. Next year in June, Kevin Deluzio concludes his time as dean after having served two consecutive terms.
With only two contestants, the competition was tough. Brian Hall, Sci ’30, shaved the top of his head in inspiration of Deluzio’s signature look. Tihon Pleshkov, Sci ’30, might not have shaved his hair, but he surely wore the best blue suit.
The first challenge was cat walking across the Clark Hall patio. The fierce music selection got the crowd fired up as they cheered for the contestants. Hall strutted to Slayyyter’s “DANCE…” while Pleshkov walked to Charli XCX’s “365.”
Then, to assess their capabilities of becoming the next dean, the judges asked three questions: their favourite United Nations sustainable development goal, the core principles of a dean, and the most important skill of a dean. If there was a louder microphone, the crowd could have heard the contestants’ answers, but their responses looked like they secured laughs from the judging panel, so certainly they were funny.
Afterwards, the crowd cheered for their winner, leading Dean Deluzio to bestow the bar to Hall, while granting Pleshkov the title of best dressed.
Hall’s commitment to resembling Dean Deluzio is what led him to victory, but everyone wondered what led him to shave his head.
“It was dedication. My roommate convinced me that I looked enough like Dean Deluzio. […] We shaved my head last night after my physics exam,” Hall said in an interview with The Journal. “I’m going to shave the rest of it, so it’s all even.”
After shaving his head, putting on glasses, and throwing on a blue suit, Hall transformed into the dean he wanted to become.
“I looked in the mirror, and it was really uncanny that we looked very similar,” Hall said.
Now that he’s won the only bar of its kind, it will eventually be sewn onto his jacket.
“The bar is going very proudly on my jacket. It’s probably gonna be the first one I put on,” Hall said.
During his time at Queen’s, Deluzio set a high bar for Smith Engineering. Although it’s uncertain who will take on the role of dean next, perhaps Brian Hall, it’s certain Deluzio is well-loved by his students.
When the contest concluded around 11:30 a.m., Golden Words sold their Homecoming merch, “drunk darts don’t count” and “puke n’ rally.”
Tags
Golden Words, Kevin deluzio, Lookalike contest
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