At first glance, Mr. and Ms. Mason may seem like nothing more than talent show winners. But the winners – one girl and one boy – usually seniors, have more responsibilities: they ride and wave in the Falls Church City Memorial Day Parade.

Mr. and Ms. Mason are selected in an annual event, the Mr./Ms. Mason Pageant, held in the auditorium to determine which students will be the King and Queen of Falls Church at the Memorial Day Parade. This year, seniors Miles Jackson and Sigrid Edson received the titles.

This year was Edson’s first time competing, while Jackson participated in the show his freshman year. As a freshman, he decided to play to his strengths by doing a comedic act.

“I performed a song from Bo Burnham’s … first comedy act called ‘What,’ and the song was called ‘Sad,’” said Jackson.

Although getting to be in the parade is a huge honor, it’s not the only perk of being in the show.

“It was very in the moment … it was all just very fun,” said Edson.

“It’s all an opportunity to run a fundraiser for a good cause … it’s really relaxed and just a fun time to goof off and have a good time,” said Jackson.

The main goal is for all the participants to have fun and enjoy the experience of getting to perform for a good cause, and creating a fun show for the audience to watch. This year the proceeds went to the Jeffrey Bandy Memorial Music Program Fund.

“It’s pretty relaxed. They ask you to write a bio, but there’s no requirements. It tends to be a very funny thing,” said Jackson.

“I went into it just wanting to have a good time and put on a good show,” said Edson.

Because the show is low stakes and purely to perform, it doesn’t put that much pressure on the performers, which can be a nice change of pace from the structure of the fall and spring plays.

“In this day and age, everything tends to be very high stakes and it’s nice to just do something with not a lot of rules, do what you want, and it doesn’t have to be perfect,” said Jackson.

Because of this attitude, the show provides a variety of performances. For his performance, Jackson decided to revisit with an old solo he had loved from a previous musical he was part of at George Mason.

“In my freshman year, the musical that we did was ‘The Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ and I really connected with the character … and I thought it would be a fun thing to do as a senior and reintroduce the character I played as a freshman, so I sang the main solo I had for that show,” Jackson said.

Edson, on the other hand, came across a sketch that she liked randomly and thought it would work perfectly for her talent at the show.

“So for my talent I recreated an SNL sketch … It’s about an instagram couple who’s being interviewed and you get to watch their relationship fall apart in front of you and then get rekindled, and I saw it on a Saturday night and that Monday I got an email that I had been nominated, and I was like, ‘I want to do that,'” Edson said.

When Edson and Jackson make an appearance in the Memorial Day parade, they won’t be singing or recreating comedy sketches. They’ll be putting on a show nonetheless, as King and Queen of the parade.