The night the Honeysuckle Strip Spelling Bee came to town, Jon Pressick rushed to the Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto to sign up for the chance to get naked on stage in front of an audience of complete strangers.
"I just thought it looked like such a fun event," the 36-year-old Toronto typesetter said.
"I've got that exhibitionist streak."
Part spelling bee, part strip tease -- and definitely miles away from the elementary school spelling tests many loathed as kids, the show is the brain-child of Sherwin Tjia, a Montreal writer, medical illustrator and the person behind other popular and eclectic events like slow dance nights and sock puppet parties.
He started out with regular spelling bees for the hipsters crowd but when a friend said she wouldn't go to a spelling bee unless there was stripping involved, a lightbulb went off in Tjia's head.
"I committed myself to making a strip spelling bee an actual event, complete with rules and prizes," Tjia said.
They've been a work in progress but are growing in popularity. On July 30, 2010, the second strip spelling bee will be held in Toronto. The first one was held in Montreal in March 2009.
At the beginning the event dragged on for too long with people piling on layers and taking too long to strip. Now participants have to take off one third of their clothes during each of the three rounds.
Full stripping is optional.
Ironically, Tjia said he is shy about his body and would never strip in front of people - though he does often dress in drag while emceeing the bees.
There's a strict no photo, no video policy and audience members who snitch on others are rewarded with a free drink.
Originally from Toronto, Tjia has made Montreal his home for the past ten years where he's tried out an array of wacky ideas on the hipster crowd and friends like Joseph Turian.
"If he tells us to jump, we'll be like 'how high?"' Turian said.
The 29-year-old scientist is a veteran of the strip spelling bee having participated in "five or six" with his partner, opera singer Tiana Cornelius.
The couple cite a strong element of audience participation and the safe, supportive environment for giving them a push to get up on stage -- though they don't exactly seem shy, describing themselves as performance artists and fans of burlesque.
They've each won prizes for "best stripper".
"It's not that we're thrill seekers," Cornelius said on the phone from Montreal. "It's more about trying something new."
Spellers eager to bare it all sometimes intentionally mispell a word just for the chance to take some clothes off. Some are visibly disappointed when they get a word right.
"I think most people come to do a strip performance rather than to spell words," Cornelius said.
For Pressick, who's also a former English major, stripping in front of a packed room wasn't embarrassing at all - but misspelling his words was.
"I had three words and I didn't even come close on any of them," Pressick said.
"They're very tough."
