“It was the most fun thing I ever did at school,” Birnbaum said.

Prior to Mr. East, Birnbaum’s chief extracurricular activites were basketball, where he played center for the Cougars, and DECA. Aside from participating in Mr. East, Birnbaum’s crowning achievements were attending the DECA national competition as a junior and senior in Dallas and Orlando, respectively.

In school, his best memory was making snow angels outside the school during fourth period English with Mr. Carr.

Birnbaum had such a good time during the Mr. East experience because he said it got all of his family and friends together to work on one big project and because he got so many good laughs.

Most of all, he cherished the opportunity to meet new people.

“I made a lot of new friends; people I never would have associated with, so I am thankful for that,” Birnbaum said.

Birnbaum’s talent skit was one of the more memorable ones. He came on stage dancing to the Destiny’s Child song “Bootylicious” and did a robot dance on stage with Andrew Newfield (’07). Afterward, Birnbaum, Zach Fox (’07) and Jay Fox (’03) ran in their underwear while the Blink 182 song “All the Small Things”played.

The grand finale consisted of Birnbaum dancing in a plastic baby pool, while his friends poured 15 pounds of sugar on him and the lyrics “Pour some sugar on me” echoed in the background.

“The ‘pour some sugar on me’ part was a lot of fun. Afterward, I needed two swirlies to clean off and Ben Nechemia (’07) dumped pitchers of water on me. Later I had to scrub the stage,” Birnbaum said.

After the talent portion, Birnbaum was escorted on stage by his girlfriend Dara Weinraub (’09).