So: This past Friday night brought the third-ever Stranger Gong Show to Chop Suey, and it was everything name-checked in the subject line and more.

Walking away with first place and an avalanche of amazing prizes (including passes to SIFF, Sasquatch, HUMP!, Bumbershoot, Capitol Hill Block Party, and $300 cash): Airpocalypse, Seattle's most impassioned air band. (How did a fricking air band beat all other amazing acts? By driving the audience into worshipful hysterics and inspiring the judges to bestow straight 10s, that's how.)

Relegated to second place but claiming first place in my heart: These guys, whose act involved a long table placed center stage, at one end of which was an aquarium full of water. The act commenced when one of the men submerged his head in the aquarium while the other stripped off his shirt, laid back on the table, and began eating cereal out of his oddly concave chest cavity. This cereal-eating involved pouring cereal from the box, pouring milk over the cereal, eating the milky cereal with a spoon, then sucking up the remaining milk with a long straw. This was all done quite leisurely, while music played, and when the cereal eater was done with his first serving, he poured another: cereal, milk, spoon, straw, the whole process again. Throughout all of this, the other guy's head was underwater. After two and a half minutes (!), the cereal guy stood up, the other guy pulled his head from the aquarium, and the act was complete. The properly awed judges gave the act almost straight 10s, marred only by judge Jen Zeyl's title-denying 9, which came with a wisecrack that was easily worth $300: "I loved it, but you really could've taken the time to slice a banana."

About the judges: On the gonging panel were four amazing women, including Seattle superstar Sarah Rudinoff, theatrical designer/artist Jen Zeyl, Stranger visual art editor Jen Graves, and Stranger film editor Lindy West. The first two ladies were perfectly judicious, while one of the latter has issued a public apology. (Notes to self: Next year, up the volume of the gong, lower the volume of the judges, and water down the wine. And though we love Chop Suey, maybe switch to a venue with a bigger stage, to make room for things like double-dutch divas.)

Humongous thanks to all of the night's amazing acts, from the beautiful belly dancers and ear-clobbering drum lines to the triumphant returning champions (last year's winner comedian Solomon Georgio, who returned with another shockingly good mini-set and took third) and the unfairly gonged robot comedians.

Full video from Kelly O (who's also responsible for all photos above) coming soon....