Bending over backward to please

Deirdre Newman

It doesn’t take much to get Justin Curtin to bend over backward --

just the thought of some hula dancers was enough to entice him to

enter the limbo contest Wednesday night at the Orange County Fair.

Unfortunately, for the limber 19-year-old from Huntington Beach,

there were no hula dancers gracing the Heritage Stage. But, unfazed,

Curtin limbo-ed on and ended up out-limbo-ing 15 other contestants.

“It feels good,” said Curtin, who took on Gumby-like qualities to

shimmy underneath the bar after it had been lowered to about 1 1/2

feet above the ground. Curtin -- who is on the dive team at USC --

became an invertebrate for an instant, turning his feet inward and

inching forward, back arched practically parallel to the ground,

walking on the inside of his shoes to make it under by the skin of

his teeth.

Curtin, who won some free fair food and concert tickets, will now

compete with other limbo winners in the final Leap Into Limbo contest

at 6:15 p.m. Sunday, where he is eligible to win $5,000 worth of

certificates from Cal-Spa, one of the fair’s sponsors.

The limbo contests are emceed by Tim Coy, who keeps the pace

lively with his witty banter, teasing the contestants as the bar

edges lower and lower. He even managed to limbo himself, microphone

in hand, to a thunderous round of applause.

Second-place finisher Jose Lujano, 14, of Lake Elsinore was

disappointed that he wasn’t as limber as he was in the seventh grade,

when he said he could imitate Keanu Reeve’s kung-fu backbend from the

movie “The Matrix.”

Lujano, who has taken ballet in the past, said he practiced for

the contest by forcing his body into tight spaces.

“I stuffed myself into a locker a few months ago to play a trick

on my friend, but she didn’t notice, so when I went to open the

locker for a breath of fresh air, the teacher walked by,” Jose said.

Fairgoers who watched the limbo contest alternated between

grimaces and laughs as they nervously watched the contestants go

lower and lower.

“I didn’t think the guy who won could go so low,” said Joey Urias,

18, of Cypress. “I would hurt myself.”

Jim Natzke of Diamond Bar said he would have liked to hear more

authentic music accompany the limbo-ers.

“They should have had better music -- like real limbo music,” he

said.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.