Mr. MAL’s Frank Nowicki is the Master of Hosting Duties
Frank Nowicki reflects on his thirty years as the emcee of the Centaur MC's Mr. MAL contest, an event like none other.
Frank Nowicki is happy to recount a few ribald moments he considers to be highlights of his long-running tenure as the host of the Mr. Mid-Atlantic Contest.
“One year [when Mr. MAL was] at Alma’s Temple,” Nowicki says, “this one guy, he was actually a porn star, I didn’t even know — they used different names. I was reading his bio during the jockstrap competition, and he thought he was gonna be cute. He started crawling up and tried to hump my leg. Of course, I quickly took my flogger and whacked him.”
Another year, Nowicki was the one doing the humping — thrusting himself onto headline entertainer Lolita Holloway. “I was up on stage with her, because, you know, the podium was there, and she grabbed me and I just jumped. I was humping her on stage while she was singing away,” he says. “Oh my God, she tore the house down. She was so much fun. The place went crazy.”
And then there was the time Kathy Najimy, after performing as headliner, came back on stage to help Nowicki announce the winners of the contest — and proceeded to rib him for the Oprah-like manner in which he rattled off the winning prizes that year from a roster of sex-positive, fetish-oriented brands including Nasty Pig, Dick Wadd, and Priape. “I love how you’re saying this like it’s for Macy’s,” Nowicki recalls Najimy chiding. “Oh, and under your seat, keys to your brand-new car!”
Nowicki’s history with MAL dates back to the mid-1980s, around the same time the Centaur Motorcycle Club began producing the weekend event. “I’ve been around since the first contest 40 years ago,” he says. He even served as a volunteer for the first few years. “I used to help out doing the flowers for the weekend, helped out in the kitchens, schlepped and did anything they needed.”
A decade later, and two years after he beat out 24 other contestants to become Mr. MAL 1993, Nowicki made his debut as emcee, sharing duties that first year with two other former Mr. MALs, 1989 titleholder Dan Noël and 1991’s Kerry Richard. Nowicki returned to oversee the proceedings the following year and every year since. This year marks his 30th anniversary.
Nowicki is a natural master of ceremonies. “I’ve never been shy up on a stage,” he says. Nor does he get nervous in the limelight. “No, not at all. Actually, it’s kind of the opposite. When I get on the stage, I kind of have a calm that comes over me.”
Reflecting on the changes to the contest over the past three decades, Nowicki notes that “the beginning years, it was basically at the bars.” The bar-based phase included repeat annual stints at the now defunct DC Eagle and The Exile. Tracks and Nation, two legendary warehouse nightclubs in a then-desolate stretch of Southeast D.C. also played host to the event.
“Those were the days before the internet, so people went to bars and they found out about events from posters in the bars,” he says. After a years-long run of high pageantry at downtown’s Alma’s Temple, organizers moved the contest more than a decade ago to the grand ballroom in the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill, MAL’s official host hotel since 2011.
Another dramatic change since MAL’s early years has to do with the once-forboding, now greatly diminished specter of AIDS. “When I won this contest, all our friends were dying of AIDS,” he says. “So it was important to do fundraisers. My year was also during the [third] gay March on Washington. So everything fell into place at once, and it was to raise money for Brother Help Thyself, BHT.”
Nowicki emphasizes the emcee’s influential role in helping guide and support each and every contestant — and also to keep audiences in line. “The one thing I won’t put up with in an audience is disrespect,” he says. “You have to respect these guys because they’re putting themselves out there for you.”
The 68-year-old Nowicki says he has no plans to retire — which is not to say it’s not top of mind. “I’m pushing 70. And it’s always good to have a transition plan.” In his case, that means considering who might succeed him as emcee. For the 2025 contest, Nowicki has enlisted help with hosting from David Spivey, Mr. MAL 2020. Spivey “is a dear friend of mine — he’s like one of my kids.”
Asked whether he expects to return as emcee next year, Nowicki hedges. “If [the Centaurs] want me. It’s whatever they [want]. I don’t wanna be like Dick Clark where they wheel me out after I’ve had my stroke,” he says with a laugh. “Change is good. And if you don’t train somebody to work with you, how are they gonna do it?”
The Mr. MAL Contest is Sunday, June 12, from 1 to 4 p.m., in the Ballroom of the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill, 400 New Jersey Ave. NW. The contest, along with access to the Exhibit Hall, is included in a 3-day pass package for $45 or a single-day Sunday pass for $30. Passes are available for purchase at the venue. Visit www.leatherweekend.com.
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