Quirky talent leads to bi-coastal recognition

College freshman Chris Gaus went ape this weekend. The Spruce College House resident's "monkey noises" won the Donkey Kong 64 East-West Ape Off contest held Sunday in Seattle. The contest was part of a Nintendo tour intended to promote its new Donkey Kong 64 video game, which the company released yesterday for the Nintendo 64 video-game system. Gaus participated in the first round of the competition at the local CollegeFest in October. At the event, he defeated five competitors to win a Nintendo 64 signed by members of the hip-hop group Public Enemy. Last Tuesday, a representative from Nintendo called Gaus to see if he would be able to fly to Seattle -- the last stop on the promotional tour -- to face off with that city's ape-call champion for the national ape-call title. Gaus flew to the West Coast Friday evening and spent two days touring Seattle with his cousin, who came as his guest. "Seattle was a great city," said Gaus, a Philadelphia native. "I really enjoyed hanging out." Gaus competed Sunday with a young resident of Washington state at the Donkey Kong Tour site at the Seattle Zoo. "They rounded everybody up that was in the zoo and brought them to the pavilion [where the event took place]," Gaus said. "It was a pretty nice crowd." Gaus' competitor performed first and received 12 out of a possible 15 points, based on three judges scoring on a scale of one to five. Gaus followed and earned a perfect score, capturing the title and a vintage Donkey Kong arcade machine. Though Gaus won by a full three points, he still managed to give credit to his opponent. "He was pretty tough," Gaus said. "It was stiff competition." Asked about his plans for his prize, Gaus explained that he had the arcade machine shipped to his family's home. "I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with [it]," Gaus said. "I might just sell it." Kate Ward-Gaus, Gaus' mother and Penn's drug and alcohol resource team advisor, said that fitting an arcade machine in the family home might be a little difficult. "It's up to Chris what he does with the prize, although if he insists that we keep it for him, we'll have to do some serious redecorating." Ward-Gaus also said that her son's win came as a bit of a surprise to his family. "Chris started doing this routine when he was a junior in high school and has been entertaining random crowds, usually on a dare, ever since," she said. Gaus' roommate Brian Sim, a Wharton freshman, said the ape call is something he has learned to live with. "It's interesting, to say the least," he said. Gaus, who Sim described as an "occasional" video game player, said that Nintendo still holds significant meaning for him. "I had the original Nintendo, Super NES, now Nintendo 64," Gaus said. "I grew up with Donkey Kong and Nintendo."