Watching the Rose on TV is easy. Try being the average Dome audience member draped in more sequins and fake fur than a Las Vegas dance troupe while waving a banner the size of a bedspread.
Kerry's Rose, Colleen Shannon, might have been hot favourite to be the 48th Rose of Tralee as the contest climaxed last night but the 2,000 faithful gathered in the steaming Dome were just plain hot.
Having preened and practised their royal waves with more vigour than the Roses, the Dome audience was revelling in its final close-up. Helium balloons, giant inflatable kangaroos and pom-poms are par for the course in an audience that is traditionally one part frenzied ardfheis to two parts nail-biting All-Ireland final.
This year the rumour going around the Dome was that the judges faced an even more formidable task than usual.
Sitting in the front row, the judges, including RTÉ's Sharon Ní Bheoláin, management consultant Royston Brady and former GAA president Seán Kelly, looked grim as the contest began. Word was that the odds on South Australian Rose, Niamh O'Reilly, shortened sensationally from 66-1 yesterday morning to 4-1 second favourite. It seems it was her party piece - she performed the voice of a cartoon character Joo Joo Eyeballs - and merciless slagging of her sisters that charmed the betting public.
Onstage last night the increasingly bizarre party pieces continued to drag the Rose of Tralee into the 21st century. We've already had Iranian singing, a double-jointed display and a poem about a rash. Yet the New Zealand Rose, Emma Coffey, performed a Maori tribal dance which involved swinging luminous balls around her head. It was up to the New Orleans Rose, Dorian Joye - "I'm not a bit like Dorian Gray" she told host Ray D'Arcy rather unnecessarily - to do the traditional party piece of a yearning Irish lament.
Rose fashion this year has been safe as houses. Gone are the days when Marty Whelan would blush as yet another Rose whipped off her meringue skirt to reveal a sleek dress perfect for Irish dancing. Silk strapless gúnas, necks and ears dripping with Rose-sponsor Newbridge Silver jewellery, have emerged as the contemporary Rose uniform. So when Theresa Roseingrave came on stage in a flowing canary yellow and sparkly red number she couldn't fail to impress.
True to form the second half of the contest was the usual mix of "dream come true" chat with some "I climbed a glacier and can fly a plane" thrown in for good measure.
The format has barely changed since the days when Gaybo used to help the Roses out of their shoes so they could dance. D'Arcy doesn't do shoes but he acts the older brother to the women, encouraging the Roses to be themselves.
"After a week of being treated like a princess they can sometimes lose sight of who they are," he said. He mentioned no names of course. Mentioning names would be controversial and the Rose of Tralee doesn't do controversy, a fact that had the bah-humbug section of the Rose hacks grumbling all week.
TV audiences were down slightly on last year at 573,000, but the figure gives the lie to all those people who swear blind they don't watch the contest.
And if anyone doubted that the Rose of Tralee is now a thoroughly modern contest they only needed to listen to New York Rose Melissa Teelin. Asked about the origins of her name, she said she had Googled herself to find out more because "anybody who is anybody Googles themselves these days".