Category → Commentary
3 Quick Tips to Improve Stage Presence
I found this article by Filipino point-of-view stand up comedian Tim Tayag to be very useful. I hope it helps…
Most comedians are skilled in delivering jokes. But sometimes they have bad stage habits. And there’s nothing that destroys a funny bit than bad stage management. These are the 3 simple things that I learned that maybe small things but make a big difference in your stage performance. Take it from me, I’ve been performing for 13 years now and counting.
1. Find your light. Some comedians like to make use of the whole stage by walking around ala Dane Cook. But you also have to consider the lighting limitations. If you step out of your light, meaning the audience can’t see your face, you will have a harder time making a connection with them and getting the laughter that you so badly need. So the trick is, to figure out the space that you can move in without losing the light.
2. When you scream for emphasis or lack of a real punch line (sometimes screaming can fool an audience that you’re actually saying something funny even if you’re not), make sure the mic is far away from your mouth. Nothing is more annoying than a comedian screaming into the mic directly and blowing a few eardrums. We understand what you’re trying to emphasize, just hold the mic to the side or at least a foot away from your face when you do so.
3. If you’re the type to take the microphone out of the stand, don’t leave the stand in front of you. It creates a barrier between you and your audience. As soon as you take out the mic, grab the stand and put it to the side or behind you. You want to be as intimate as possible to the crowd without actually taking your clothes off, unless that’s what the act calls for (although I doubt it).
Trust me, with these simple tips you can improve your stage presence. It won’t make you funnier but it can make you look more seasoned as a performer and a speaker.
Original article can be viewed here:
3 quick tips by pinoy comedian Tim Tayag
Jon Santos Shows
Jon Santos
Jon Santos, the closest comedian I’ve seen to pure stand up, is one hilarious impressionist. He wears costumes but actually has his own point of view in his material. He’s very original and multi-talented. I’ve seen him several times and he is a very skilled performer and knows how to deliver a great performance. For the people in Angeles City, he has a show at Holy Angel University on May 8, 2010 @7PM.
Filipino American Comics and Their Mothers
If there’s one thing I noticed about Fil-Am comics is their staple bit about their mothers and how funny they sound with their accent. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I find it a bit hacky when a Fil-Am comedian does this because every Fil-Am standup that I’ve seen has a bit that portrays their mother (or sometimes their father or uncle) talking in this funny way. I’ve seen Rex do it (in fact, I’ve noticed most of his act revolves around this premise: 1st generation Filipino Americans talk funny). I’ve seen Jo Koy do this. And I’ve seen about every Pinoy comic do this.
It makes me wonder, do they get laughs because the situation or the character being portrayed is truly funny or is it just funny because they sound funny when they talk? Now I also understand that they are telling a story from their perspective and it just so happens that their reality is that their parents really have a problem with their “f”, “p”, “v”, and “b”. Call me an elitist, but my parents don’t talk that way. The most that I’ve heard them say that’s remotely similar to this accent is the way they pronounce “menu” and when they refer to a band as a “combo”.
In my opinion, it seems that it’s such an easy way to get a laugh. You could just go on stage and because of the novelty of Pinoy comedians, anything they say with this “funny” accent immediately gets a laugh. Also any Filipino profanity will get you laughter: “putang ina”, “titi mo”, or “lintik kang bata ka”. Maybe I’m being judgemental and a hypocrite, but there’s something about this that bothers me. Then again, it just bothers me when someone just goes for the cheap laugh. Or maybe I’m getting this all wrong. Maybe the most important thing is getting the laughs with the risk of being hacky. After all, people pay to laugh and not to really analyze.
In the meantime, since this for the most part is not my reality, I just try to be as real as possible with the characters in my material and represent them as I see them with a little bit of exaggeration.
Comedy Cartel: the Filipino Comedy Revolution
the core of the comedy cartel
If you haven’t noticed, there’s a revolution happening in the comedy scene and it’s being led by a group called the Comedy Cartel. The group was originally formed a couple of years ago when two Filipino American stand up comics named Tim Tayag and Allan Manalo were judging JackTV’s Lafapalooza and had all these new comic talents but had no direction. So one night, while Al and Tim were hosting a late night radio show for peanuts, they thought of creating an organization that would pool all the powers of these stand up comics – the newbies, the oldies, and the weirdos. And the name they thought of was the Comedy Cartel because they just liked the drug and mafia reference, even though these 2 guys’ only violent experience was when some Middle Eastern men danced with them in a club (actually that was just Al’s experience).
The group expanded and included comedians such as Alex Calleja, Marlon Olivan (consistent runner-up in comedy contests), Red Ollero, Ryan Puno, Noel Gascon (Lafapalooza 2 champion), Ryan Rems, Derf Hebrado, Victor Anastacio (Lafapalooza 1 champion), Richie Fernandez (Cool Center champion), Eri Neeman (MTV VJ), GB Labrador, Chino Liao, Eric Villarama, JB Dela Cruz, Trian Lauang, Marcelle Fabie, and others (sorry if I missed anyone but I think I got pretty much everyone covered). The groups is – as far as I know – the only gang in town that does point of view comedy. In a land dominated by gay comedy bars and insult comedy, Spicy Fingers in Greenbelt 2, Ayala Center, Makati serves as the home nest of these western style comics. In fact, Spicy Fingers has developed quite a reputation for its Monday night comedy that even comedian Jo Koy (who has his own show on Comedy Central) and other comedians from Hong Kong and Canada have dropped by to do guest sets. You can catch the Comedy Cartel every Monday night at around 8pm. You can make reservations by contacting Ecircle Entertainment at +63.2.5339316 or texting +63.922.8596144
Some nights are showcases wherein you will get to watch anywhere from 10 to 15 comedians performing short sets. Some nights are theme nights, wherein you get to see 5 comedians doing longer sets with a headliner. Check with eCircle Entertainment which nights are the ones with more English speaking comedians (in case you don’t understand Tagalog) and which nights are more Tagalog friendly.
Beauty Pageants
March is Women’s Month, so in lieu of that let’s talk about something dear to the hearts of Women’s Rights advocates and Feminists: BEAUTY PAGEANTS.
Apart from Women’s Rights advocates and Feminists who view these events as exploitation and objectification of women, most people love watching beauty pageants: little girls who want to grow up to be beauty queens; lesbians looking for potential “converts”; dirty old men scouting for potential “secretaries”; and young, repressed, sexually frustrated perverts like me. It’s always fun and worthwhile watching these displays of feminine charm and sexuality (especially if the DSL is down, you can’t go to xvideos.com and spankwire.com, and you really need to do the-solo-activity-that-shall-not-be-named).
However, boobies, pseudo-nudity, and libido stimulating parts aside, beauty pageants nowadays are getting stale. Maybe it’s about time organizers did something to spice things up. How about making the contestants walk the ramp in their muslim attire? How about requiring candidates to showcase real talent during the talent portion like washing dishes, ironing clothes, and deepthroating vegetables? How about allowing trained female gorillas to join (since they’re more or less as intelligent as most beauty pageant contestants anyway)? Nah. How about making the questions a lot more interesting than the same old shitty questions that are often answerable by “WORLD PEACE.”? Yeah! That’s it! Here are some suggested questions that would induce entertaining answers from the candidates, leading to more fun for the entire family and lower brain cell mortality for the viewers:
- If you had to donate an organ to ensure that you will win this pageant, what would it be? how many?
- Who is your favorite superhero and explain how would he/she solve the global economic crisis?
- Who would you vote for in the coming presidential elections, and how do you think will he/she save the planet from the Decepticons?
- Bakit di na lang hinamon ng basketball ng mga alien sa avatar yung mga human? ilang points ang lamang nila if ever?
- Who is more caring? A caretaker or a caregiver?
- If you were to make your own unique version of the national anthem…can you sing it backwards?
- Kung nakaligo ka na ng walang heater at naglakad ka na dahil walang valet parking, kasinghirap mo na ba si Manny Villar?
- If you were stuck on a desert island…why is there a desert in the middle of the sea?
- If you became the Philippines’ ambassador of goodwill to the world, and had to visit different countries…which one would you illegally immigrate to as a TNT?
- Kung si Jesus nakakalakad sa dagat, at si many villar naliligo sa dagat ng basura…are they more powerful than aquaman?
- If you could have dinner with any historical figure, what would your ulam be?
- If Noynoy Aquino becomes president, will he put Boy Abunda’s face in one of our paper bills? Which one?
- As a peace loving citizen of our country, who is your favorite streetfighter and how would he/she beat up all your competitiors? Demonstrate.
- If you were to lose in this contest, who should win?
Happy Women’s Month! Feminists and Women’s Rights Advocates, no hate comments please! Death threats are perfectly fine though.
Filipino Stand Up Comedians and Black Comedians
Filipino audiences and black audiences are similar in one way, they care more about the performer than they do about the material. The second way is they both love chicken. So if you had a comedy show and served fried chicken or chicken adobo, you’d be making a killing (why haven’t I thought of that – chicken n comedy). So Filipino stand up comics and black stand up comics share the same challenge of winning over their crowd. I’ve performed in black rooms before. Some were nice and a couple were just downright dangerous and intimidating. In fact, in one show, the black host heckled me. In my introduction, she said, “This next comic… I love Jackie Chan…”. So I Karate chopped her boobs and left the stage. Then I heard the next week, somebody got shot right outside of that club. I hope it was that host.
Much like the Apollo crowd, Pinoy audiences will show you love if they really like you and you show them who you really are. If you’re just going to run through your lines like you’re just reading a script, they won’t give you much love. Your material is secondary. You can have really good punch lines, but if you don’t deliver it with that swagger, you won’t be getting the laughs. But if you have average jokes but give it attitude, then they will swallow it up, especially if there are Singaporeans in the house (because in Singapore it is illegal to spit). They like to see your personality and they like you to be animated. Facial expressions, classic funny face, and other tools your comedy coach taught you will work to your advantage. Don’t get me wrong, deadpan also works, but you have to pick your audience. Deadpan delivery mostly works on the younger hipper audience, the same kids who smoke pot and are familiar with Dimitri Martin.
I think this is reflective of the star-driven movie industry. In the Philippines, movie plots are almost unnecessary for a blockbuster. It’s the stars that drive the movie sale and not the brilliant writing. The parallelism exists in the comedy scene. Of course, this doesn’t mean that things won’t change, but for now I think that is the mindset of the people here. So if you’re planning on performing out here, keep those factors in mind. And remember to offer them chicken.
Joke Stealing
One thing I noticed about some of the comedians out here in the Philippines is the unbridled stealing of jokes from other comedians. I’m not singling out just the gay comics because I’ve seen straight comics do a “Filipinized” version of an American comedian’s joke. One guy actually just did a Tagalog translation of Dave Attell’s joke about the one-legged man, and when I called the comic out on it, he said he thought of it. Yeah, sure, you and Dave share the same thoughts – highly unlikely.
Stealing someone else’s joke is plagiarism. It’s disrespect for intellectual property, which is the hardest right to protect in the Philippines. Why do you think there are so many pirated DVDs, fake Rolex watches, and triple A class Louie Vuitton bags? Of course, China and other Asian countries are guilty as well.
One time I watched a gay comic do a bit about being a flight attendant (I know, hacky right). Then, a few months after, I went to another show and another gay comic was doing the exact joke with the same sound track and everything. I just couldn’t believe it. One local comic, whose name I will not mention, actually went up to me and said “that’s the beauty of us comedians, we can borrow each other’s jokes”. I just stabbed her right there and ran out of the bar.
Parallel thinking is one thing but to outright just copy someone else’s material is just wrong. I know I have made some jokes that sounded so much like Dave Attell’s (but who hasn’t?), but when I realized that, I stopped doing them. It’s a hard call because I listen and watch so many comedians that when I write a joke, sometimes I can’t tell if it’s something I thought on my own or was influenced by somebody else. But as much as possible, I try to correct any mistakes I make.
So the solution – be original. If someone has a routine that sounds a lot like yours, you could do three things: 1. confront the dude and tell him that your joke is older, 2. sell your joke to him, or 3. write a better and more unique joke. To me, that’s the challenge. If you have similar material, that means you have not fully explored the possibilities of that topic and you have not milked your talent and skills. That is why it is so important to keep writing punch lines. The more you write, the more you will carve out your unique point of view on things, and that can never be copied.
Welcome to Filipinocomedian.com
I built this site because it’s about time that a big change happens in the comedy entertainment scene in the Philippines (and the web hosting was so cheap so I figured why not start a mini revolution). The Filipino audience is more sophisticated than what the media giants would like to believe and this site will prove it… hopefully. There is a market for the existing slapstick, gay comedy in the country, but there is an alternative type of humor out there, especially to the younger generation who have learned to appreciate the art of true point of view comedy without the use of drags and dunking sexy girls in pools (although that is quite entertaining I must admit).
On television and in the comedy bars, slapstick prevails and there really isn’t anything wrong with it especially since it brings in the bucks. It’s only when the comedians start insulting and making fun of the physical appearance of people that gets me annoyed because it requires no originality and it’s so easy to do. It doesn’t really require much from the comedian and yet these same comics act as if they have a unique talent. In fact, I don’t really wouldn’t call them stand up comedians, if you really know the true meaning of the word (stand up comedy is a loosely used term in our country). Don’t get me wrong, there is such a thing as smart slapstick – just take a look at Mr. Bean. Both the rich and the poor find him funny.
My passion is to uplift the comedy scene and educate the people about point of view comedy. You don’t have to wear a costume. You don’t have to sing. You don’t have to say “acheche!” after every punchline. You don’t have to roll up a newspaper and hit the other guy on the head to get a laugh. You can actually just be yourself and talk about how you see the world. It actually works and there is an audience that gets it. If i can just get at least one person to become enlightened through this blog, then I really need to rethink if this is worth doing. But that won’t stop me, I am determined to start this revolution. Every journey begins with one step, just try to avoid the dog poop. So I will try to stay positive and be impeccable with my word from now on.
This site will contain the following but not limited to:
- compilation of funny Pinoy bits (or Asian bits)
- what’s happening in the local an Asian regional comedy scene
- the up and coming Filipino comedian to watch out for and our honest opinons about their act and possibly attitude
- open mics and comedy clubs in Manila and other Asian cities
- Pinoy humorous news (we have a lot that are just real and write themselves)
- Asian humor except for North Korea because banned having a sense of humor there
This site will not have:
- Illegal drugs
- pirated jokes and DVDs
- anything to do with Carrot Top or Gilligan and his twin brother
- pornography unless it involves a midget (sorry, little people is the politically correct term
- negative stuff unless we really can’t help it
I hope you’re ready to join this social movement of changing the comedy scene. Subscribe, comment, participate, connect with like minded people or just react. We’ll appreciate whatever feedback you give us, whether good or bad. Anyway, we can ban you if we really can’t stand you and if we think you’re a hack.
Why I Don’t Think Vice Ganda is Funny
“May nag text, insert insult here!” That’s pretty much the formula that Vice Ganda and most run-of-the-mill gay comedians use in their routines. It kinda reminds me of the sketch on Saturday Night Live way back when, where two guys who I think were from Jersey (or could be New York) would just hang out on the street and just make insults by saying, “Hey, Oprah just called, she wants her weight back!” Or how about, “Hey, Donald Trump called, he wants his toupee back!” Which makes me wonder if Vice Ganda actually stole her routine from that sketch and just made it Tagalog.
There’s really nothing original here. In fact, it’s very easy. All you need to do is pick on a physical defect and just milk it. So why is it that Vice Ganda and similar comedians get so much praise for low-brow cheap shot comedy? I’m not sure but I think it has to a lot to do with the media machinery that proliferates and perpetuates this type of insult humor that maybe amusing but doesn’t really enlighten or uplift the type of comedy that Filipinos are known for. But I guess there’s a market for this since people watch this type of crap and consider it stand up comedy.
Call me a hater, which I’m really not because I’m not jealous of Vice’s success. Shit, I wouldn’t want to be successful on those terms doing lousy jokes that require no wit. I could easily do it that way if I wanted to sell out, but I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. I have what a lot of these gay comics don’t have – integrity. Now, I’m not gay bashing, in fact, can I even be accused of that since gays are not really a minority in this field of entertainment? I’m gay comic bashing. There is a difference because Pokwang falls under this category even though she’s a woman.
So what am I driving at? Well, I just wish that the powers in the media would give real stand up comedy a chance. It is out there. The Comedy Cartel does it: observational, point of view comedy with actual writing to back it up. But what’s the incentive for these big networks to gamble on this new type of comedy? Why try something new when this old formula of putting a gay comic in drag or maybe a female comic who looks like a gay comic in drag works? I guess there is no incentive until they realize that this next wave of comedy is the next big thing. And mark my words, it is about to explode.
So if you’re tired of the same old insult, shock, mindless comedy, there is an alternative. There is a point-of-view stand up comedy out there that will entertain you without disparaging the audience. On Mondays, there is Spicy Fingers in Greenbelt 2 @8:30pm and on Thursdays there is the Votre Bar near ABS-CBN above East St. Louis that starts at 930pm. Give it a chance, you won’t regret it. And I dare the big networks to have the balls to push and promote this type of comedy.