‘There’s a motive why aspiring comics like me come again to do open-mics, even when we bombed the final time’
It’s nearly 9 within the night at Mow’s, a bar on the basement of a Chinese language restaurant in Matalino St., Quezon Metropolis. In entrance of the seats is a mic stand. Beside it, a stool. It’s Wednesday, which implies tonight is Comedy Manila’s open-mic night time for stand-up comedians.
One after the other, my “fellow” comedians begin arriving. I nonetheless have a tough time calling myself one. It has solely been six months since I began. Lots of the performers tonight have been doing this for years.
Observational stand-up comedy within the Philippines has been round lengthy sufficient to develop a neighborhood of comics and followers, lengthy sufficient to have produced its personal established personalities: Rex Navarrette, Tim Tayag, Mike Unson, Alex Calleja, and GB Labrador, who based Comedy Manila.
“Largely males,” I interrupt myself. “Do they even want me right here?”
I bum a cigarette from Ese, the doorman for the night time. He’ll be performing later too. In reality, many if not most people right here come from their day jobs and houses to inform jokes. An open-mic night time means comedians are free to check out new jokes, or to rehearse or polish outdated ones for upcoming paid reveals. When you’re an optimist, which means the viewers may provide you with a break in case your jokes suck (“bombing,” as we name it). However should you really feel like a fraud, like me, which means being petrified of embarrassing your self in entrance of “actual” comics.
Maybe I’m making it sound dour. It isn’t. There’s a motive why aspiring comics like me come again to do open-mics, even when we bombed the final time. It’s the identical motive why even comics who’re already family names – like Victor Anastacio or Crimson Ollero – nonetheless join open-mics. This model of comedy requires repeated apply and workshopping your materials in entrance of an viewers and different comics. Asking a well-known stand-up why they nonetheless do open-mics is like asking Lebron James why he nonetheless trains: they want the apply. And generally, apply is enjoyable.
It nearly appears anathema to lots of people’s sensibilities to listen to that comedians have to apply. In any case, we’re so used to discovering humorous issues “within the second.” Eat Bulaga’s Sugod Bahay isn’t rehearsed. Wow, Mali! isn’t scripted. Some individuals after reveals have even requested me why stand-ups repeat jokes they’ve already advised elsewhere, as in the event that they have been being duped. My reply is all the time that you simply wouldn’t need Aegis to solely play new songs of their reveals. As a result of that’s not possible, and the outdated stuff is sweet.
It can’t be denied, although, that the Pinoy stand-up comedy scene is having a second proper now. That is evidenced by sold-out stand-up reveals in bars and in theater phases nearly each week, and by comedy units which have gone viral on social media, exposing increasingly individuals to what was thought of a “area of interest” artwork kind, at the very least right here within the Philippines.
Even worldwide acts are taking discover. In 2020, even earlier than the pandemic, comedy legend Dave Chapelle crammed Solaire Theater’s 1,740 seats in his first-ever 80-minute set within the Philippines. In 2022, world-renowned Fil-Am comedy rising star Jo Koy crammed the Mall of Asia Area. And simply final March 2023, Jim Gaffigan carried out within the Music Museum, the place the aforementioned Fil-Am comedy pioneer Rex Navarrette additionally carried out on Saturday, July 22.
It isn’t simply overseas and Fil-Am acts who’re promoting out theaters within the hundreds, too. The comedy group KoolPals – GB Labrador, James Caraan, Muman Reyes, Ryan Rems, and Nonong Ballilan – bought out their present final Could 2023 at Solaire. Only a month later, headliners from Comedy Manila bought out their present on the Samsung Theater.
It’s onerous to think about why this growth is going on, contemplating that for a lot of Filipinos, comedy is strictly discovered on tv: noontime selection reveals, sitcoms on the weekends, and the occasional gag present. Not often do Filipinos exit of their properties to chortle. And now, with social media and streaming, there are extra avenues for Filipinos to get comedic content material with out looking for it elsewhere, a lot much less pay the value of admission.
However I can level to a variety of causes for this growth. In locations like Metro Manila and different city facilities that come alive at night time, increasingly bars and eating places are opening their doorways and organising their phases to host reside occasions. There’s additionally the abundance of “open-micers” keen to carry out only for stage time, publicity, and the occasional free meals. And it may possibly’t be denied that many individuals have been starved for reside occasions for the reason that pandemic locked them inside their properties. Performers and audiences alike are raring to create and immerse themselves in experiences outdoors the digital realm, and it’s on this peculiar set of circumstances that stand-up comedy is flourishing for the time being.
Possibly we are able to additionally have a look at how emotionally exhausting and stress-inducing mainstream comedy has been prior to now years. Maybe individuals are additionally trying not only for one thing new, however one thing acquainted: away from the controversy of comedy-variety reveals altering names, channels, and time slots, and away from the noise that’s Pinoy social media, populated by “content material creators” who achieve reputation by scary controversy and rousing feelings by inciting battle. Typically, individuals simply need to chortle.
I grew up in a household that likes to chortle. We inform Porkchop Duo jokes. Eat Bulaga is – was – appointment viewing, particularly on Saturdays. We watch MMFF comedy motion pictures each Christmas morning. However as is the case for many individuals, lots of issues have modified prior to now few years. Will we blame all of it on the pandemic? Or have we, as a society, made comedy increasingly about commerce and getting likes, and fewer about attempting to make one another chortle? I imply actually strive.
Like many individuals, I miss the simplicity of individuals gathered round to inform jokes and chortle with one another. However increasingly, I’m realizing that such simplicity by no means comes simple. It takes effort and intention to make the individual subsequent to you smile and chuckle – and really feel much less alone.
It’s this electrical energy, this huddling round at midnight to listen to humorous tales, that make me come again each week. That makes me need to inform jokes of my very own. It isn’t simple. It takes work.
However making individuals chortle is critical enterprise. And I suppose I actually am a comic. – Rappler.com
Vin Buenaagua is a graduate of BA Political Science in UP Diliman. He’s at the moment finishing his Juris Doctorate diploma in San Beda School Alabang College of Legislation. He tries his hand at stand-up comedy sometimes and has featured in comedy reveals a couple of times.