United in Laughter: Breaking the Highly Miscontrued Stand-Up Comedy Barrier

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Cinema 5 of Greenbelt 3 was a venue to a stand-up comedy revolution.

Indeed, with an almost full house, United in Laughter was undoubtedly phenomenal. Though the cinema is just a 200 seating capacity, it is quite incredible that Comedy Manila, the organizers of the event, were able to attract quite a number of guests that were close to a standing room.

I thought I was not able to get a seat because I came in late, but I was glad there were a few seats left somewhere at the 4th row. The amazing thing was that most of the people inside the cinema were young lads not above 30. It seems the youth has finally gained an interest to this brand of comedy that seems to catch the attention more of our older generation.

With six comedians sharing the spotlight (literally), I have to admit it was supposed to be kinda easy. The variety will not bore the audience. Instead of listening to just one comic in an hour of humorous stories, the audience were treated with six witty personalities of different nationalities.

The host, Eri Neeman, leading the pack of mischievous characters was really creative in his lines. Though I've heard some of them from his previous stints, it never fails to make me laugh, or smile a bit. What I don't like was all the "Put*ng Ina " cursing. But I guess it comes naturally less demeaning to our mothers as its the common curse of Filipino as compared to "What the F*ck!" or "Sh*t!" by our neighboring countries.

What got me worried was when Alex Calleja, one of the Filipino comedians, blurted out his jokes in Tagalog. That may have not registered good for the foreign audience, which was sort of just fine considering there were only a few, but if we really want to be competitive internationally, I guess we should practice our punchlines in English - the international language that is understood by many....and it also makes our jokes a lot more cool and classy.

The plus point for him was when he introduced his team mates that made up Comedy Manila. There was a bunch of them that has stood strong to fight for a better style of stand-up comedy. May the force be with them until we are able to sort out what has gone wrong with the Filipino taste of what is really humorous and what is simply disgusting.

You can relate to Poon Chi Ho very well being an Asian that goes through almost the same experiences as Filipinos. What struck me to say Wow! was when he used some dance routines to share his style of comedy.

Andrew Netto made fun out of his "bumbay" umbrella-totting brothers to capture the attention of the audience. That's a lot better than those "beki" comedians who mock and demean their audience.

GB Labrador, the co-founder of Comedy Manila, was a tall guy who had a lot of things to say about the tricycle. Yeah, I have complaints to about those diminutive means of transportation that charges a special rate when you try to hire them by your lonesome.

Rizal Van Geyzel proved that people always serve the best for last. He was our sweet dessert but Eri Neeman was our coffee.

Though the guys were all sweating from the heat of the spotlight, and that they couldn't really see their audience because of the blinding light, all of them were successful in tickling our funny bones.

Overall, I would say that the night was really successful so I am sending my congratulations to the people that made United in Laughter possible. You make us proud and giggling!

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