Show and tell
by Igo K. Gonzalez on August 2, 2009
A few seconds into Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” you drum your fingers nervously on the table. Slowly, you start to hum the tune of a favorite song: John Mayer’s “No Such Thing.”
The singer’s voice disrupts your concentration and you look to the stage, staring at the Bonnie Tyler wannabe in fascination. Her voice is too pitchy, and it doesn’t quite have the same husky quality, but she’s belting it out as if she owned the song. The crowd around you is clapping and singing along.
As the last few lines of the song play out, she bows out amid loud cheers. You take a deep breath and stand up. You’re up next.
Three minute rockstar
Imagine singing in a karaoke bar, but instead of cheesy pre-programmed music backing you up, you have a live band to strum real-life guitars and pound some skins hard for you.
“Rock out with your cock out, give way to the vajay-jay,” the hosts say. No better words can sum up the experience that is Rockeoke at Mag:Net Bonifacio High Street. Every Monday night, people walk into the café and chug down some alcohol to amp themselves up for an experience like no other.
Rockeoke nights usually begin with slow songs like Radiohead’s “High and Dry” and Lisa Loeb’s “Stay.” The mood quickly swings over to the wild side as soon as the alcohol takes effect. Entire groups of people then take the stage, singing frenzied versions of songs like Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” and The Cranberries’ “Zombie.”
The selection of songs varies depending on which band is playing. Oven Toaster and The Johnnies, both regular bands, alternate weekly; on a good day, big-name bands like The Dawn join in on the fun.
Singing onstage is cathartic, once you get beyond the initial apprehension. The blinding lights make you sweat and the deafening boom of the guitarists’ amplifiers mingle with the steady, heart-thumping beat set by the drummer.
It’s not about how well you sing. As host Quark Henares insists, “You gotta set the bar low, guys!” Random strangers would scream and applaud for the courageous who take the stage, congratulating them with ecstatic high fives when they finish.
The spirit of it all is about having a good time, sharing the spotlight with friends, strangers, and the band, forgetting the stress of our workaday lives and relishing the glory of a three-minute-rockstar.
Whose line is it anyway?
On Thursday nights, Mag:net Bonifacio High Street hosts a different kind of entertainment: Silly People’s Improv Theater (SPIT).
Composed of people trained in the art of improvisational theater, SPIT was founded by a group of friends that included Gabe Mercado, who previously hosted Ok ka ba tiyan?
In a game called “What are you doing?” SPIT members line up behind the microphone and wait for the audience to supply random combinations of letters. They then use these letters to come up with activities they could be doing, like FGH: Feeling God’s Happiness, or Fucking Gays and Homosexuals. On some nights, one can even say he is Fingering Great Hippos.
SPIT member and English Professor Missy Maramara says, “[SPIT] isn’t your traditional comedy.” It’s theatre-based in a sense that the members showcase their improvisational skills as they solicit suggestions from their audiences and create characterizations and plots on the spot.
Another one of their games is called Little Miss. “Like a beauty contest, we get suggestions, like a line of a song [from the audience],” says Missy. In one night’s game, an audience member suggested that the theme be Miss Krispy Kreme. Then, three of the members were selected to play roles as contestants in the pageant.
The audience asked them questions like, “What do you think about donuts with fillings?” and “What is the essence of the hole of the donut?” They had to answer using words from random strips of paper on which the audience had earlier written what they would have said had they been the first people on the moon.
Humorous answers would come out, while sometimes, the essence of the hole of the donut is incomprehensibly Animo La Salle.
Throughout the course of any SPIT gig, the audience gets absorbed into the wonderful and hilarious dynamic of the SPIT members. Underlying this is a special bond of friendship among the members. “At the end of a long day, we really exert effort to go and rehearse. Kahit pagod. [Even if we’re tired] We get recharged!” says Ariel Diccion, another SPIT member and a Filipino professor at Ateneo.
Showing that Filipino comedy can be more than just slapstick and mean name-calling, SPIT is something one can never get tired of. During their curtain calls, the SPIT members bow out one by one while singing a merry song, inviting the audience to come back and watch again another time.
