How Startalk runs my life?

Most people think hosting Startalk is a full-time job. Well, it is not. However, it basically runs my life because I am on-call all the time. Mondays to Wednesdays are always light days. But there was a time I was sent to Subic to interview Cogie Domingo, Danilo Barrios and James Blanco on a Monday evening at a moment’s notice.

On Thursdays, all my schedules on my appointment book that do not concern Startalk are usually just pencilled in. That’s only two days before the show and anything can happen so I always have to be on standby along with the GMA crew. This may sound insensitive from our end, but we in Startalk always wish for big showbiz issues (okay, scandal, if you want to call it that) to explode toward the end of the week. You see, a showbiz event that takes place on a Monday or a Tuesday or a Wednesday would already make the rounds of Front Page, TV Patrol, Saksi and Unang Hirit. By the time the weekend showbiz talk shows come around, Startalk, S-Files and The Buzz would just be left picking on morsels or whatever is left of the issue.

Fridays, I don’t accept any other appointment because that is what I always refer to as hora de peligro. Startalk owns me on that day and I just stay home waiting for assignments that sometimes never come.

But whenever there is an interview, I drive there myself – but only if it’s in the GMA-7 or Tomas Morato area. But if the location is in Parañaque, the GMA-7 van usually picks me up and I hitch a ride with the staff and crew. This is also my bonding time with them. Given the traffic in EDSA, we already know each other’s lives by now.

Actually, there is a ritual we observe every time we go out on assignments. As soon as I step into the vehicle, the segment producer automatically hands me a tuna sandwich and a bottle of Sola iced tea. They know I won’t function well – or even function at all – without this combination. But really, this is all I ask of them – a tuna sandwich and iced tea – and they have me revved up for the whole day.

Several Fridays ago, the staff made an appointment for me to interview Kaye Torres at her White Plains home at 3 p.m. As soon as I got into the van, Reylie Manalo, who is now associate producer of the show, made sure I already had my first bite of tuna before casually telling me, "After Kaye Torres, we are proceeding to Parañaque for Dennis da Silva."

I hemmed and hawed at first because, well, no one told me that earlier – and I didn’t even bring an extra shirt. But when she promised me that she would feed me at Don Henrico’s my immediate answer was, "Okay, I’m yours till past midnight." And that was exactly what happened. They released me at past midnight.

The only trouble I have about hosting Startalk is that it is aired so "early" – at 2:30 p.m. on Saturdays. Since I hardly ever get up before noon, 2:30 p.m. is breakfast time for me.

Usually, I leave the North Greenhills area where I stay at 1:40 p.m. – and that’s really just enough time for me to get the Channel 7 studio. (I really should try to leave earlier, but I can’t bring myself to doing that).

As soon as I turn left at the Caltex gasoline station at the corner of Club Filipino Avenue and Ortigas, my nightmare begins – no thanks to those green G-Liner buses blocking the corner. Late at night, I manage to negotiate that stretch all the way to Ortigas-Santolan intersection in just a matter of minutes. But on a Saturday afternoon, it takes me forever.

The rest of the way is usually a breeze – until I got to Timog near the GMA-7 compound. By the time I drive into the Channel 7 gate, it’s already 2:20. At the dressing room, I say hello to Rosanna Roces (who is usually still in curlers) and Lolit Solis doing last-minute revisions and touch-ups on her Alok-Bati list. (Yes, that’s how serious she is about her segment.)

It is at this point that we exchange presents – especially when one just arrives from a foreign destination. Osang often gives away top-of-the-line coming home presents. To keep my hair from standing up, she once brought home from the States a heavy-duty type of gel that eventually flattened every strand of hair on my head.

I also appreciate very much Lolit’s little tokens from abroad. But sometimes I wonder about the pasalubongs she gives me. During her last trip (about two weeks ago), she supposedly went to the East Coast to visit her grandchild. But the label on the chocolate candies she gave me had Japanese inscriptions on it. Okay, maybe she bought it during her stopover in Japan. But one time she supposedly returned from LA, but she gave me a plastic jar of kundol. Of course, I am not complaining. After all, I love kundol. And more than that, I love Lolit – quirks and all. (To be concluded)