The evening of July 30 saw the normally-sedate Carpenter Performing Arts Center transformed into a boisterous arena.
Located at the sprawling Cal State University Campus in Long Beach, the 1,000-seater theater was the first of the five-city stops of the Musical/Comedy Riot Sa Amerika Tour.
A Filipino stand-up comedy tour is rather highly unusual but people still came in droves to catch these three talented performers bring their brand of comedy – vulgar yet wittily delivered –to the US.
John "Sweet" Lapus opened the night with his Kris Anino act. He sashayed down the stage with a gown that could have been borrowed from Kris Aquino and started his monologue with Kris’ and boyfriend James Yap’s engagement.
"As you know, namanhikan na po ako kina James. Pagpunta ko po sa kanila ay pinag-igib po ako ng tubig ng tatay niya!"
John’s mocking imitation of Kris was dead-on – from the slight hand movement when she stresses a point to the distinct voice inflection.
Candy followed John with her Luckless Stewardess act. Her act tells of one hapless stewardess whose ardent desire to continue being one, even after she had been fired, led her to take on work as a Funeral Parlor assistant. She was so hilarious when she started doing the physical part of the act. In true stewardess-like fashion, she simulated all the funeral parlor instructions to massive delight from the audience.
In between their solo acts, the group had a couple of "sitcom-ish" sketches. The shoddy Darna Versus Wonder Woman, the night’s only minor letdown and the insanely-written Little Miss Philippines, parody. In the latter, Chokoleit brought out his famous Mongoloid act as he, John and Candy, pretended to be children vying for the crown.
Chokoleit’s act came last. He impersonated Imang, the hunchback heroine of the ABS-CBN soap, Kampanerang Kuba. His Imang, however, wanted to be known as "KC" or "Kampanerang Chuba". His was the one that resembled a true comedy bar act. In one instance when his character was supposed to be searching for Imang’s long-lost boyfriend, Enzo, he went down and dragged a member of the audience to the stage to become his Enzo and kept the audience in stitches as he sort of molested the guy onstage.
This truly original show that highlights an aspect of Philippine entertainment where talent, especially in the case of Chokoleit, supersedes the physical attributes also had as guests the brilliant character actors Malou de Guzman, Eugene Domingo and Deejay Durano. The petite yet extremely wonderful singer Dessa provided musical relief.