In the fun company of Joey & Lolit

In all my years on television, I’ve never really worked with a big cast on a regular basis. I have always worked with just a co-host or two and that’s that. It is only now that I get to work with a lot of other co-hosts. There are four of us on Startalk and if you think about it, that’s not really that many. However, I am already happy with the present number because I can finally feel how it is to have a TV family with Startalk co-hosts Joey de Leon, Lolit Solis and Lorna Tolentino.

Last Tuesday, I already wrote about my wonderful working and personal relationship with Lorna Tolentino on and off camera. With Joey and Lolit, I have as much fun and often we have a ball every Saturday afternoon on Startalk.

Actually, people have been asking me if I resent Joey de Leon’s presence in the show because prior to his joining Startalk I was the only male figure in the program. My answer to that is a big NO! As a matter of fact, I get disappointed – panic even – when he doesn’t show up in Startalk on a Saturday afternoon. Even Eat, Bulaga! top executive Malou Choa Fagar will tell you how at times I plead to her to please make sure Joey comes to the show Saturday afternoon. When I talk to Startalk executive producer Reylie Manalo during the early hours of Saturday to ask for the program line-up, the first thing I ask her is: Is Joey coming to the show? If the answer is yes, then I sleep peacefully and I report to work Saturday afternoon feeling well rested. If not, well, it’s panic time and I worry about the heavy workload ahead.

It’s good to have Joey on Startalk for many reasons. One is that we really need an extra hand. Two weeks ago, Joey and Lolit were both absent from the show and it was just Lorna and I who did the program. Although we managed to finish the show, we felt like we were playing ping-pong because she’d do one segment and pass it on to me – only to pass it back to her after my turn and so on and so forth. That went on for almost two hours because a lot of the segments were live. Sure, we enjoyed doing that episode and had fun – especially when we interviewed Mae Rivera and her ex-husband. But after that, both Lorna and I couldn’t deny the fact that we missed Joey and Lolit that afternoon and how they could have helped us out when the load became too much for us. (That was the only time in my six years in Startalk that I wasn’t allowed a bathroom break.)

And with Joey in Startalk, I swear I could just die laughing every time he teases former elementary school classmate Lolit Solis and it’s just so much fun watching the two of them from the sidelines.

Watching Joey also allows me to pick up pointers from the pro – a man who has been on television for close to 40 years. That may be a long way for me to go, but at least I’m learning from no less than the master. In Startalk, I look up to him as my kuya and idol.

Off-camera, Joey and I never run out of things to talk about. (It’s only when he smokes that I can’t get near him.) Last Saturday, we were discussing the Castilian word leche. Joey, whose father is Spanish, insists that’s it’s an innocent word that only means milk. I say otherwise and claim that it is also used as a cuss word and had been bastardized to refer to the word semen. We never got to finish this argument because we had to return to the floor to do our spiels. But this Saturday, we’ll pick up from where we left – so you better come to work, Joey.

Joey’s better half (with apologies to Joey’s real better half, the still beauteous Eileen Macapagal) in the program, Lolit Solis, is the mother hen who keeps us under her protective wings. It is to her that I run to during the few times I have problems in the show. With her on your side, you feel like you have an invisible shield to protect you from anyone who wants to do you harm. She can be your worst enemy, but she can also be your best ally.

I think Lolit is the most misunderstood person in show business. You have to really know her to realize what a loving and lovable person she is.

All these years, I’ve learned to love her like a mother and I constantly worry over the fact that she is eating all the wrong food (she wants them rich and fatty – everything sinful). There had been times I nagged her about it, but she wouldn’t listen. It’s really like arguing with my mother – which is what she is to me in Startalk.

In the past, I have to admit that doing TV work for me was a chore. These days, being in the fun company of Joey, Lolit and Lorna is good enough reason for me to get excited about coming to work Saturday afternoons.