Everything in good time

Receiving a trophy during an awards night is nerve- wracking and heart-wrenching. You remember everything while you say nothing. You know what to say in the event that you win but when you do, you become catatonic. I can’t blame people who bring along a codigo especially if he is hypertensive.

This is what happened to K Brosas when she received two trophies (for Best Female Stand-Up Comic Act and Best Performance in a Concert Collaboration with Rico J. Puno) from the recent Aliw Awards. Aside from the many people she wanted to thank, voices that told her not too long ago that she was too old to start a career in showbiz, too fat and funny to be taken seriously as a singer and too loud for a woman courting public affection, rushed back. But this time she did not back off from these voices – she faced them head-on, smiling and victorious.

"So many told me I couldn’t make it, that even I, at one point, had doubts about myself," she says during a conversation just hours after her victory. "Good thing I didn’t listen to them. I even ignored myself."

Between the two awards, K prizes the one she got as stand-up comic. At 17, she turned night into day by doing the rounds of Metro Manila comedy bars. In fact, she managed to still make people laugh by quipping in her acceptance speech, "Nag-abala pa kayo! I was just here for the free dinner."

"That’s why even in my sleep, I throw punch lines," she says. "It just comes naturally. Bigla na lang bumubula ang bibig ko pag hawak ko na ang mikropono at may mga tao." She adds: "I will never give up doing stand-up because the gratification I get is different. You see your audience‘s feedback on your jokes at once. Thank God for my gift of timing because as they say, in comedy, timing is everything."

And everything in good time. During an interlude in her career as comedienne, K went to Korea, Singapore and Thailand performing "serious songs" in posh hotels.

"The pay was okay but it was boring. Mas gusto ko pa din talaga ang nambabalahura," she says.

K was 25 when opportunity on TV beckoned on the strength of her being front woman for The Boxers. Though many discouraged her, she took the plunge. "I had nothing to lose anyway," she says. "Save for my baby fats. I really slimmed down because I wanted to take my career to the next level by being known as a sexy comedienne. When you’re an artist, you don’t stop evolving, you should never become complacent. Hunger fuels passion."

The philosophy has been yielding excellent results. Apart from the Aliw trophies, K and the Boxers has also earned a Guillermo Award for Most Promising Act and scored a signature hit in the novelty tune Sasakyan Kita. Not bad for a group that has achieved all these at a point when their former front woman had just decided to pursue a solo career, leaving K the responsibility of frontlining the Boxers.

"I guess it helps that I treat our band like second family," she says. "We don’t raise our voices on each other. We don‘t embarrass each other even if there‘s a slight kink in the performance. Okey lang yon, I tell them. Let’s do better next time at bahala na si Batman!"

K & The Boxers is undergoing a reformat. A member is leaving while another vocalist (singer-comedian Nonoy, a good friend of K from way back) is stepping in to share the mic with her.

"I welcome this development because this is how the Boxers was originally conceptualized; that is, a group of comics who could all sing," says she. "At the very least I can rest a bit for awhile onstage, unlike before, when it was only I who was cracking jokes."

As far as her solo career goes, K is slowly but surely being recognized for her acting abilities. Apart from her regular stints in Hokus Pokus and Bitoy’s Funniest Home Video, K will start shooting this month as one of the lead actresses on her first movie, Metlog. The story is about dancing instructors, May-December affairs and as the title suggests, "metrosexual jologs." "This development in my career is important to me because it tells people that comediennes do not live inside a box," she says. "It means that one can branch out if one aims to do so. Never stop dreaming."

And what are her other dreams? One is being able to buy her own house this year. Another is saving up for a business venture which could either be a parlor or a small restaurant. Still another is doing tours abroad with The Boxers and holding a concert at Aliw Theater or Araneta Coliseum perhaps right after they release a new album.

Which means her love life has to stay in the back burner for a while. Loveless for months now, K surmises that it‘s probably the prize she has to pay for the good things happening in her career right now.

"As they say, you can’t have it all," she says. "I’d rather have this for now because let’s face it, love can’t pay the rent. Kung maglalaro lang sana ako, madali lang; a partner is just a text away. But I realize I don’t need that kind of relationship at my age. Yung gusto kong makasama next time, gusto ko seryoso at pangmatagalan na."

What’s the ultimate award she dreams of? "Entertainer of the Year. O, di ba? Libre ang mangarap."