No one would have raised an eyebrow had he chosen to follow in his parents’ footsteps. But Raymond Gutierrez would rather march to the beat of a different drummer. He politely turned down acting offers and said he’d rather focus on something else. That something else turned out to be hosting.
Raymond would rather leave the acting part to his parents, Eddie Gutierrez and Annabelle Rama and siblings Richard and Rufa. This Gutierrez prefers to follow the road his idols Boy Abunda and Paolo Bediones, and, in the foreign scene, Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno, Barbara Walters and Larry King have taken. Never mind if he has appeared in a handful of movies with brother Richard when they were that tall.
“That was just child’s play,” Raymond looks back.
Today, he’d rather stay glued in front of the TV set as he studies his idols’ every move. Raymond may be all by his lonesome in the condo unit he’s been staying in for years now. But the minute the TV set lights up and shows the faces of Boy. Paolo or any of his idols, Raymond feels he’s not alone. He has his idols keeping him company for as long as an hour.
Raymond particularly wants to develop that sense of humor that has placed Conan a cut above the rest for years. But Raymond knows that at 23, he still has to acquire a wealth of experience to convincingly crack jokes about anything under the sun.
So he’s honing his hosting skills in various shows, one of them Q-11’s Living It Up!, which has moved to a better timeslot: from its original 5:30 p.m. airing to primetime at 6 every Saturday.
As one of the hosts (the others are Issa Litton and eventologist Tim Yap). Raymond discusses places to go to, things to try, people to meet. These, Raymond won’t exchange for anything else in the world, not even top billing in a big-budget movie.
He knows spreading himself too thin this way is not the way to go.
So he buckles down to do his homework — read his spiels for the show well, choose his get-up ever-so-carefully — before he faces the TV cameras.
“I’m a perfectionist,” he says. This means making sure everything — from his looks to his script — is in order, even before he steps out of his condo unit.
“I must know the background of the person I am interviewing well enough,” adds Raymond.
An indication of how well Raymond is faring so far is his highly-visible presence on GMA 7’s SOP and Showbiz Central.
His three shows complement each other. Living It Up! brings out the adventurous in him, the type who will go ahead and explore an underground cave for the first time in Palawan with Issa. Raymond dumped laidback ways to try go karting with his sophisticated lady co-host for one of the episodes.
It took some convincing at first, reveals Issa. But she succeeded in persuading Raymond to kiss his doubts good-bye.
The effect is showing, not only on camera, but behind it as well. Thanks to Living It Up!, Raymond admits he has become more open, more willing to take risks.
How else face adventures he hasn’t encountered before, like dodging bat droppings in a dark Palawan cave? The city guy in him must have cringed at the mere thought of facing these foreign objects, but Raymond did it anyway. Now that he has survived to tell the tale, he is ready to face the next adventure the show will offer.
Now that things are looking up, thanks to good feedback, Raymond and his Living It Up! co-hosts are looking forward to doing out-of-the-country episodes next year.
This means he’ll have even less time for personal musts, like boxing and yoga, which Raymond have given up due to lack of time. Thankfully, he still has time to go to a gym and work out with a personal trainer as guide.
So busy is Raymond he has no time to enjoy a home-cooked meal the rare moments he is at home. His take-out lifestyle only allows for meals on the go and on the run.
He’s not complaining, though, not when he meets so many interesting people and goes to places he couldn’t have otherwise gone to, because of Living It Up!
“I am myself in the show,” Raymond smiles.
It’s different, however, when he’s on the Showbiz Central set. That’s when controversial questions make the butterflies in his stomach dance ever so wildly.
But even a perfectionist can own up to imperfections. Yes, Raymond admits, he announced the wrong title of Faith Cuneta’s song. This didn’t escape one of Raymond’s brothers, who pointed it out to the unsuspecting host. Thus, Raymond has learned to be more careful next time.
Make no mistake though. There will be lots of next times. And Raymond is determined to improve himself, step by careful step.