Obra ni Igan & Jojo A

MANILA, Philippines - Alas, Philippine society is in the precipice once again, glumly looking at the cyberspace memes — a parade of fallen idols in wheelchairs, from a president to a chief justice to a bogus NGO empress. While the absence of gatekeepers in social media makes it a tinderbox,  the mainstream media is tasked to be the voice of sobriety in perilous times, and if it can, to lead the public to sunnier climes.

We recall a similar time in the United States, when Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal spawned such gloom in the American psyche that it took The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS to coax it out of the mean side of the hill. As described in The San Francisco Chronicle, “Tony Orlando and Dawn burst out of television sets during the Ford administration, a sunny antidote to the dark cynicism that followed Watergate.” Nota bene that variety shows like Tony’s were the genesis of the late-night shows that were later shaped by men sitting behind desks as they interview guests, like Johnny Carson, David Lettermen, Jay Leno, Arsenio Hall, Conan O’Brien and their cohorts in the USA.

This is the salvific role of mainstream media that entered my mind, seeing two kings of talk on Philippine TV preside over their late-night domains. Jojo Alejar’s Medyo Late Nite Show and Tonight with Arnold Clavio are tasked with helping citizen Juan digest the volatile issues so that he can sleep with an enlightened conscience, wary of the lynching mob lurking on Facebook timelines, Twitter microblogs and Instagram hashtags. 

Jojo (Alfredo Rizalito in real life, once upon a time a gwaping from That’s Entertainment) and Arnold Clavio (The Dishwasherneger, he calls himself — having risen from humble beginnings) also anchor their own radio programs: Jojo A at DWBL (1242 khz) and Arnold at DZBB (594 khz). They have two things in common: Their Thomasian education (both were conferred the UST AB Gantimpala awards) and their passion for excellence. Their dissection of raging controversies and trending celebrities with an edgy wit, analysis of current events with the accuracy and fairness borne by their long years in the talk business comprise their oeuvre, what the French call the sum of their lifework as media practitioners. And their sterling oeuvre is matched with another equally distinguished anthology — the Obra ni Juan clothes they choose when they face the camera.

Obra ni Juan is a unique line of men’s apparel, being a fusion of traditional Filipino design and new world fashion. Personifying the Filipino ingenuity at its best, the elegant line started out in 1997, a family business focused mainly on the tourist market. Their first outlets were lobby shops of five-star hotels, duty free shops and the famous Amanpulo Resort in Palawan. But the influx of domestic buyer prompted the product to go mainstream and open branches in department stores nationwide.

As modeled by Jojo A and Arnold, their couture fashion items are made of special woven fabrics, manufactured using high quality standards combined with exquisite craftsmanship. Some authentic collections are handcrafted and dyed manually to offer the best quality ever. With the advent of foreign brands dominating the local market, Obra ni Juan (available at Robinsons and other leading department stores) continues being innovative to be at par with the world’s best, tasked with its vision of helping the country develop a world-class brand of men’s apparel and its mission of strengthening productivity, promoting a bayanihan system in the work place and creating a product that is truly Filipino.

Seeing Jojo A sing and dance with his three-piece ensemble (Lloyd Mara and D All The Way Band) that Tony Orlando song about tenement living, Knock Three Times, which topped the Billboard chart in 1970, when his guests from Calumpit Institute started their high school freshman year, one is comforted that despite the public’s gnashing and grinding teeth over the bottomless pit of corruption, there is still some joy left in the world. To the amusement of 13 belles in their golden years, who came to launch their Ruby Jubilee commemorative book titled 40 K (40 Kwento sa 40 Taon) in his show, the former heartthrob dancing the soul and shing-aling of their long-ago youth made everyone forget the quagmire of troubles that has become the lot of Filipinos.

From a cramped studio in a Timog Ave. sidestreet, the show has evolved from the midnight shift of a UHF channel, to a fledgling network, then to its current TV5 platform. It has found a new home at the Grand Monaco Bldg. in Pittsburgh St., Cubao, occupying the top floor with a cozy veranda where guests can literally shoot the breeze while waiting to plug their products, services, talents and everything under the sun. Jojo A and his team tape their week-long run on a Thursday, starting from 6 p.m., with the host himself plotting his sequences and spiels, sharpening a keen mind to repartees that make his guests light up with pleasure. Sometimes, he shows funny photos sent by viewers via Instagram and his contagious laughter fills the air.

Tonight With Arnold Clavio (TWAC) was premiered on April 5, 2010 on QTV 11, which was transformed into GMA News TV on Feb. 28, 2011. The guest selection provided by TWAC and the cutting-edge style of interviews by the news anchor reminds us of the strides made by evening talk shows on Philippine TV which has had an inchoate history, economic circumstances tilting the scales despite good ratings from an audience who needs serious news analysis combined with feel-good entertainment.

One night, in vintage Arnold engaging style, he motivates the controversial Katrina Halili to talk about motherhood, her happy baby named Katie and her relationship with Kris Lawrence; another night, he jams with the veteran rocker, Joey “Pepe” Smith; on still another, he spars with Bianca King, asking for the young star and aspiring director’s personal take on a set of pictures that she would either Like or Dislike, using a poster bearing the FB iconic hand.

It is a credit to the tenacity of these two empressarios that one reads very good reviews of their shows in the blogs — netizens agreeing that they have carved their own niche among the discriminating viewers who need to process the barrage of the Me Media (what media doyenne Cheche Lazaro calls social networking) about the latest scrapes and scandals that hogged the headlines at the end of a long restless day. By capitalizing on the social networking sites to get the pulse of their viewers, they are able to address their human need to construct and design responses through time and space — what communication theorist Brenda Dervin calls sense-making.

This writer saw Jojo A begin the taping with a community prayer, and end with the highlight of the segment — a monologue where he intones a hopeful note that as the sun sets, so will it rise again. As he presses the bell on the desk where he sits, with the city night skyline in the backdrop, the 13 ladies he called “fresh and charming” despite their graying hair and wrinkling brows, kissed him and whispered: “Long live the King of the Late Night Talk Show.”