Wally Bayola multiplied

AlDub Nation was relieved…rejoicing!

The highly-touted YaKie wedding of the reluctant Divina Ursula Bokbokova Smash (a.k.a. Yaya Dub) and Frankie Amoy Arenoli (played by Jose Manalo) was aborted because the pastor was exposed to be an impostor and the doctor was a charlatan as well, promised money by Lola Nidora to diagnose her as a terminal case so she could extort P51,500M from Frankie. 

Alden Richards was relieved, too. He wiped his tears (“They were real!” assured Joey de Leon, one of the Eat, Bulaga! hosts) and swapped flying kisses with Yaya Dub. Expect the AlDub long-distance/split-screen romance to continue until it hits happily-ever-after.

Off-screen, the one laughing the hardest could be Wally Bayola whose career has gotten an unexpected second wind with his evolving character (starting with a doctor who dished out tips from a self-made medical booklet) in the Problem-Solving portion of the noontime show’s peripatetic segment Juan For All, All For Juan.

Isn’t Wally confused playing those multiplied all-female characters?

“Sometimes I do,” Wally told Funfare, “especially sa boses. They would remind me, ‘Hoy, hindi ka si duktora, si Lola Nidora ka.’ We just laugh about it.” Added to kalyeserye is Duhrizz, Lola Nidora’s flirtatious English-speaking great granddaughter who is interested in Alden, making Yaya Dub jealous. “No problem when it comes to the clothes. It’s our barangay staff that provides for me. Pati make-up, may taga-gawa.”

Told that besides Alden and Yaya Dub (Maine Mendoza in real life), he should get credit for the trending phenomenal success of AlDub which has caught the fancy of televiewers both here and abroad, with millions of “likes,” Wally begged off.

“Uy, hindi!” he protested. “Siempre, sina Alden at Yaya Dub. Love team kasi, eh. You know, everywhere Juan For All goes, ang daming tao. The people want to see Yaya Dub in person; nagkakagulo sila kay Yaya Dub.” Same goes at the Broadway Centrum studio where fans troop for a close-up look at Alden who makes it a point to go out and wave at or shake hands with them.

How is Yaya Dub on the set?

“She’s very quiet,” said Wally, “napaka-tahimik. Pero kung kinakausap mo siya, okey naman. She just stays in one corner studying her lines. Very down-to-earth. Akala ko matured na. She’s only 20. Hindi siya mabigat na kasama, not the type na mag-aalangan ka. Masaya siyang kasama. Nag-ble-blend siya sa aming lahat, including Paolo (Ballesteros, the other Juan For All anchor).”

The lines, usually quotations from movies and excerpts of songs, are given to Yaya Dub the night before for her to study. Cheers to the writers who create the daily episodes.

“We are informed what the sequence is for the day and we improvise along the way. The writers tell me what my character is at pinag-aaralan ko na lang.”

The over-protective Lola Nidora is vehemently against the Alden-Yaya Dub romance. To stop Alden in his tracks, such as during the first aborted wedding of Yaya Dub and Frankie when Yaya Dub collapsed before she reached the altar where, as per the script, the collapse should have happened before she could say “I do!” against her will. Lola Nidora put Alden to a challenge — ladle water with a dipper into a cavernous tank. Of course, Alden failed but he survived the second challenge: run from Broadway Centrum to EDSA in 20 minutes. Alden did…in 17 minutes!

Lola Nidora has a reminder for lovers of all shapes and sizes, all ages.

“Ang pag-ibig ay hindi minamadali, darating ang tamang panahon. Hindi ‘yan katulad ng instant noodles na lagyan mo lang ng hot water ay puede mo nang kainin,” addressing Frankie (or televiewers for that matter) after the fake wedding last Saturday, “Hindi sapat ang yaman para ibigin ang tao. Ang pag-ibig ay nararamdaman, hindi nabibili.”

Since he’s on TV the whole week, now including Sundays (with Alden and Jose) on the new GMA noontime show Sunday PinaSaya, you wonder if Wally has his own private time.

“I find time for my family,” said Wally. “Nandiyan naman ang Nanay ko sa bahay palagi. I bring my children along to PinaSaya and after the show, we eat out. I have three children, aged 20, 19, 16 and seven years old. Lagi kong kasama ‘yung mas matatanda.”

How does his family react to his characters, especially Lola Nidora?

“They are all AlDub fans. They would tell me, ‘Papa, huwag mo naman masyadong pagbawalan sina Alden at Yaya Dub. I would answer, ‘O, masyado kayong nadadala kayo ha. Acting lang ‘yon.’ Ganoon sila, just like the AlDub Nation.”

Wally is so credible in his gay character(s) that many people suspect that he’s gay in real life.

“Naku hindi!” laughed Wally who was raised at the church’s kumbento by a priest, Fr. Francisco Nepomuceno (brother of Wally’s maternal grandmother). “Okey lang, sanay na ako. Since high school when I was doing theater, I’ve been playing gay roles. Hindi ko na naalis, until I started working in sing-along bars.”

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