The Road to 40 Day 296/365: Pinoy Stand Up Comedy

I don’t get to go out much, but this day was an exception because one of my favorite podcast hosts and comedians were in town.

I’ve been following Comedy Manila since around 2012-2013, I think, or even earlier when they were still part of Comedy Cartel. It was the kind of comedy that I enjoyed watching, which was vastly different from the stand-up comedy that was popular in the Philippines back then.

They’re both fun, but I like the this version because it’s observational, and some of their material makes you think.

Genny, an old friend of ours, introduced us to the scene in the Philippines. She was somehow acquainted with Gb Labrador through one of her friends whom she worked or lived with when she was in Singapore. At the time, she met Gb while he did a show in SG, so when she was back in the PH, she asked us to watch them at Tomato Kick Katipunan.

The scene was small, but the comedians were very welcoming. No one watched shows in the small open mics, and their shows were priced at 200 pesos, sometimes with drinks already. Even then, there was still a chance that you could buy tickets at the gate.

In 2019, Gb started a podcast with fellow comedians James Caraan and Nonong Balinan, which they called The Koolpals. They wanted it to be a show featuring Comedy Manila comedians, but it kept on evolving.

During the pandemic, they grew their own community, which trickled down to people getting curious about their brand of comedy. Once the world opened again, there was clamor for their shows. Suddenly, the Php200-shows before were now at at Php800 at the minimum, but they were still getting sold out even at bigger venues.

I’m happy that they are still the same, humble people that we met even when they were performing in those small bars around the metro. Whenever I see them, we talk as if we’ve known each other for years, even if they obviously don’t know me personally.

Their audience got bigger, but I could confidently say their egos did not. Some of them are even better performers now than when we first met them.

From once every month or two months, they now have almost weekly events in the Philippines featuring awesome comedians in evey show. Sometimes, their shows even overlap – a testament to how this brand of comedy has grown through the years.

Whenever I get the chance, I try to support their shows by watching live. For this show, they offered a “Superfan” option that could come in at 1pm and a regular ticket for the show at 5pm. I chose the 1pm slot, and connected with friends whom I thought would be watching as well.

Mark said he would come with a couple of friends, so I asked if I could sit with them. Jeremy later told me that he would come as well, so I told him we could sit together with the group.

Despite sitting with a new group, the experience didn’t feel awkward at all. We had photos together, ate and drank together as if we’ve been hanging out regularly. I guess a common interest for comedy helped bond us together quick. We were part of the same community, and I feel like I would have the same fun experience with random strangers even if I came alone.

I’ve been on a diet and an alcohol fast, but siting there from about 1:30pm to about 10pm would be boring without alcohol. I ordered lechon for the guys to support my old job at Iskina Cebu, so I had some of that as well.

It was the longest show I’ve had to sit through, but the comedians were awesome, and well worth the butt pain from sitting practically through a whole work shift.

Regretfully, we realized too late that we should have bought a shirt for the hosts to sign. There were no more merch left, and we already had our photo op with them. I feel like they’d accommodate our request to sign the shirt though, as they easily posed for photos throughout the day when you bumped into them randomly.

Seeing the crowd last night, I’m just happy, excited, and somehow proud of where Gb and the guys are now. They’re finally getting to eat the fruits they have long labored for, and I hope they only grow bigger from here.