Bound And Gagged!

.:Dumbstruck:.

Last July 19’s hosting gig has been nothing short of a revolutionary experience for me, to say the least. Hosting children’s parties has always proven challenging, but last Sunday, by far, was one of the most challenging ones I’ve ever experienced, and I’m more than happy that I managed to live up to it, to say the least.

It was a mini-reunion of sorts for me, Herman Aquino, and Ms. Jiggles, as the three of us were all part of an event just last year where we were all performers, although this time, I pulled hosting duties, and mentalism was merely an afterthought. As I welcomed the kids, who were rather challenging to work with, I was rather amused at the mascots who were there: Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk, both rather musclebound people who definitely intimidated a lot of kids. Iron Man, underneath the mask, was actually Ha from Eat Bulaga, one of the popular bouncers, and it was very funny to see them playing “Hep Hep Hooray”, which is a Wowowee standby.

In any case, after the party, I did a demonstration of mentalism, and I was surprised to see that the kids were just as excited about it as the adults were. Normally, after a stunning magic show like Herman’s, you tend to assume that the kids would be “all magicked out”, but lo and behold, they were very happy to see more from me, resulting in a total of three encores, and of course, even an opportunity to perform “Lady and the Rope” in front of everyone, with minor modifications for modesty’s sake, of course.

It was a good experience, to say the least. I’m pretty happy to see that I’m hitting my stride when it comes to hosting children’s parties now.

Personal Commentary hosting, magikel, mentalism

.:Cosplay Fusion: The Aftermath:.

Myself with my co-hosts, Alodia and Ashley. Picture taken from Alodia

Cosplay Fusion has come and gone, and I must say that it was an enjoyable event. Considering that it was not anywhere near the scale of ToyCon, the fact that Powerplant management were awed by the sheer number of people who have gone to this three-day event is only testament to an awesome rookie outing for the people of Cosplay Circle.

With a Butler/Maid Cafe, toy exhibits, and a host of other activities, the highlight for last June 27 was the cosplay event, with one of the biggest payouts for cosplayers I’ve seen: 15,000 going to the best costume for the day. There were scads of controversy, what with the after-hours occurrence at the Cafe and some of your regular haters for the sake of hating and hypersensitive people, but in the end, the event was quite a success, and it was a chance for me to continue expressing my mini-tribute to Michael Jackson, as I was in full regalia that day.

By the way, speaking of butlers, lemme show you the ineffable Liezl…

Black or white!

I especially loved the fact that I saw my students from RIS during cosplay, and it was good to know they’re all doing well…

It’s my TIMY moment! Picture taken by Martin Callanta.

Well, this was really a huge effort all around, and the winners were definitely deserving, considering how elaborate their costumes were. The second placer gets a special mention for having been from the Ragnarok manga, even though the event was sponsored by competitor E-Games. (I do hope he’s recuperating well from his bout with leukemia, though. He’s too young to go the way of Francis M., who himself was too young to go as well to begin with.)

My thanks to Alodia and Ashley for having me over. I definitely had a great time, and it was good to know I wasn’t the only one who was sweltering in my outfit that day.

The winners! Picture from Alodia again.

Here’s a recap:

1st Place - Abraham Cruz (brambear) as Mechagodzilla Kiryu from Godzilla
2nd Place - Cykah Malagad as Skurai of Ragnarok Manga
3rd place - Marx Ian Rulloda as War Machine of Ironman

Crowd Favorite - # 16 Michael Jan Geti-Ayon (Bordz) as Spartan from 300
Best Performer - #23 Kathleen Alfafara (Kia) as Chunli of Street Fighter
Youngest cosplayer - #35 Paulo Catibayan (12 yrs old) as Kakashi from Naruto
Special Transformers Award - Rommel Sales as Optimus Prime of Transformers
Best Anime - #19 Jazmine Huang (Jaz) as Ranpha Frontier of Galaxy Angels

Best Male Costripper - Vladimir Sanchez as Michael Jackson
Best Female Costripper - Mia Marquez as Gothic Lolita Girl
Best Kid Costripper - Sales kids sa Tiny Titans
Best Crossdresser Costripper - Ally Cosculluela as Female Joker

And of course, a couple of other pictures, because as you can tell, I really like my white suit…

That’s not garbage. That’s a body bag. ‘Cause he’s sleepin’ with the fishes now, you see? Picture by Martin.

I am impossible to find in this picture. LOL.

News and Updates, Personal Commentary comedy, cosplay, friends, hosting, students

.:The ToyCon 2009 Megapost:.

Pedobear with some guy in a brown costume…

For the past few Toycons, I have shown my support for the massive event as a street magician, entertaining patrons and cosplayers alike, whether alone or with my partner, Jay Mata.

Imagine my surprise when this year, instead of going back there to do another street magic tour, I was asked to host the event.

Now, you have to understand, although I’ve been hosting for years, and though I did host The TOEI-nty celebration in Eastwood, I haven’t hosted too many cosplay events in my career. This one would probably officially only count as the third ever, in fact.

But what can I say? I’ve always loved the ToyCon, and it was one of the best ways to give back to the convention that has given me a playground where I honed and developed my magic craft for the past three years or so.

Having said that, you’ve seen reviews and albums of the event from various points of view already, but what I’m going to cover would have to be the backstage and onstage shenanigans that we’ve had over that amazing weekend. I’d remember my quips much better than anybody else, after all…

The Opening

The opening was a bit slow, but the fact that Santino from “May Bukas Pa” was there more than made up for it. He’s obviously a big Transformers fan, so it was definitely fun to see that side of him, practically beaming with delight over the Transformers toys all around him.

My co-host was Fatima, who definitely played an amazing foil to my zaniness. As we’ve worked with each other twice over three weeks prior to that, we already had a good feel for each other’s quirks, and it was going to be a piece of cake synergizing with her, as we really knew how to feed off of each other’s energies throughout those two days.

After the opening, things were mostly about us coasting along, as we introduced speakers, bands, and the like. My mic woes were a tad amusing, as I kept on talking even if the mic was dead, but all in all, things were running pretty smoothly, for the most part. It all started to get interesting, though, just immediately before the individual cosplay competition happened.

Blown Fuse, Hard Ruse

The rope routine was meant for Edjie, but I wasn’t keen on risking bodily harm upon myself…

While Japan Baby was performing, a huge puff of smoke happened during their third song, then the power completely went out. Apparently, we blew a fuse, and this delay was definitely going to set back the cosplay event even more.

The judges were already seated and primed for the cosplay competition, but with the power out, we needed to buy time while they were fixing the problem. That was my cue to do a bit of magic to buy us time, and it definitely resulted in a lot of fan service for the audiences, as I opened with the Shanghai Shackles, then seeing how unwilling Alodia was to do my next routine, I ended up calling on Hard Gay for the infamous “Lady” and the Rope routine.

Looking back, I think that was really the better choice for me, though, considering how good the crowd reactions were. Not to mention the fact that doing the rope routine on HG instead of Alodia assured me that I will not be in any danger of bodily harm after the fact.

From that point, it was time for the cosplayers to strut their stuff, and boy, did they!

Individual Cosplay

Yours truly with one of the judges, Alodia.

Five contestants in, and I noticed an alarming trend… it appeared to me that a lot of them were sporting swords. I just realized it, and it was unmistakable, to say the least.

I’d talk about the multiple punchlines I shamelessly hurled in their direction, but let’s face it, other than the quip about Crissey sending me a “Chala Head Chala” track that broke my ears, I’ll just let the 9-part video of the cosplay do the talking. Am I a rascal? Oh, yes I am. There’s a reason why I’m regarded as a loose cannon, after all.

I even had “feedback” from an unexpected sector that I found rather amusing, to say the least. It was also a bit awkward to have to start the cosplay bit after the Chongkeez performed “Diksyonaryo”, as I had to clarify the last line of their song with the parents.

In the end, we had Bumblechi, Darna, Rock Lee, and Samus as our winners.

Careless Whisper

I heard this song ten times too many on Day 2. On the second day, I got there late, and looking for a way to get the audience alive, we were asked to come up with a game for Mindstyle. Something. Anything.

So I went ahead and asked them to do a dance showdown.

With people dancing “Pokerface”, “Careless Whisper”, “Single Ladies”, and the like, you just know that it was a fun time for everyone, to say the least, although a bit traumatic at times.

During group cosplay, I ended up hearing the song a total of 6 times. It was crazy, and the Yuti Yatballs will forever scar me after what they’ve done. Seriously. Having said that, I was pleased as punch to see the very well-made costumes of the Soul Calibur group pay off for them, as they walked off with the honors.

Afterwards, I just rubbed elbows with the ToyCon volunteers, and they were really fun to talk to, without a doubt.

Well, all in all, I must say that ToyCon was a very pleasant experience for myself, and it was definitely a blast.

And now, your moment of Zen:

Tsk, tsk, tsk…

News and Updates, Personal Commentary comedy, cosplay, friends, hosting, magic, toycon

.:The L’Arc Con 2009…:.

Was a blast. Though I passed up on a huge gig to host it, I still had fun because it was a really lively audience that greeted me and Fatima in Katips that night. Needless to say, I was overjoyed at being given the honor of hosting an event I honestly had next to no experience in and still managing to have the audience on my side.

I never really knew much about L’arc, much less J-Rock in general, but it was quite a fun event to host, because the audience was just so appreciative of all the efforts of the people involved. The bands were on fire, and even if I don’t recognize 90% of the songs there, the beat was still catchy and transcended language barriers.

I was one of four hosts, although Fatima and I teamed up again, just like we did for the Jack TV event a few weeks back. It was all good for the most part, until we got to the point where she decided to leave me alone onstage to ad lib without her help…

It was at that point where I started doing standup while the bands were setting up, and I couldn’t believe that my jokes were working that night. I have to admit that I was genuinely surprised at the reaction I got, because I was totally expecting to bomb that night, but lo and behold, I didn’t.

I even managed to have some quips that got over, especially the one where I told them that the fashion show was going to be 1% costume, 99% audience impact. At some point, we noticed only one group was loudly applauding for all the contestants, and I had to ask if there was some “Laruku Mafia” I didn’t know about. The reactions were priceless.

And of course, when the lead singer of Blasters was onstage, he looked so purty that I just had to ask him if he sparkles in the sunlight. LOL.

In any case, I also ended up doing the Lady and the Rope, and that naturally elicited a lot of big reactions from the audience as well, but none of my antics onstage could possibly match, what I believe, was simply the best band of the night, Dou’ Ahou, whose animetal performance of Daimos, Voltes V, Shaider, and a host of other themes really got the crowd on their feet, to a rousing standing ovation after their set.

With 14 bands, a fashion show, and a raffle, you can’t go wrong with the L’Arc Con. I had a great time hosting, and I’m glad the people were so appreciative, all the same.

News and Updates, Personal Commentary comedy, hosting, magic, music

.:Who Let The Dogs Out?:.

I’ve never hosted a pet show in my life, so my first experience of being surrounded by dogs, some turtles, and an iguana was an incredibly memorable experience. Last May 24, I ended up hosting SM North’s “Summer Pet Fair in the City,” and it was a blast!

So there I was in SM North, just completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of people who were there, and obviously the sheer number of dogs as well. I love dogs, but to see that many of them in one place, all running around, all completely well-trained, well, it’s quite a sight.

It’s a petting zoo!

Kids had fun with the animals, and the adults were competing in Mondial Ring, weight pulling, and even Frisbee throwing. We managed to see a dog pull well over 3,000 pounds, and it was simply unbelievable. Apparently, the Philippine record for weight-pulling for dogs was held by the white American Bulldog named Justice. Dogs demonstrated their abilities to jump, to know when to attack and not to attack a stranger based on their gestures, and so on and so forth. It was just so much to take in, and I had to learn the “language”, so to speak, as many terms and activities seemed to be standard practice for the participants, and I was rather uninitiated to them.

And yeah, the R. Lapid’s Chicharon jingle? Incredibly LSS-inducing.

One of the highlights from the non-competitors that day was this dog that I encountered, a Labradoodle. Apparently, it’s possible to crossbreed a Labrador and a Poodle, and this is what you get…

The one to my right, silly!

I also met a bulldog who had a heat stroke…

Poor doggie…

And amusingly enough, the turtles were the only ones who ever managed to bite anyone during the entire event (Not counting the owner protection demos, of course.). That being said, I have a cool picture of me with an iguana…

Ferocious!

Having said all of that, this was one amazing experience, and I’ve discovered for myself that I can actually handle hosting pet shows now. The event was capped by a special performance from Atty. Byron and his German shepherd, Booger, who apparently can dance to “Staying Alive”, by the Bee Gees!

The dog is even trained to pose for the camera…

Nice doggie…

One for the books, no question about it. I’ve always been a dog person, so acquitting myself well by hosting this huge event is quite a feather in my hosting cap, to say the least…

News and Updates hosting

.:JACK TV’s Animation Festival!:.

Pictures are borrowed from Azrael. Thanks!

Chokeslam! Bah Gawd!

Last Saturday proved to be a very interesting experience for me as I hosted Jack TV’s Animation Festival for their afternoon leg, and it was a blast, as I found myself co-hosting with Fatima, one of my friends in the cosplay industry. It was really fun, because I’ve been hosting far less often than I do magic gigs lately, and it was a welcome change of pace, seeing that I wasn’t only going to do voice overs and the like for raffles, I was also going to host a cosplay competition, albeit a small one, since there were only eight competitors due to the fact that there wasn’t enough hype for it.

Despite that, as you can see, we had some pretty good contestants, including Undertaker (excellent impersonation of the dead man), Carlito (as pictured above), and John Morrison from the WWE. Of course, the more elaborate costumes came from the LXB (League of Xtraordinary Beings) block of JACK TV’s programming, which featured:

Three characters from Marvel, two from DC.

Well, aside from that, it was pretty fun hosting with Fatima because we were just ad libbing like mad for quite a while during that day, what with the opportunities to poke fun at anything we could, and acknowledging the presence of people who were there, such as Louanne, Az, RG, Mark Cerbo, or yes, Chris. I was being incorrigible as usual, and of course, the audience was very receptive to our antics. I even ran into Doc Ronnie during the event, as Pinoy Toy Kollektors was actually there for the day.

In any case, much love going out to JACK TV for having us over, although here’s hoping next time, you also have guys who will join and cosplay as characters from your SACK (Superb Animated Comedy Knock-Outs) like Family Guy and The Simpsons…

’Til next year, we hope!

News and Updates cosplay, events, hosting, television

.:Magikel @ Newmedia.com.ph:.

Yours truly found the rare opportunity to be interviewed by Mr. Carlo Ople on his blog regarding how I managed to pay my bills for a whole year through magic. I made use of the online tools available to me, from a blog to a social networking site, and everything in between.

As most people know, a lot of the inquiries I get about my services come from online. They see my magic videos or find me via Google, and it has really snowballed for me. A lot of my shows were booked via Magikel, and it has certainly been quite an experience for me, relying solely on my gigs for income since I had to do my thesis, which prevented me from taking a full-time job for that entire year.

I know I have a long way to go, but it’s a good start, and it gives my colleagues the opportunity to market themselves even further via blogging or social networking. I would never begrudge a fellow magician their chance to earn more via shows, if it means raising the image of magic as an art form as a whole, so more power to the magicians, hosts, and mentalists who would find more success in going online.

Nonetheless, given the many ideas I have for my upcoming show this October 23 in PETA Theater with Jay Mata, Ony Carcamo, and a few other surprise guests (for now), you can be sure that there’s a lot to look forward to from this particular performer.

See you guys around, and much thanks to Carlo for featuring me. These are but baby steps in the journey of magicians to make their mark in the online world in ways most people can only dream of for now.

News and Updates hosting, magic, magikel, mentalism