Triple the laughter, triple the trouble

The comedian George Carlin once said, “Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.”

In my younger days, I collected standup CDs from as far back as the ‘70s to the 2000s, from Red Foxx and Richard Pryor to Gorge Carlin, the early shows of Robin Williams, Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Jerry Seinfeld, Mitch Hedberg, Steven Wright and Sam Kinison, and other lesser known standups.

Oh, how they made me laugh — alone like a crazy woman with headphones on.

I’ve watched standup comedians at Caroline’s on Broadway in New York’s Times Square, one of them the doofus Bryan Regan who was performing new material for the first time, which he was going to take on a tour. Oh, how he loved poking fun at Scandinavians!

I loved it when Fil-Am standups from California came home to Manila — and stayed — like my friend Tim Tayag who led a group of comedians who had regular shows at Greenbelt 3 some years back.

But standup comedy in Manila — outside the gay impersonations type of comedy —leaves much to be desired as far as regularity and appreciation is concerned.

Dilip K. Budhrani of Prime Events, a production company focused on comedy and bringing in international talents from the circuit, is hoping to change that. His ambition is for Manila to be included in the Asian and Australian circuit where the big stars from around the world perform, often culminating in Sydney and Melbourne’s comedy festivals.

On Oct. 24, Prime Events is mounting the standup show Triple Trouble, headlined by Ahmed Ahmed with Dan Quinn and D’ilruk Jayasinha, and hosted by Alex Calleja.

I’ve seen Alex Calleja perform live at Spicy Fingers before and I think he’s one of the funniest comedians around, his shtick revolving around the ridiculousness of Filipino characteristics.

Dilip, who’s producing the show, says, “Our goal is to widen the audience awareness and understanding of the craft of comedy, at the same time create a community revolved around the evolution of this art by showcasing the best talents.”

His involvement in international comedy came as an accident, after he saw standups performing at an international comedy festival in Kuala Lumpur where he met around 20 comedians. It was a light bulb moment for him. “I feel like people here aren’t aware of how much fun watching a standup show is — it’s an alternative thing to do on a date or a night out. In terms of the Asian standup scene, we are about eight years behind.”

He continues, “These are talents on a Netflix level. We want to try to give a different perspective on comedy. Lots of the comedy shows we have here are gay impersonations that poke fun at their audiences. There are other groups that do standup comedy like Comedy Cartel and Comedy Manila, which hone local talents. What I’m trying to do is to build a scene like New York, Sydney and Melbourne, more of foreign talents from all over the world.” Dilip, by the way, marketed the Russel Peters show here a few years back, which was sold out in a week.

His wife, Saira Budhrani, handles event-day operations. “She makes sure things are going on smoothly from the time the guests enter till the end of the show when people take pictures with the artists,” Dilip says. “She makes sure the music, ambience and all the technical aspects are in place.”

Dilip says, “We’re trying to bring comedy to a different level. It’s intellectual, it’s engaging, it’s current events and it’s a great two-hour show. Many of the comedians are career men and women who left successful professional careers and chose comedy. They’re all different kinds of artists — one on one they’re different, kind of shy, but when they’re in front of 500 to thousands of people, they just get the laughs.” 

The performers at Triple Trouble:

Ahmed Ahmed is an American comedian with Egyptian lineage and was the winner of the Richard Pryor Award for Ethnic Comedy in Scotland in 2004. He moved to Hollywood at 19 to pursue a career in acting and comedy, and is a regular performer at The Comedy Store in LA.

He’s done shows all over the US and UK and has appeared in film and TV shows. He appeared in the PBS documentary America at a Crossroads series in Stand Up: Muslim American Comics Come of Age. He’s presently with the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour. 

D’ilruk Jayasinha, born in Sri Lanka who relocated in Melbourne when he was young to attend university, once said he’d rather be a “broke comedian than a rich accountant.” He was fired from his accounting job at the same time his comedy career was starting.

Dil is now a regular in Melbourne’s comedy scene and has had consistently successful shows. He’s performed all over Australia and internationally, and in 2016 performed in his sixth Melbourne International Comedy Festival. He made his Australian TV debut with the primetime show Have You Been Paying Attention, and performed at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Just for Laughs festival.  

Dan Quinn is one of Canada’s top comics, starting his career in 1993 and quickly won Edmonton’s funniest new comedian award. He has performed in England, France, Wales, Australia, New York, LA, San Francisco, and almost every town in Canada.

His comedy is very personal and relatable, taking stories and events from his own life and bringing to the audience in a hilarious manner. As an actor, he can be seen on TV shows such as Arrow and The Collector.     

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Visit the author’s travel blog at www.findingmyway.net. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter @iamtanyalara.

Triple Double will be held on Oct. 24 at I’m Hotel Makati. For inquiries and reservations, call 0917-5703057, 0920-971-7055, 804-7798.