Ichi Ban

Last night was a trip. Twas hella fun.  Hella funny! J

Here are some bits and pieces I want to remember for a long, loooong time:

1. Edna’s Ichi-ban Library: a Filipino Comedy Bar and Videoke place in Daly City –“Little Philippines” of California. My first time to ever come to a place like that. I wouldn’t even be caught dead in one in the Philippines .  WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT???
2. Two bottles of beer…the ol’ reliable San Mig Lite (1 year and a half since I had the last one in the Philippines ) That, aside from other stuff truly made my day!...Tokwa’t Baboy and Sisig served on a sizzling plate (the lemon in lieu of calamansi was a party pooper though) 
3. Two funny gay performers/singers, one looked like Andrea del Rosario, the other like Sharon Cuneta (sang like her too it was sooo creepy!) plus a little dirty humor peppering the show here and there but decent enough to tolerate and make you laugh til your sides hurt.
4. Colin, the young American guy on the table to our left with his fellow nurses/filipino friends.  He was so game he brought the house down when he danced and sang with Andrea look-alike, “Hit Me, Baby, one more time”.  Such a great sport!
5. My husband, being picked on and singing ONSTAGE for the very first time ever in his life! (He doesn’t even sing in the shower.  Thank you for going with him, J!!!)
6. “ALWAYS” – the song hubby sang with J…the one that goes “Girl you are to me…all that a woman should be…and I dedicate my life, to you always”.  And he, pointing and winking at me, while this gay performer was clinging on to him like an undernourished Koala bear.
7. The special brotherhood/bond my hubby shares with the guys he supervises in his team at work.  All the Filipino guys in the team were there, and brought their wives too!
8. Jeff, the wheelchair-bound guy from the table to our right.  He went onstage several times to sing, AND DANCE! (He did upper body dance moves while rolling his wheelchair around, dancing like he had a pair of perfectly functioning feet)  What a joy to see!
9. Hanging out with simple people who were out to have a great time, the nobody-really-cares-if-you-sing-monotone unadulterated kind of fun…
10. Hanging out until 1 am…ON A THURSDAY NIGHT – like how I used to in the Philippines .   It’s something you don’t get a lot here in the U.S.

WHO WOULD’VE THOUGHT?

…that something I used to turn away from in the Philippines , would make me feel so “at home” away from home…a place whose reputation and safety I even questioned at first...

…it spoke of familiar things…the pinoy beer, the tokwa’t baboy, OPM, pinoy slang I already need to catch up on, brothers and sisters working here and shining through –- a foreign land to us still, no matter what…

…then throw in an inspiration or two…

Being far away from home makes one feel forever-nostalgic and craving for things that remind us of our land, our culture, our own people. Talk about appreciating the things you used to take for granted...

And they say you are truly homesick if you start salivating for “WOWOWEE”. Well, I don’t exactly swear it off, but it still doesn’t appeal to me at all (please don’t be quick to judge! it’s a matter of distinct personal interests among different folks).  But after this, who knows… 

For the Comedy-Karaoke bars and the like though…I’m not exactly a big fan yet too, I suppose.  But I really look forward to the next one!!!