FOR 33 years now, UP Samaskom has been staging Live AIDS. Dubbed as the longest-running live comedy musical show, Live AIDS has been a must-watch show because of its tongue-in-cheek and campy sketches. It has also been a breeding ground of performers, such as Tuesday Vargas, RS Francisco, Kaladkaren and many more.
This year, the show’s theme is “G na G Sa 33.” “G,” of course, is Gen-Z slang for “game” meaning you are game for anything. But in the case for this year’s installment of Live AIDS, G might as well stand for “great time.” Because that is definitely what you’ll be experiencing in the three hours that you will be plastered in your seat.
What makes Live AIDS work is that it takes a swipe at almost everything. From the performers’ fellow UP students (“Takbo sila ng takbong nakahubad, mga jutay naman!”) to Maria Ressa (“Let’s face it, you’re not naman that pretty”). Their jokes remain razor-sharp and audacious.
But the best bits, of course, are the jokes laced with political undertones, which is the specialty of the house for 33 years. This edition has parodies of Sara Duterte named Inday Zarah, who discussed her “May tricks” on how she headed the landslide victory in the recent midterm elections. There is also a sketch on squatters and how they just want to find a job and make a living, and the head gang member announces, “Oo, skwater kami! ’Yun talaga tawag namin sa sarili namin. Bakit, may nakilala na ba kayong skwater na ang tawag n’ya sa sarili niya ay ‘informal settler?’” There is a Marie Kondo impersonator who wants people to throw away things that don’t give them joy, and launches into a photo of Duterte and Bong Go having breakfast and challenges the audience what in this picture does not bring them joy.
They throw jabs left and right on historical revisionism, toxic masculinity, fake news, the drug war that makes you gasp and laugh and also profoundly hurt as the sketches and bits are informed by an undeniable painful truths. Kudos goes to the naughty and gregarious mind of the show writers for getting all these ideas that are made both abrasive and artful, as opposed to sour and slapstick.
If there’s one thing to nitpick about all Live AIDS shows, it’s the sound system. There’s always a time when the audio will not work, or there will be scratches that are annoying and disrupting, sometimes prompting the performer to go off-script and crack a joke or two about the sound. Maybe this is really a trademark of the show but it’s one trademark that should be taken out.
Live AIDS has a reputation of being a canny social satire and deservedly so. But the show is sillier than its reputation, and that is a good thing. You can look at it actually both ways: a serious show with a statement that makes you laugh, or a raunchy, no-holds-barred comedy show that makes you think.
Either way, game na game ako sa ganyan!
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CINEMA One, one of the first locally produced cable channels in the Philippines, commemorates 25 years of championing Philippine cinema and launches its silver anniversary theme song, “Laging Kasama,” performed by Daniel Padilla.
Daniel recently performed the song in ASAP Natin ’To. The music video is also available on Cinema One’s YouTube channel.
One of the country’s leading cable channels, which has showcased and delivered thousands of Filipino films to TV screens, Cinema One will also premiere the highest grossing Filipino film of all time, The Hows of Us, starring Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo, on June 30.
Channel Head Ronald Arguelles shared that Cinema One was born to provide a 24-hour channel showcasing Filipino films.
“Aside from doing our core programming made up of classic and contemporary Pinoy films, we also began producing local magazine shows, like Cinemanews, Persona, Cover Story and Review Night,” Ronald said, listing down the channel’s local production beginnings in 2001.
Today, the Cinema One brand has evolved from merely airing movies to producing its own films through the annual Cinema One Originals festival. The fearless film festival has earned international recognition and launched award-winning stories, including the box-office hit That Thing Called Tadhana.
Bianca Gonzalez, host of the channel’s magazine show Cinemanews, hailed Cinema One for opening opportunities for young filmmakers, the future of Philippine cinema. “Here in Cinema One, especially in Cinemanews, independent filmmakers and film personalities are given more airtime to articulate their views and opinions about their projects and discuss varied issues affecting work and their lives.”