The funny lady can also shed tears

Kitkat hardly slept a wink that afternoon she faced the press at ABS-CBN. But it hardly showed in her fresh-as-a-daisy face.

“I haven’t slept for 36 hours,” she declares. “I‘ve been driving myself to work — taping for Iisa Pa Lamang and shooting My Only U (where she plays tenant in Vhong Navarro’s apartment).”

Told that she has yet to show signs of fatigue, Kitkat points to her face, “Oh, but it shows in my open pores!”

The fatigue is a non-issue for this newly-minted Star Magic talent. In fact, Kitkat hopes the downpour of assignments will never stop.

She needs it for the family. Kitkat the breadwinner is sending a younger sister to school at the FEU College of Architecture. Her Lola Puring is also relying heavily on her.

So Kitkat is glad she’s got work — lots and lots of it. It makes the sleepless nights and the open pores worth it.

She’s one of the judges of DZMM’s LOL (Laugh Out Loud), which airs Sundays, 1 p.m. on Teleradyo. She cracks jokes and banters with fellow comedians in Punchline, Laffline and Metrobar.

Four years after she started out in showbiz via a stint in Punchline, Kitkat starred in a string of movies: Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah, My Kuya’s Wedding and Supah-Papalicious.

The former band member who used to be Willie Revillame’s back-up singer has also appeared on ABS-CBN’s Calla Lily and Pedro Penduko.

Friends in showbiz have not been hard to find. Kitkat proved this when she marked her 24th birthday recently at Punchline.

 Kitkat and Iisa Pa Lamang co-star Claudine have become so close they can do anything together at the spur of the moment.

“One time,” recalls Kitkat, “Claudine called out of the blue and asked me to go with her for a body scrub.”

Unlike Claudine though, Kitkat has yet to make her mark in drama. She tried, by shedding a tear in a scene on Iisa Pa Lamang.

“I can‘t forget that scene,” she recalls her baptism of fire. “I had to shed the tears just right. My director won‘t have it any other way.“

But Kitkat agrees what she‘s done so far is not enough. She wants more, more, more!

You don‘t switch from comedy to drama the way you turn the computer on or off. You need patience. You need to wait. And that’s what Kitkat is doing now.

Still, she has come a long way since she auditioned for Ang TV as a starry-eyed child and failed to make the grade. But she sure is making up for lost time. Perhaps she had to gain more experience, more skills. Now, the grown-up Kitkat is more than making up for what she failed to do as a kiddie showbiz wannabe.

And, with the right projects, the right directors, she might just spring a surprise on us and show us what she can do by shedding a tear or two. On that day, Kitkat will finally tell the world, head held high, chin up: “See what I mean? I had it in me all along!”

And she will again laugh out loud, the way she‘s doing now, in venues here and there, for people near and far.