Is the time ripe for live comedy to rule primetime TV?

This piece actually started in a second-hand bookstore where we picked up an issue of Rolling Stone bannering a story on David Letterman on the cover. This idol of talk show hosts everywhere merited a nine-page coverage which opened up interesting details of his career, from failure after failure to the top of the world. David is credited with having changed television forever, for instigating the birth of reality TV with ordinary folks beamed on the screen to become stars tomorrow. 

By coincidence, we read an announcement in a local publication of a comedy-musical-talk show Pare & Pare to be hosted by multi-awarded singer-songwriter Ogie Alcasid with three-time Asian TV Best Comedy Actor Michael V alias Bitoy coming up Sundays on GMA 7. Guests tapped have been Annabelle Rama, Mike Enriquez, Ryan Cayabyab, Regine Velasquez-Alcasid and Hayden Kho. Hayden, former king of the sex video scandals? The only way it would work was for Hayden to drop his guard and go for it!

Back to David, we immediately thought of our Fil-Am friend Jose Cabaltera whose suggestions regarding Pinoy Moments in our column yielded quite a number of reactions. We asked him what he thought of David and this was what he said:

“As children, we defied our parents by staying up past our bedtime, sneaking down to catch Late Night with David Letterman. We only wanted to watch until the first commercial break. To us, this first segment was the funniest part of the TV show: The 10-minute monologue that explored current events in a manner we didn’t fully understand but nevertheless couldn’t help giggling about.

“What attracted us were the eccentric stunts and characters that frequented the show. There was the Man who lived beneath the stairs — an idea of which freaked us out a bit since anything living under the stairs must be a bit creepy. There was thickly bespectacled Larry ‘Bud’ Melman who became famous for his awkwardness with a cue card, who spoke as if his tongue were too large for his mouth. Panicky guy hid among the audience, then would jump up and hightail it out of the studio for reasons that weren’t always apparent to us. Then, as teenagers, we waited for David’s Top 10 List since we had begun to understand what was going on more, and the lists were always odd and always funny.

Michael V and Ogie Alcasid will talk to celebrities and ordinary people on GMA 7’s Pare & Pare

 “We developed curiosity over Letterman, this lanky Midwesterner’s strange antics, how he’d toss pencils over the shoulder into the set behind, throw cue cards at the camera, or focus on the most normal sounding word or punch line and repeat them throughout the first segment in apparent self-amusement. He was odd looking: With curly sand colored hair and a noticeable gap between his front teeth.”

This was when we began to understand the wisdom behind the guesting of Hayden. We hope Hayden, too, would see the fun in it!

 Getting to talk with Ogie over the phone, we found it strange that for all the years he and Bitoy worked together at GMA, this is the first time for them to partner in a full-blown show with both as hosts. “We’ve talked about it for many years but somehow nothing came of it, until now,” he says. “Hindi pala ganun kadali,” Ogie adds, “although anything with Bitoy has always been a breeze. What is most important is that hindi nawawala ang fun.”

We have been told that the weekly content varies, that segments so far are Barako Tips, Bet Mo Bet Ko, a review of the week although these are still subject to change; but what is certain is that everything will be spontaneous, unrehearsed and funny. Ogie tells us his favorite segment is Mall Street Journal, when he and Bitoy go out separately to the streets, the malls or market places to interview people. “Pinoys are such funny people; they find a joke in everything,” Ogie shares.

If there were to be a serious portion, it would be the musical guest each week, where he and Bitoy could join, and the band under Mel Villena with members of the Asosasyon ng Musikong Pilipino would play. Certainly, folks yearning for fun at primetime would welcome Pare & Pare. We are sure Martin Nievera from the other network is wondering when his promised Late Night with Martin will follow suit.

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