In-and-out escapades in a curiously exciting environment can lead to proverbial nuggets. What happens in Vegas stays in the mind. Especially when it’s been compressed within no more than 40 hours. And when the purpose of the quick visit is nothing less than extraordinary: to cover Wowowee.
Come again? Yes, Wowowee, the phoenix man Willie Revillame’s phenom of a TV show, highlighted by his very presence – for a special overseas edition staged at the equally celebrated Thomas & Mack Center.
An invite from the Department of Tourism had led to a little research by way of the boob tube. Nice to know a spectacle can rise inexorably from the ashes of tragedy, so that within months it leaps from a sorry stampede at the Ultra to a Sunday convergence of 14,000 USA Pinoy pilgrims at the UNLV campus.
In the home country, after all, Wowowee has virtually turned into a special balikbayan come-on. Thanks to the growing reach and entertainment influence of TFC or The Filipino Channel, hundreds of thousands of kababayan abroad stay connected to mass entertainment, of the Pinoy na Pinoy variety.
From Alaska to Vermont, Fil-Am-cum-FOB Pinoy televiewers relish and revel in Wowowee’s simple formula: top-bill an energetic, seasonally controversial showman with a raspy voice, and have him sing and prance and crack edgework jokes, share the stage with comely young co-hosts and alluring dancers in skimpy outfits, lead audience contestants through a variety of song-and-dance plus easy IQ-test routines, and verily, verily, hand out caboodles of prizes in cash and/or kind.
Now add another element: balikbayan groups actually demanding participation in a Wowowee show at ABS-CBN in QC, as a must in their homecoming agenda – so they can wave placards pronouncing their provenance (anywhere in that stretch of diaspora from Samar to Samarkand). And either donate some dollars or win some pesos for themselves. Best if they’re seen onscreen by extended family and ex-hometown. Sheer heaven for one and all to notch a bit of personal equity in, be momentarily part of, television entertainment.
The transaction is pure Pinoy showtime, meaning it’s unadulterated, rated-for-adults-but-still-kids-at-heart fun. Some of us will label it as baduy. But hey, different strokes for different folks. Why, millions adored Liberace, too.
One might say that Willie Revillame is the epitome of Pinoy kabaduyan. But that’s just it: the open secret of his success. He’s a canny vet who’s intimate with the pulse of the madlang pi-pol: prole, promdi, or pedestrian. And he keeps more than just a dirty finger on that throbbing pulse. Sensing all too well that familiar slogans and soundbites are like mating signals for the small-town crowd-now-turned-horde, he services all and sundry with a sizzling syllabus of semaphores.
These include such buzzwords as "Bigatin" and "Pera o Bayong" – which have become much-awaited portions of the daily noontime show. To be selected as a Bigatin, one has to replicate a simple dance maneuver that’s only half-naughty but can be done wildly. While everyone sings catchy gibberish: "Boom tarat tarat, boom tarat tarat, tara-rat tara-rat boom boom boom."
With the increasing number of balikbayans pleading for entry into audience row, our Tourism honchos quickly recognized that Willie’s Wowowee could serve as bridgework. What wonks can wangle for a dream of a chocolate factory! For eternal kids wishing to come truly home. Boom, boom, boom.
And so Willie and Wowowee bring the act to Vegas, after an initial foray in San Fran last June. And the DOT rides on the big come-on that draws Pinoys not only from LV and the rest of Nevada, but from LA and the rest of California, in fact the rest of the USA. If balikbayan plans are sealed with the promise of a noontime cavort with Willie and Wowowee, surely a long weekend in glittering Vegas for the same opportunity is a no-brainer, as easy as rolling the dice to come up with any number.
Numbers are picked, all right. For this year alone, 250 USA Pinoys get a chance to visit home for free, courtesy of the Great Philippine Free Flight Giveaway program the DOT has launched in partnership with PAL. All it takes is registration online, at www.experiencephilippines.ph – or during special shows like Wowowee when these are brought over. Lucky names and numbers are then drawn for outright gifts of travel packages to good old RP.
Over 150 free flights have already been awarded in this initial phase of the DOT’s new campaign billed as "The Philippines: Explore, Experience, Return." In Vegas, the DOT’s raffle draw became part of the front act for Wowowee, with Tourism Attaché Annie Cuevas and DOT’s Team North America head Ma. Corazon "Junjun" Jorda-Apo mounting the stage to announce five new winners.
Also present at ringside were Deputy Consul-General Mary Jo Bernardo-Aragon, DOT consultant Roberto "Ram" Antonio and DOT Team North America consultant Prof. Tommy Lopez. Seen engaging in a quick huddle were ABS-CBN’s Charo Santos Concio and immigration lawyer Michael Gurfinkel, while helping resolve a ringside seating problem was show director Edgar Mortiz, who collaborates on this special night with Johnny Manahan.
The crowd that had gathered outside the venue as early as noon was let in at 4 p.m. At 7 p.m., in place of the actual start as announced, was a pre-show of raffle draws and pep-up intros. The long wait gave the crowd the chance to visit the various booths set up by DOT and other sponsors.
For this observer, it meant an opportunity to circle the concourse and get an imagined whiff of LeBron James’ and Dwyane Wade’s practice juices, along with those of the rest of Team USA, which trained here only a few weeks past, in the lead-up to the FIBA world championship it fell short of.
Vegas and Revillame – indeed, a perfect fit. Willie knows it, too. At 8 p.m. on the dot, to satisfy the full house that has been chanting his name for an hour, he makes his first appearance, atop a crane that deposits him onstage. Was it Madonna or Michael Jackson who established this precedent? Maybe both.
And after that first wave of shrieks throughout his opening song-and-prance number – including an overcome-by-tears interlude – he runs off into the dugout, keeping the crowd whetted and wailing.
Ratcheting up the excitement in turn are dancers Luningning and Milagring – also from Manila, live and direct! – whose names are now a mantra for Pinoys abroad. They’re joined by a dozen "locals" – Fil-Am girls who learned the routine over the weekend. Part sashay and all shake, shimmy and swivel, the spirited number ends in a tableau end-pose with frozen kick-ups.
Willie runs back in through a steeply descending aisle, his phalanx of body handlers deftly allowing the briefest of touches from ecstatic fans, who never know where he’ll turn up next. This time he’s in Elvis/Vegas mode, in white satin shirt and cape, rhinestoned to kitsch perdition.
WR’s charm entails self-deprecation, just as much as the well-timed quip for anyone who grabs at him and everyone else in sight. So he says something like "Elvis ang dating, ano?" And tirelessly struts about the stage, a non-stop bundle of energy and quick wit, even if that is only trademark Pinoy showbiz, on the shallow side (yet faster and more with-it than Dolphy).
He bounds up the aisles to reach out to each section, and be reached out to. Flailing hands are everywhere. Screams of delight well up wherever he touches base for precious moments. He apologizes to the nosebleed section, which he can’t reach ("Di ako makalipad dyan!").
The production crew punctuates salvos of applause with a loud cannon that blasts confetti into the air. Handlers run around to tug at cables trailing from video cameras that have to prowl about just as actively as the show host. It’s a total package, demanding great physical effort from everyone.
A kind of lull only descends upon the hour, make that three hours, whenever the co-emcees from Manila take over while Willie exits for another costume change. Janelle and Marielle are up to the chore, keeping the crowd entertained with coy sweetness. Even their slowdown banter, as a change of pace, seems designed to keep the go-go-go show well-structured.
To bring a show like Wowowee to the kitsch capital of America has wisdom and irony underscoring the brainstorm. Like bringing coals to Newcastle, in a way. But on the Sunday that was September 3 of a long Labor Day weekend, 14,000 Filipinos in America were entertained so gleefully the way they wouldn’t be, say, by attending at much higher-priced tickets a Martin Nievera or Lani Misalucha concert at a casino hotel on the Strip.
Oh, Filipinos are all over there, too, manning the slot machines in perpetual confrontation, or hitting the blackjack and craps tables, a few trying out the less familiar roulette. These Pinoys will come home, too, whether they hit it big or not. And that’s the beauty of our diaspora; it’s always a two-way street, and just as rife with possibilities and degrees of excitement as the famous Strip.
Some of us had to cut short our Wowowee experience due to the tight timetable vis-à-vis the range of entertainment offered on the Strip. Tickets to Cirque du Soleil’s latest enthralling production, Love, with music by the Beatles, just can’t be passed up. In fact, they’re to die for. But that’s another story.
Suffice it to say that a night in Vegas that takes any visiting fireman from one level of entertainment to another is nothing short of a confetti blast, a wondrous ejaculation. Wow! Whee!