Dave Chappelle conquers Manila

Stand-up comedy conquered the mid-month of January in Manila!

First, Fil-Am comedian Jo Koy performed at The Theatre at Solaire in Parañaque City. And then a few days later, Emmy- and Grammy-Award winner Dave Chappelle brought The Theatre down with his two-night show. The Balcony and Loge tickets immediately sold out within an hour of their release for the two shows.

Chappelle, who is married to a Filipina, is best known for his iconic comedy sketch series Chappelle’s Show.

For Chappelle’s first show, DJ Trauma played music as an excited crowd filled up The Theatre. There was a strict no-mobile-phones and no-cameras policy during the two shows.

It was a nice surprise to see one of the two front acts that night — Michelle Wolf, a featured performer at the 2018 White House Correspondents’ Dinner and a contributor and writer for the shows of Seth Myers and Trevor Noah. The other performer was Mohammed Amer, an American stand-up comic of Palestinian descent known for his Netflix special and for being 1/3 of the comedy trio Allah Made Me Funny. Wolf and Amer performed 15-minute sets each.

As expected, Chappelle, who smoked cigarettes throughout the show, was a hit with the crowd who laughed hysterically with the comedian’s punch lines.

Others I spotted yet failed to photograph that night included STAR’s Tanya Lara and Regina Belmonte, Arnel Patawaran, Sen. Imee Marcos, Michael Manotoc, Chris Warns, John Fajardo, Bito Mantecon, Jaime Godinez, Anton and Amanda Banson, Sandro Tengco and Ina Kole.

It wasn’t all jokes during Chappelle’s visit in Manila as he and Solaire’s Katrina Razon presented a donation to Rayomar Outreach Foundation Inc. board director Martin Garcia and president Ana Zubiri for the Taal Volcano eruption victims. *

(Solaire is located at 1 Asean Avenue, Entertainment City, Parañaque City. For more information, visit @solaireresort  on Facebook or Instagram and www.solaireresort.com.)