An International Man of Leisure

I grew up watching the Caroll Burnett Show, which by the way is one of the most underrated sketch comedy shows of the 70’s and 80’s. Like Saturday Night Live and SCTV the Carol Burnett Show launched the careers of some very gifted comedic actors. There was one sketch that really stuck out visually in my mind.  Tim Conway’s Dorf character where Tim played a hapless midget golfer was the one sketch that always stayed with me. And so when it came time for me to begin creating sketch comedy characters of my own I was inspired by one of my favorite all-time sketches. Minny Pacquiao, is my Filipino-American Dorf.  My Pinoy Roscoe the Snot Nose Kid.  Minny Pacquiao is a Fil-Am Comedy Sketch. As I was coming up as an actor/improvisor in Chicago I studied at Improv Olympic with Del Close, the Godfather of American Comedy. Del mentored and trained the likes of Bill Murray, Chris Farley, an Mike Myers.  Because of my training with Del at Improv Olympic I was lucky enough to be a part of the Business Touring Company at Second City in Chicago and it was there I realized what kind of sketches I wanted to create but I was still not yet ready to create them. I wanted to create a Filipino-American Sketch Comedy Character the way Eddie Murphy did with Buckwheat on SNL or Jim Carrey did with Fire Marshall Bill on In Living Color.  However it wasn’t until the emergence of a certain Filipino World Champion Boxer that I had the fodder to create the comedy I envisioned myself doing.  And now Minny Pacquiao has not only allowed me to live out my artistic dreams he has opened the door to a whole new template for the Filipino-American comedy sketches to come in the future.