Unsolicited advice

HONTIVEROS. Exemplifies perfectly clear and unaccented enunciation

“Eat Bulaga’s” “Pinoy Henyo” tilt remains popular even after years of being played, because it is indeed “very Pinoy.” It’s a good thing that the wordplay competition is now varying the composition of its teams of contestants, with the current batch featuring senior citizens and their grandkids.

This “generational” pairing is full of “interesting” possibilities, because the kids are usually quite sharp, but the grandparents are prone to experiencing “senior moments” that leave blanks in their minds that make them miss out on the specific right answers—and frustrate their otherwise loving apos! —Very entertaining.

However, we’d like to give this piece of unsolicited advice: To lessen the tilt’s frustration level, it shouldn’t require contestants to distinguish between the English and Tagalog versions of a word.

Last week, for instance, the correct answer, “bicycle,” was deemed less than spot-on, until the contestant came up with “bisikleta.” To minimize confusion, lessen frustration and avoid wasting time, it should be stated beforehand if the answers are all in English or Filipino.

Singers as contestants

Another popular show is “The Singing Bee,” which is currently telecast on a daily basis. Our unsolicited suggestion for the show is to limit its contestants to personalities who can really sing. Much too often, we have to bear with excruciatingly off-key contestants, and it’s such a useless ordeal, particularly in this country, where so many people just naturally sing well! Now, we know that lousy “singing” can be “funny,” but we can do without that shrill and strident kind of humor, can’t we?

It would also be better if the “demonstration” singers on the show would enunciate their songs’ lyrics more clearly. Recently, one of the show’s resident singers appeared to garble some of his lyrics, and a contestant naturally complained, because she had a hard time figuring out what the right lyric was.

Preference

On the Solar News Channel, the general bone of contention is the penchant of some of its female newscasters and reporters to read their news text with an “American” accent.

We hope that they will reconsider this preference, because it could set a bad example for some viewers, who may feel that they too should sound like Americans or Fil-Ams when they talk, so that they will come off as chic or trendy.

Nothing, of course, could be farther from the truth, because neutral or unaccented English the way some enlightened and “uncolonial” Filipinos speak it, sounds clear, confident, non-referential and beautiful, and should be the way for all of us to go.

Solar staffers don’t need to look far for the best example—she’s their own senior news anchor, Pia Hontiveros, whose neutral enunciation is perfect.

Clarity in communication

When you decide to become an actor or singer, you’d better make sure that you can express yourself clearly, so that the communication between you and your listeners isn’t hampered. All too often, new talents focus on their looks rather than on their expressiveness or articulation, thus distracting or irritating listeners.

Some tyros’ voices are too small, high-pitched and even shrill, while others speak in a low, dull monotone that makes the dialogue they intone sound too “memorized” and lacking in emotional understanding and insight.

Bad speaking or singing voices make even intelligent people sound insensitive, self-conscious and dumb. So, performance coaches should spend a lot more time teaching newbies how to more effectively express themselves in a variety of ways, and how to ad-lib in a naturally entertaining manner.

Listen to a bunch of starlets and, looks apart, you can more or less tell who among them have even the ghost of a chance to get noticed, picked out of the madding crowd and make it as stars of tomorrow, by the way they talk and ad-lib.

The rest sound as inarticulate, dull or irritating as most everybody else, so if they don’t solve their speech and articulation problems, it’s finis for them and their dream of show biz stardom!

Vocal spectrum

At the other end of the vocal spectrum is the established star who started out sounding OK, but has since developed a raspy voice, for one reason or other. The raspiness in his or her voice has become so pronounced that it’s not just distracting, but even irritates viewers and listeners, because they can’t understand what he or she is saying. Worse, the signature raspiness limits the roles that the actor is offered, so his effectiveness and productivity as a performer is curtailed.

This is what’s happened of late to Ai Ai delas Alas and Cherie Gil. They do their best to come up with varied characterizations, but their raspy voices work against them.

If there’s medical help for the raspiness in their speech, Ai Ai and Cherie should seek it, because they have much to gain if they can speak more clearly and with greater variety, texture and nuance—as all performers should!