MICHAEL Angelo (right) subjects Dingdong Dantes to a series of hilarious and humiliating “tests.” Facebook of Michael Angelo
Many stars and starlets cheekily claim that they’re really funny comedians—but, only a precious few actually fit the bill. Two such relatively promising comedic finds on TV are the “Fil-Aussie” star of “Bogart the Explorer” and the host of the new comedy-variety show, “#Michael Angelo.”
Bogart has been around longer but it’s only now that he’s making creditable waves with his depiction of a Fil-Aussie who’s come to the Philippines “on Safari,” as it were, and has a fun time reacting to and experiencing all of our colorful flora—and fauna (people definitely included).
Like Seinfeld
His signature “clueless” on-cam persona and the show’s comedic format may be simple, but Bogart productively expands on it with his (sweetly) acerbic comments on sights and sounds (!) that we often take for granted.
He finds humor even in “ordinary” situations, like Jerry Seinfeld once did on US TV, to great success, prosperity and acclaim. Here’s hoping that Bogart will soon be similarly rewarded for his antic take on local topics and tics that we have come to regard as unremarkable—but actually say a whole lot about how and why we behave the way we do.
BOGART the Explorer visits the Philippines “on Safari,” as it were.
Like Bogart, new comedy show host Michael Angelo Lobrin III has an appealingly soft and gentle comic touch—as opposed to the gung-ho, “attack” and “assault mode favored by all too many local “guerrilla” comics.
Zanies, weirdos
On his new show, he plays a talk-show host who features a string of zanies and weirdos on his program, making viewers actually chuckle—instead of moan and groan!
A recent edition on “#Michael Angelo” elicited humor from the host-producer’s excessive stinginess: In order to cut production costs down to the bare minimum, he resorted to desperate schemes—like agreeing to share the studio with another talk show!
This made possible his being able to “steal” the other host’s prized stellar guest, Dingdong Dantes—whom he then subjected to a number of hilarious and humiliating “tests.” They included outlandish assaults on Dingdong’s shocked person by a bevy of supposedly sexy women—who turned out to be ravenously “cougar” lolas who enthusiastically and “vampirically” attached their false teeth on various parts of Dong’s hunky bod! (Kudos to Dingdong for “allowing” the slurpy desecration.)
Nothing’s sacred
It was a really crazy comedic notion that both delighted and alarmed its chosen stellar victim—and served notice that, on “#Michael Angelo,” absolutely nothing will be sacred (within MTRCB limits, of course)!
We’re citing Bogart and Michael Angelo with enthusiastic approval, because they’re being funnier and more hardworking than many so-called or self-styled TV comics, who all too often mistake hubris for humor—and “wala lang” indolence for laid-back wit!
Unlike them (and they are legion), Michael and Bogart come up with situations and topics that are really funny. So, may their tribe increase—exponentially.
As for the veritable plague of unfunny and lazy comedians on the very correctly named local “boob tube”—may their tribe (and diatribe) decrease—to the point of suicidal extinction!