Follow-up moves needed for initially bright career gambits

McNeal “Awra” Briguela (left) and Vice Ganda in “Super Parental Guardians”

Show biz year 2016 saw the spot-on gambits of some stars and starlets that they should promptly follow up on and underscore in 2017.

Topping our list is the successful gay pairing of Vice Ganda and his new mini-me, McNeal “Awra” Briguela, in Joyce Bernal’s “The Super Parental Guardians.”

Awra was able to rise up to Vice’s florid, torrid comedic style or “attack”—no mean feat for a tyro like him, given Vice’s penchant for “taking no prisoners” in his solo or shared performances.

One good pairing clearly deserves another, so it’s a no-brainer that some savvy producer should strike while the iron is hot and come up with a new film or TV vehicle for local show biz’s latest and most unlikely hit screen tandem. Let’s trendily call them AwGanda, why don’t we?

When he first grabbed viewers’ attention as a YouTube sensation, Awra was just a one-trick pony who kept repeating his extreme “aura” or comedy modeling shtick.

In “The Super Parental Guardians,” however, Bernal was able to add and expand Awra’s repertoire of tricks and tics, revealing that the child or tween comic could also hold his own in Vice’s “kilometric comic monologue or dialogue” territory, jabbering away in gay and comedic abandon.

One of the hit movie’s highlight was a “patutsada” (one-upmanship) scene in which Vice and Awra tried to out-impress one another and the viewing public by way of the “endless” culinary terms and references they alternately spouted!

The fact that the blistering, blathering “duel” ended in a delicious draw served notice that Awra was ready for bigger, better and brighter comedic showcases, with his “maxi-mom,” Vice, who’s “maternally” taken the “aw-rageously promising” newcomer under his ample, nurturing wing.

What should their new tandem’s follow-up showcase look like? If it’s a film, it should have a musical-comedy swing and zing to it—and it should again be megged by Joyce Bernal, who apparently knows how to bring out the best in both Vice and Awra.

If it’s a TV sitcom, it should also field a host of other really funny comedians, like Ogie Alcasid, Mitch Valdes, Epy Quizon, Giselle Sanchez, Jograd de la Torre, Beverly Salviejo, Arnell Ignacio, Lou Veloso, Eugene Domingo and Ces Quesada.

That would push Vice and Awra to come up with their best portrayals and would thus assure viewers of a very good show!

Santino’s turn

Other stars’ 2016 moves that deserve follow-up gambits in 2017 include the recent “reminder,” by way of a new TV commercial, that acting ace Jericho Rosales has a teen son and scion, Santino, who seems to have the looks and possibly the thespic genes to make it as an actor, as well.

This is uncannily similar to the case of Piolo Pascual and his love child, Iñigo, who joined the stellar biz a couple of seasons ago. Iñigo may still be trying to make it big on his own terms, but at least he’s giving the uphill challenge everything he’s got.

Will Jericho’s “junior” follow suit? A well-written introductory role in his dad’s next movie for 2017 would be a great first move—despite Jericho’s initial apprehensions.