The hard work that goes into Alex Calleja’s jokes

Alex Calleja

“Guys, you don’t have to look elsewhere. We have homegrown talents,” declared stand-up comedian and Laugh Factory’s Funniest Person in the World 2016 finalist Alex Calleja.

“Although they’re not mainstream, you can see them performing all over the metro,” Alex told reporters during the press conference of “Stand Up For Laughs,” an eight-episode stand-up comedy series that he directed. It is the first venture of The Filipino Channel (TFC) into producing content under the comedy genre.

Alex was commenting on the success of the shows here of American stand-up comedians Dave Chappelle, who had a gig at The Theatre at Solaire on Jan. 14-15, and Jo Koy, who was at the SM Mall of Asia Arena on Jan. 15. Both comedians have Filipino connections: Dave is married to a Filipino, while Jo Koy’s mom is Filipino.

“The mentality of Filipinos before was that if you’re not seen on TV, you’re not popular. It’s good that we’re going digital now. It’s a new platform that we find helpful in our goal to educate the Filipino audience. At least there, we have videos that go viral,” pointed out Alex, who is also a writer for the noontime program “It’s Showtime!”Also bringing nonstop laughter through the “Stand Up For Laughs” series are comedians GB Labrador, Orca, Winer Aguilar, Nicki Morena, Clark Llaga, Ramon Cabochan and Yuki.

“We write our own material,” Alex said, adding that it’s difficult to write jokes, “because you have to test them first to make sure they’re really funny. Also, it will take you two to three months to develop one whole set. People think we just come up with a new set so easily.” Alex said they write jokes based on their own experiences. “Also, during live performances, we ad-lib. We take note of the ad-libs that drew the best reactions and, sometimes, we turn them into regular jokes.”

There’s also the issue of whether or not it’s OK to repeat jokes, he said.

“If you watch us live, you’d notice that there are jokes that we could only deliver once because it will only work for that particular night,” he explained. “There are jokes, too, that are like classic love songs. You’ve already heard them being performed several times, but you still want to hear them again and again because you like them. Those are jokes that we can deliver repeatedly. There are people who identify with them.”The comedian added: “In America, you can repeat jokes in many states and not get caught. Ours is a small country. Here, we have supporters who follow us to different cities to watch us perform.”

Another thing that Alex said he wanted people to learn, especially for comedians like him, was how to respect the work of fellow artists.

“I can no longer count the times when my jokes got copied. I would often feel robbed. Some even had the temerity to tell me, ‘Lex, gagamitin ko ang joke mo, ha?’ If I complain, I’d get bashed. They’d say, ‘Sa ‘yo lang ba ang joke na ‘yan, e kay God ‘yan?’ Or, you’d hear comments like, ‘Ikaw naman, hinihiram lang naman!’ But really, I wrote them based on my own experiences. I worked hard on them.”

There’s also the notion that stand-up comedy jokes are not for an intelligent audience, Alex pointed out.

“We get invited to weddings or parties. They make us go up the stage while everyone is lining up for the buffet table or is already busy eating. They don’t know that in order for the audience to understand our jokes and react to them appropriately, they should be listening to us perform,” he said. “This was how stand-up comedy evolved and eventually turned into variety shows. People don’t listen because they’re busy doing something else. To get their attention, comedians resort to singing for them. When this doesn’t work, comedians try insulting fellow artists onstage by saying, ‘Hoy, pangit ka!’ If that still fails, comedians insult the audience.”

Alex said: “Sadly, we’ve now adjusted the level of entertainment we give to the people. We can’t keep doing comedy like this. The ideal scene is that we laugh together, not laugh at a person.”

“Stand Up for Laughs,” which can be seen outside the Philippines via TFC Online, will soon be featured on the streaming app iWant. INQ