On Judy Tenuta and Stephen Lynch

One of the instances when I knew I was different from my family happened to me during college. They (the family I lived with comprising of cousins, uncles, and aunts on the second degree) would usually pass the time playing mahjong, minding the convenience store, and getting into lengthy conversations with anyone and everyone delving mostly of topics and/or gossips that commonly led to heated philosophical debates that were never ever resolved. Probably even up until this very day. I did not at all find anything wrong with their daily regimen. It's just that I personally chose not to participate. With that decision, however, I felt I became pseudo-alienated. By pseudo, I meant to only infer as the status was not openly expressed. The air, though, was thick and fully charged with a heavy feeling, likened to that sensation on board an airplane when the cabin gets pressurized minutes before a flight. An unspoken truth that I neither found offensive nor spiteful. In fact, I was even thankful in that I could go my own way making spur-of-the-moment paintings or practicing my skills on how to read and write in Korean or doing sound mixes for events to earn some cash. That and more.

As for the more glaring difference that made me write this piece, I was actually referring to the contrast on our preferences in lifestyle, take for instance something as basic as taste in choosing which primetime TV program to watch. Flashback to my good old elementary school years, my mom would have the TV tuned on Falcon Crest and Knots Landing. She also made sure we had our dose of foreign TV game shows and Sesame Street. My dad, should he have his way, would invoke local live coverages of basketball footages or foreign comedy shows. On Saturdays, we, the kids,would have the TV all to ourselves watching the cartoon-marathon on RPN 9 from 8am until noon. The whole new setup took some adjusting on my part.

While I have no qualms against Marimar, which my second-degree grandmother would claim she had watched from the first episode of the pilot broadcast making her one of the first to get hooked with the soap, I opted to draw myself in the confines of the room I share with a cousin which apparently has an old B&W TV from WWII. The good thing was that I had learned tweaking electronic equipment earlier and that skill helped me convert the jurassic boob-tube to receive cable-TV transmission.

Being color-blind at a young tender age has its merits. What others would have perceived as pitiful was, for me, already a fully-loaded entertainment system. Well, minus the remote.

At night, when all three colored TV sets in the house either had on them Barney the Dinosaur for the tykes, Marimar for the crone, and Tagalog Box Office hits for the rest, I had on mine stand-up comics courtesy of HBO. I'd laugh my ass off at performances made by stand-up comedians, especially the accordion-weilding Judy Tenuta. My aunts and cousins would check up on me after hearing my loud, heartfelt laughs only to leave the minute they see the source of my tear-jerking joys. Judy Tenuta's humor revolved mostly on her being a goddess of sorts. She would usually be donning outrageous gowns or flowing robes on stage, which actually works since she is a goddess, after all.

I only found out recently that Judy Tenuta had won an award in comedy. Way to go and very well deserved!

More recently, via Jack TV, I found myself reveling in the same six-pack-abs-inducing laughter when I came to discover Stephen Lynch on Comedy Central. This guy Stephen has a way with lyrics and melody. His performances are rendered with his acoustic guitar giving his audiences a double treat. I was thinking of showing sample lyrics of his material but it just doesn't work its magic the same way as when you hear Stephen sing the punchlines. Do click on the link I provided here and go the "discography" section for a taste of Stephen Lynch's genius. You may also catch his comic acts via Jack TV.

Now, if only I could get my hands on CDs of both their live performances.

posted by Fritz @ 1:32 PM