Content in his job as a pharmaceutical sales agent, more than happy in his relationship with fiance Dilara, otherwise of seemingly sound mind, Filipino-Canadian Dennis Litonjua decided there was one thing missing in his bustling life – namely, standing up on a stage and pouring out his heart to hardened comedy fans.
“Great girlfriend, good job, but something was telling me, ‘You know what, you really love comedy, so let’s give this one last go,’” says the 35-year-old joker.
So Litonjua, who moved with his family from Metro Manila to Metro Vancouver at the tender age of seven, rounded up his funniest Filipino friends for a comedy show in support of the Greater Vancouver Food Bank.
(Litonjua reasons that if the show’s for a good cause, perhaps his audience will be a little more forgiving.)
Originally conceived as a showcase of all-Filipino funny folk, “creative differences” with one of his comedic cohorts has seen Flip N Funny morphed into Flip N Asian, an evening of stand-up comedy featuring three Filipino comics as well as a Korean, Japanese and Chinese comic.
“Very Vancouver,” laughs Litonjua.
While Litonjua has been back to comedy from time to time since his debut in front of 500 of his fellow classmates at North Surrey High School, last year he jumped back in to the scene with gusto.
He now averages 10 stand-up spots a month, from coffee shops in Burnaby to pubs in Kitsilano, with a once-a-month show at Yuk Yuk’s in downtown Vancouver.
The Flip N Asian Comedy Show, Metro Vancouver’s first all-Asian comedy night, features Ana De Lara (winner of Vancouver’s 2007 Funniest Comic with a Day Job Contest, and a resident of Victoria), Art Factora (a talk radio producer with Vancouver’s Talk 1410), Tom Shiboaka (a failed Ninja who’s been in comedy since 2005), host Jeffrey Yu (a former writer for This Hour Has 22 Minutes and a veteran of TV comedy), and headliner Paul Bae (a former high school teacher whose Comedy Now special airs regularly on CTV and The Comedy Network).
For Litonjua, the November 27 “Potluck of Laughs for the Vancouver Food Bank” at Lafflines Comedy Club in New Westminster (just steps from the Columbia Street SkyTrain Station) is an opportunity to taste again his former glory.
“It was my drama class in high school,” he explains. “I got up in front of 500 kids and was just kickin’ it for five, seven minutes.
“That’s a good feeling. And I’ve been looking for that feeling for quite awhile.”
Litonjua – who graduated from Simon Fraser University with a Humanities degree in 2000 (“I’m honest enough to say I graduated in the Top 3 of my Humanities department. . . I’m also honest enough to say there were only three in that department”) – says in his first year of comedy back in 2000, he made a staggering $15.
“But making people laugh and the high you get from that is just amazing,” he says. “I had to get back to it.”
Filipinos, says Litonjua, “besides being short and hogging the ball on the court,” have an infectious sense of humour.
“Filipinos are usually up to doing two things,” he explains. “One is making you laugh, the other is feeding you.”
Remarkably, he says, his Filipino heritage doesn’t provide him with the bulk of his material.
“There’s not a lot to pick on,” says Litonjua. “We’re fun, we love making people laugh, we’re great hosts, and we’re always ready to help others. You know, just super nice.”
On the other hand, girlfriend Dilara – who is South Asian – is a font of funny.
“Sure, I talk about how my kid’s going to be half Indian. And I love India,” he says.
“But have you ever noticed how India’s got this huge coast line, 12 major rivers, it’s the only country with an ocean named after it and still, every brown person I know – all my Punjabi friends – none of them can swim. Sikh. Hindu. Ninety-nine per cent of them don’t know how to swim.
“My kid’s going to swim.”
Litonjua says he’s hoping to make the Flip N Asian Comedy Show an annual event to spark the Vancouver Food Bank’s yearly push in advance of the Christmas Season.
“The Vancouver comedy scene has been very supportive,” he says. “A lot of the Asian comics in the Vancouver scene don’t focus on their Asian roots. They don’t want to exclude other members of the audience. But at Lafflines we’ll be batting to the home team! We’ll be kickin’ it.”
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