REVIEW
DeLima's zany antics a holiday tradition, treat
By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer
As sure as there is a Christmas, there is Frank DeLima singing "A Filipino Christmas," all decked out with boughs of the jollies ... making like a singing Christmas tree.
Yep, he, his lighted-and-decorated tree, and lots of ethnic jibes and holiday serenades are in vogue at the Palace Showroom of the Ohana Reef Towers hotel.
Some things don't change: DeLima takes "Numbah One Day of Christmas" and reconfigures it as an audience-participation number, with visitors taking to the stage to recite one of the "gifts" in the local-style song. You know it's going to be outrageous with DeLima antics, and you know the visitor will flub his/her lines. One recent Friday, the chap who had to do "one mynah bird in one papaya tree" — not once, but 12 times — misfired, miscued and mangled his way, all to the delight and feigned frustration of DeLima.
Some things have changed: Access to the second-level showroom has been relocated to the far right of the hotel. Hard to find, without the proper signage yet, but there was a crew directing show-goers to the new entrance.
For his part, DeLima remains delightfully DeLima, with a barrage of Portuguese jokes, a round of good-natured jabs at Chinese, Koreans and Filipinos.
In his brief version of "Christmas Talk Story," he reflects on how, at 9, he was hurled into the realm of comedy, inspired by one Abel Fraga at a Hawaiian Electric Co. Christmas party. He also mentions getting heat from a number of faithful Portuguese wahine, who felt the upstart comedian was defaming his ethnic peers.
A year-in-review song, recapping high- and low-lights of 2003 and performed to "That's Entertainment" (with lyrics by Patrick Downes, veteran wordsmith for DeLima), caps the show with a bit of name-dropping — Michael Jackson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, George W. Bush, Saddam Hussein, and so on.
Na Kolohe — David Kauahikaua on keyboards, Robert Nishida on bass — provide the accompaniment and vocal support.
Reach Wayne Harada at 525-8067, wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com or fax 525-8055.
