Hawai'i's funniest guys ride wave into summer

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

From left, Paul Ogata, Frank DeLima and Andy Bumatai have teamed up for shows at the Ohana Reef Towers Hotel Palace showroom. Solo and multiple comedy acts are sharing the spotlight around town. Where the laughs are Evil Empire Combat Comedy, open-mike night hosted by Gary GoldenRod, 9 p.m. Mondays, Gussie L'Amour's; free. 381-2732. Sharkey's Comedy Club, with host Bo Irvine, and with Anthony Griffith opening, 8 p.m. Wednesday, All Star Hawaii; continues 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays and 10 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays; $12. 531-4242. Stand Up on the Moon, comedy with Augie and Lanai, 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Brew Moon; $10. 593-0088. Comedy Tripleheader, with Frank DeLima, Andy Bumatai and Paul Ogata, 8:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, Palace Showroom, Ohana Reef Towers Hotel; $25 includes one standard cocktail or soft drink. Reservations: 923-7469. The Late Show with Mel Cabang, 10:30 p.m. Saturdays, Brew Moon; $10. 593-0088. Comedy Shack, with Augie and Lanai, expected to resume operations, at a venue to be announced, July 16 (playing Fridays and Saturdays thereafter).

Consider:

• Bo Irvine, a 15-year veteran on the comedy circuit, has been appearing for a year at All Star Hawai'i. Starting Wednesday, he will be sort of the front man as the venue takes on a new name, Sharkey's Comedy Club, Wednesdays through Saturdays, with a mixture of visiting Mainland stand-ups (the first will be Anthony Griffith) and local comedians.
• A comedy triple bill, combining the talents of Andy Bumatai, Paul Ogata and Frank DeLima, was launched recently for a Friday-Saturday run at the Palace Showroom of the Ohana Reef Towers Hotel. Bumatai and Ogata were earlier doing late-night shows, following DeLima's music-laced act, but the super-sized combo has broader audience appeal.
• Mel Cabang, who has been doing a Saturday night slot at Brew Moon restaurant since December, is finding an audience by downplaying his old ribald image, but private shows are his bread and butter.
• Augie T and Lanai, deejays who also do stand-up, have halted their just-launched Comedy Shack summer run at Dave & Buster's because of a rash of forthcoming solo tours on the Mainland and on the Neighbor Islands. But by July, they hope to re-establish the Comedy Shack format at another site.

New again

"We're launching a new phase, borrowing from the concepts used by Eddie Sax several years ago at the Honolulu Comedy Club," Irvine said about the imminent slate of shows at Sharkey's. He'll host; a rising local comic will be featured; a visiting Mainland stand-up will headline, with a rotation of stand-ups over the next few months. Forever, he hopes.

"We've built a stable of local comics by doing open-mike nights for the past year, and I think we have 32," said Irvine. "But some of the nation's top comics are going to be dropping in, and we hope to even put a local spin on some of the guest stars — people like Kermit Apio, Jaz Kaner and maybe Charlie Laporte, local names from the past, who've been doing the Mainland circuit.

Irvine was a firefighter for two decades and now works as a director of occupational health and safety.

"Comedy is my bowling; I don't drink, I don't smoke, I've been married so long I don't have much sex with my wife," he says. "Comedy is my only vice."

At 53, he says it's easier to deliver funny stories now than before. "Comedy is a lot of life experiences; as you grow older, you see more and understand more; it's like wine, better with age."

Musical parodies

For nearly 30 years, DeLima has been making folks laugh with his musical parodies and his ethnic humor, in clubs small and large.

"It's very tough," he said of the club situation now. "The showroom is a thing of the past. Everywhere I work, the room seems to close after I leave. The Noodle Shop. The Hula Hut. Captain's Table. But I'm a survivor. The trick is to please both the tourists and the locals, jump back and forth."

His strength has been in the song parodies he delivers, often in sumotori or Imelda Marcos costumes, generally tapping his ability to play off the frailties of local ethnic groups, from the Japanese to the Chinese to the Filipino. And, of course, "the chosen people," as he puts it, "the Portuguese."

DeLima, who will be 54 next month, has been the prime mover and shaker of the Portuguese joke — though he occasionally is condemned and challenged by those who don't see eye to eye (or ear to ear) with his brand of humor.

Different strokes

"I think Frank should do 'The Portagee Idol,'" said Bumatai, about potential new material for DeLima — playing off the phenomenon of "American Idol."

"But our heads are so different," says Bumatai. "He does those songs; Paul and I are stand-ups. Yet he's created all those ethnic stereotypes."

Bumatai, who turned 50 last Christmas Eve, has evolved into a full-time comedian after struggling through several years as an actor and a businessman. He also has emerged as a guru of stand-up comedy, offering classes and working with prospective stand-ups.

"Comedy is attractive to nightclubs, since it's fairly cheap," said Bumatai. "You don't have nine guys and equipment to worry about. You tap the mike, and away you go."

He has surfaced on a handful of locally filmed TV series, the latest being Fox's "North Shore" and NBC's "Hawai'i," and he's hoping for a recurring role, knowing the value of an ongoing part and how it develops Mainland audiences.

"In the old days, Zulu and Al Harrington worked the clubs because of their TV exposure," says Bumatai of the former "Hawaii Five-O" regulars.

"If this comedy thing is to survive, you have to plant the seeds, like Johnny Comedyseed," says Bumatai. "You need to help build the next generation."

Still learning

One of Bumatai's next-generation finds is Ogata, 35, a radio deejay who used to run his own club in the earlier heyday of Island comedy.

"Every night on stage with Andy, I learn something new," says Ogata, who has been in Los Angeles this week to appear on "Late Late Show With Craig Kilborn" and then is taping a gig in New York for an episode of "Take Out Comedy" for World Asia TV.

He says doing a morning drive show (his on-air partner at 102.7 Da Bomb is Kid Leo) allows him an outlet to test his club material.

"If my partner laughs, I know I'm on to something," he said. "But on radio, you don't get much audience feedback. But you can try new material."

Ogata plays off his ethnicity (he's Japanese) and his height (he's a mere 5-feet-3) and being Asian "is a plus and a minus in this business," he says. "It pigeonholes you; you get stereotyped. But I find that each time I come to L.A., I'm breaking down walls, barriers; I'm able to do more mainstream shows."

Still, his appearance on the Kilborn show, plus accolades such as being named the Funniest Asian in America in a national Pan-Asian Comedy Competition earlier this year in Waikiki — kind of an "American Idol" contest for Asian stand-ups — should generate traffic among those who want to check him out in the flesh.

"The thing is, these things all help in terms of getting exposure — and the incredible chance to rub shoulders and share the stage with some of the (emerging) comedy talents," he said.

Mellowed out

At 62, Cabang is the "senior" in the laugh ranks. "With age, I'm more mellow, or less dirty, still a little on the R-rating side, but I don't do phallic things anymore," he said.

He was blue to the max in his salad days. Audiences may have been jolted, but they encouraged him.

"I was stigmatized for years," Cabang said. "People were scared to hire me, not knowing what I'd do."

He said he's changed — for the better. A bout with the law — he was a known gambler and a tax evader, till he was caught and put behind bars. "I'm off probation on July 5, so I'm clean. I don't have much money, so I gotta work (comedy)."

Radio twosome

Another radio pair — Augie T and Lanai, the morning team on Island Rhythm 98.5 — also own a share of the comedy club following. Except for the next few weeks, they'll be in limbo — Augie will be touring the Neighbor Islands and Lanai has a cluster of Mainland gigs.

They opened, albeit briefly, at Dave & Buster's, opting to call the space the Comedy Shack when they're dispensing the laughs, but those shows have been suspended while Augie and Lanai find another venue. The duo also has been maintaining a Wednesday night comedy slot at Brew Moon.

Augie, 36, and Lanai, 34, do comedy alone and together. With gigs a-calling over the next few weeks, they'll hit the road — but are hankering to return to the Hawai'i scene by mid-July.

"We own the Comedy Shack name, but we had to pull out (of Dave & Buster's) because of some gigs. We're negotiating with a place and should have that resolved shortly."

Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com, 525-8067 or fax 525-8055.

So far, stand-up still a guy thing

Comedy in Hawai'i is a guy thing. Women haven't been able to successfully crack the gender barrier. Yet.

"It's been a male-dominated industry and a local woman has to carve out her own special niche," said Paul Ogata. "I'm eager to see someone break the barrier."

Bo Irvine says he's come across a half-dozen women with potential to cross that bridge.

"But if you're a good-looking woman, you have a lot to overcome," he said. "Men are loud; men don't do a lot of thinking. I think a woman offers more thinking humor. But none have really made it here yet."

Mel Cabang and Andy Bumatai think Cathy Tanaka is an emerging stand-up.

"You have to be different to make it," Cabang said. "You have to depart from the norm. And it's all about material. Cathy's got it."

Bumatai said an attractive woman has difficulty winning over women watching a show with their beaus or husbands. "You have to win over the lady, who will give her man the stink eye," said Bumatai.

Generally and genderly speaking, Augie T. says, "I think women comics have two fears — of the audience and of the material." Could be because of the icy glares from women in the audience.

"Next to death, public speaking is a big fear," said Lanai.

Still, they think the time is ripe for a woman stand-up. "Women, after all, are stronger than men," said Lanai.

"But the first one who can connect — maybe talk about women's issues — will be successful," said Augie.

"I think Frank DeLima in a dress is pretty funny. I mean his auntie character (Auntie Mary)."