Amalia Bueno realized she had a big hit brewing when someone sent her original e-mail back to her telling her to go see the show. People are so excited to see "Flip Out!" they've been e-mail blasting across the country to friends and family. Bueno has had calls and inquiries about tickets from San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and Manhattan. It's a lot of anticipation for a small four-woman show from Hilo playing in a public school auditorium in Honolulu.

"This show has taken on a life of its own," Bueno said.

Bueno, a Hawai'i poet, writer and producer, went to Hilo last month to see the show, a storytelling performance by three Filipino-American ladies in their 60s, or Pinay lolas, as Bueno affectionately calls them. She loved the show so much, she saw it twice, at two different venues. "I just had to help bring them to Honolulu in October for Filipino-American History Month," she said.

The three women, Angie Libadisos, Lorraine Godoy and Sandra Claveria tell stories of their lives centered on the theme "Three Filipinas made in America, made to survive!"

"Their fathers were all Filipino immigrants who came to Hawai'i seeking a better life," Bueno said in an e-mail. "Angie Libadisos talks about her mother, a professional gambler who owned and operated Cebu Pool Hall on Hotel Street. Lorraine Godoy dreamed of going away to Northwestern University in Chicago, but because of her father and a high school counselor, it was not to be. Sandra Claveria says, 'I was so ashamed of being Hawaiian, I forgot I was Filipino.' Their stories are simultaneously poignant and hilarious, wise and outrageous, authentic and surreal."

The fourth woman on stage, Dina Kageler, is not Filipino but was in the Peace Corps in Philippines in the 1970s. She speaks Visayan and taught the cast Tagalog and Visayan song lyrics.

"The irony is not lost on the audience," Bueno says.

In video of a recent performance in Hilo, the women have to speak loudly enough to be heard over the coqui frogs. Lorraine Gudoy enters the stage in a business suit and heels, but immediately takes off her shoes. All the performers are barefoot. It's that kind of party, where the opening lines are exhorting the audience to stay and talk story when the show is over. So far, every show has been sold out.

"All of us have more years behind us than we have in front of us," Libadisos says, "So our attitude is 'Let's go for it!' "

The show began as an idea between Libadisos and Akiko Masuda of Wailea Village Historic Preservation. Masuda had been involved in doing oral histories of plantation old-timers. Libadisos' stories fascinated her. When Godoy and Claveria found their way into the mix, it was magic. "We knew immediately we really had something," Libadisos said.

Libadisos has a background in theater, touring shows in schools, hosting a television show and studying improvisational acting. There is an element of improvisation in this show. Though all the stories are real, some nights certain stories are triggered by the audience or by the magic happening on stage. "Either a story comes up or it doesn't," she says. "Every show is different."

The Flip Out! Storytelling performances will be held at 1 and 4 p.m. Oct. 25 at the Kawananakoa Backstage Theater at Kawananakoa Middle School in Nu'uanu. Tickets are $12 and can be purchased by calling 988-2215 or by e-mailing msakiko@hawaii.rr.com.