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‘Mr. Shooli’ says there’s no room for political humor under current gov’t

abs-cbnNEWS.com | 11/17/2008 3:36 PM

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Veteran comedian Jun Urbano who is also known for playing his Mongolian character ‘Mr. Shooli’ said that there’s really no place for political humor in entertainment field right now.

In an exclusive interview with abs-cbnNEWS.com, Urbano said that nobody tries to do political humor nowadays because they are simply afraid to politicians.

“That’s what we don’t have right now. From here I’m going to channel 13 because that’s where we started with Mongalian and we gonna tell them o gusto niyong mag-ano ulit. Tayo ang problema masyadong -- tingin ko ay manipis, onion skin ngayon ang nakaupo. Dito mga mukhang takot ngayon,”

He said that Mongolian show in channel 13 before during the time of former president Corazon Aquino was known for its political satire and that’s what he is planning to do right now, to relive his Mongolian show.

It will be recalled that it was in the ‘80’s when Mr. Shooli was created. Mr. Shooli, a character from Mongolia who was amazed by the Philippines and the Filipinos.

Though he really admired Filipino hospitality and good values he still gets confused and couldn’t comprehend why Filipino couldn’t get their act together.

 Where is Mr. Shooli?

Jun Urbano’s career rocketed when he created Mr. Shooli.

So when the news site asked of where is Mr. Shooli right now, Urbano said:

“’Mr. Shooli’ is going around schools right now, teaching values to students. Si Mr. Shooli ang aking presentation sa kanya was a student many, many years ago in the Philippines and he knows the Filipino and he tells them what the Philippine was during the time when he was a kid when he was classmate of Erap in grade school in Ateneo de La Salle then he goes back to Mongolia.

“After 50 years Shooli comes back to the Philippines expecting so much because when he was a kid studying in the Philippines, the  Philippines was number two to Japan in economy, number one in education in Asia.

“Anybody who Southeast Asia who wanted to study medicine, law, agriculture they came to the Philippines. We were the toast of Southeast Asia, everybody was saluting the Filipino even in sports we are number one.

“So after 50 years he comes back expecting so much and when he comes back he is confused he asked what happened to you Filipinos- ano ang nangyari sa inyo? You used to be great now you are number one in corruption. You even import your rice, your vegetables, what happened?

“Before you were exporting copra and sugar to the world now you are exporting nanay (mothers) to Hong Kong, exporting ate (sisters) to Japan and kuya (brothers) and tatay (fathers) to Saudi Arabia. You are exporting your own people, you don’t export goods.
 
Urbano said that doing stand-up comedy in schools is painful for him because he has to sugar-coat the reality with laughter.

“My first presentation is I come out with self deprecating jokes, the joke is always on me, on me, on me and then finally I turned around and the joke is now on the Filipino people and Shooli starts asking what happened to you.

“You know when I speak in the beginning everybody laughs, it’s all laughter, laughter but when I turned the table on the audience tahimik talaga,” he said.

Urbano said that as part of Mr. Shooli’s comeback he already visited schools like Saint Paul’s, FEU and he is planning to visit Jose Rizal College and his alma matter Ateneo High School.

Mr. Shooli who is known for teaching good values said that if he would just have his way he will ask national advertisers like soft drink and beer companies to put values in their commercials.

“Noong araw hindi ba mayroong ‘Ang gawaing  masama ay nagiging tama kapag ginagawa ng matanda – from …. ’

“Ganoon lang, kung lahat ng advertisers ganoon ang tinuturo at hindi kalokohan

Special 'message' project
 
Aside from visiting schools and teaching values to young Filipinos, Urbano just finished a project for military men.

Urbano get Christmas messages and words of encouragement from local celebrity stars to the country’s military men based in Mindanao.

“Iyong messages from different celebrities to the soldiers in Mindanao. Iyong ‘mga sundalo kami ay nakikiisa sa inyo. We know the difficulties that you are facing in this Christmas season. You are not with your family, so we would like to sympathize with you and we’d like to greet you a Merry Christmas.’

Urbano said the greetings will be aired in trouble areas in Mindanao.

“It will be aired on TV, cable and radio also in the camps, in the camps,” he explained.

“Kaya tuwang tuwa ang mga officer kasi ang mga sundalo ay nag-iiyakan, they were touched,” he said.

The ace comedian said that almost 75% of Filipino soldiers especially who are based in Mindanao are separated from their families especially this Christmas season.

“Hiwalay -- meaning they are assigned in different areas kasi and unlike here in Camp Aguinaldo or Fort Bonifacio where there’s housing but sometimes when you are assigned in distant places there’s no housing for your family so you leave your family, so most soldiers in Mindanao came from Ilocos, Visayas or Bicol region they left their family and they are assigned in Mindanao and sometimes it’s difficult for them to come home.”

“So, this message really touched those soldiers and Gen. Alexander Yano (chief of Armed Forces of the Philippines) is really happy.  So, he asked me deliver personally his thank you letter to the celebrities,” he said.

Urbano said that he conceptualized the ‘message’ project since Gen. Yano asked him on how to beep up the morals of the soldiers fighting in Mindanao.

Urbano said that the message should be coming from a third party and not from the organization itself to show the soldiers that there are people who care.

From his concept, he got ANC anchor Ricky Carandang and Willie Revillame to say a couple of words or greetings for the troops.

He also got other celebrities like Marian Rivera, Mike Enriquez, Dingdong Dantes, Michael V and APO Hiking Society.

Urbano and Gen. Yano are good friends for almost seven years. They met when the general was still the spokesman of AFP.

“When I met him there was a call for him to be interviewed in a TV station and I said ano ba ang sasabihin ko dito ninenerbiyos ako dito, sabi ko sir I will go with I will teach you a trick or two how to answer questions and how to face camera and since then he’s been asking me to accompany him to the interviews,” Urbano said.
 

as of 11/17/2008 3:55 PM