Here’s the teaser for tonight’s Gandang Gabi Vice episode where we guested! Notice how the theme is Halloween and that’s when we guested! Que Horror! hahaha!
Chico And Delamar
The Kikay Barkada will be hosting the 6pm concert for the benefit of PAWS! We hope you guys can join us, it’s for a good cause! For all you animal lovers out there, here’s a fun way you can make the lives of a lot of homeless cats and dogs a little easier. We’ll have performances by fellow animal lovers Vina Morales, Jay Durias, Regine Tolentino, Morisette, Aliya Parcs and other surprise guests!
So again, hope you could join us tomorrow, October 6, Saturday, at the Mall Of Asia Music Hall at 6pm!
And while you’re at it, check out the Pet Blessing happening the next day in Eastwood!
We’re so excited to present – The Kikay Barkada YouTube Channel! We’ll be posting our videos here (and we have a couple already lined up), and we’re really excited! Actually, if you have suggestions for videos you’d like us to do, please feel free to suggest them! Hopefully we get some ideas from you guys too so that we can start working on them ASAP. And who knows, we might even have guests to join us every now and then.
For fans of musicals, this is the biggest event of the year – finally, The Phantom of the Opera Live in Manila!!!
We were lucky enough to have been invited to the media launch at Diamond Hotel along Roxas Blvd. so Delle and I made sure that we got there on time straight from The Morning Rush. We were so excited because we’ve both been such big fans of musicals ever since we were little. Personally, I was weaned on Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, from Jesus Christ Superstar, to Cats, to Evita to The Phantom of the Opera. And although I made sure to watch my share of Broadway shows the few times I’ve been to New York, I have never actually seen Phantom; so this is something I’ve always been waiting for. And the past year specifically, I’ve seen quite a bit of musical theatre – Cats, Mamma Mia, Stomp here in Manila, and Wicked twice in Singapore.
After lunch, they brought the cast out for a quick press con, with a brief Q&A, and as quick as it started, it was done. But to our delight, we found out that if we wanted, we could have a one-on-one interview with the three leads! We went there just for a media launch, we were so not prepared to do actual interviews! But we were so stoked that we gave a resounding yes when asked if we were up for it. Luckily, Delle brought her video thingy, fully charged, and so we were ready for battle.
First up was Anthony Downing who plays the heroic Raoul. Anthony fit the part to a T, with his swashbuckling good looks and easy charm, he immediately wins you over with his accommodating vibe. I really see him as Raoul, from his princely bearing down to his jaunty sideburns. Where he leads, I definitely will follow.
Next up is Claire Lyon who plays Christine. Claire is a stunning woman to behold. Christine’s beauty needs to be absolutely beguiling to drive the phantom completely bonkers, and Claire definitely has that effect. She also has this elusive depth that invites you to plumb deeper, if she’d let you. The word I’d use to describe her is “intriguing”.
Finally we get to talk to Jonathan Roxmouth who plays the title role. Again, the actor mirrors the character he plays, much like the other two. Jonathan has this simmering intensity that’s palpable the moment you start talking to him. You sense a quiet fire when he starts talking about his craft. Plus, when we told him who were are, he said: “Oh, you’re the guys on radio! I know you!” Cool beans.
We can’t wait to upload the videos of the interviews with the three! It was loads of fun, with us chatting five minutes with each lead. So suffice it to say, after having an intimate chat with the lead actors, we’re deliriously excited to watch them on stage! I can’t wait what they’ll bring to the table, their take on hugely popular characters. Plus, with the added bonus of having known them a little bit more as the people behind the actors.
Catch The Phantom of the Opera Live in Manila! It starts August 25 and its run has been extended until September 30, a whopping 16 more shows added. The show will be held at the CCP Main Theater, Cultural Center of the Philippines. For tickets call the Ticketworld hotline: 891-9999 or log on to the following: http://www.ticketworld.com.ph or http://www.facebook.com/TicketWorldManila or http://www.facebook.com/POTOManila.
Awww, it’s been just 9 months since we started doing this, but it seems so long ago! Super kaduper thanks to @jrhyan for putting this together!
Especially for those abroad who are having a hard time getting a copy of our book, we’re happy to announce that it’s now available digitally, so you can read our labor of love on your iPad, Mac, Android & Desktop! Of course you can still have someone ship the hard copy to you, but this makes reading it more fun! Actually, even if you have a copy already, it might be fun reading it again on your iPad! Actually I’m downloading my own copy after this. If ever, it’ll be my first ever digital copy of anything! So go ahead and get your own digital copy now, click on THIS.
When we met Bela Padilla during the press launch for the Yahoo! OMG Awards, we knew we had to guest her. She’s drop-dead gorgeous, and has a sharp wit about her to boot! So when she got to the station, she was rarin’ to go, and hit the ground running.
Of course we had to have our epic pic. I have no idea why i tried to fit my face into the kettle bell handle, but I guess I’m odd that way. I look like a shmooshed duck. As always, everybody else looks normal.
Then of course came our epic rap-off. We skipped a week and missed one rap-off, mostly due to my “Lindsay Lohan”-ish episode, so we promised to make up for it this week. Hopefully we didn’t disappoint. At least we got it in one take! Again, our endless thanks to @JRhyan for always recording our celebrity guests on video every single time, even though he hadn’t had a stitch of sleep. Duper kaduper thanks Jaime!!!
Bela actually sounds good enough to be on radio. She’s got this really nice “cool chick” timbre to her voice, and she’s got a really adorable laugh that sounds interminable cute on air. Talk about a complete package! Thanks again, Bela!!!
(Photo courtesy of @BlackSiopao)
It’s been a busy and hectic week, so although it’s a bit late, here’s my post on the Yassi Pressman guesting with the Kikay Barkada! The girl is cray-cray. She fits in so well with the kikayness and the bitchiness that is the norm in the morning. She may be 17, but she can make sabayan with us whatever it was we were talking about. And she got the zingers as well. Since she’s a great dancer, we thought we should skip the rap-off, and go for a dance-off instead. Here was the hot mess that was the first ever Morning Rush dance battle!
I swear, she’s a ball of energy! As you can see, I went low batt towards the end of the routine! This half-British kid was a handgul, and that’s just the way we like it in the morning! Cray-cray!
(Photo courtesy of @BlackSiopao)
As I promised, here’s the more comprehensive account of our Yahoo! OMG Awards experience. When we found out about our nomination, we were so excited and so stoked at the idea of winning this award. It would be special because it’s not so much about the show, but about the supporters of the show and how they can propel any show or celebrity to win in their respective categories. So obviously, we really wanted to win.
(Photo courtesy of @DelamarArias)
On the day of the awards, we really went all-out, like we never really prepared for an event before. We’re all self-confessed fashion victims, so we were thrilled to be styled for the first time by @katerro who gamely rescued us from the fashion police prison. So if ever we seem a little more well put together than usual, it’s all thank to Kat Erro for guiding us to the straight and narrow path, fashion-wise. We’d also like to thank as well Fred Penales and Miguel of Hairshaft for updating our ‘do as always, ever so supportive of our awards-night-look rescue mission.
When we finally got into the SM Arena, we were welcomed by a wall of sound, one area thundering with shrieks of delight: the RUSHERS. We really had goosebumps seeing them there, cheering us on, even having cut-outs of letters forming their battle cry for us (thanks Butterbaby!). We knew they were joining us, but we were simply choked up to see that kind of energy and love coming from them. Here’s a video of them in action:
When the nominees were being flashed one by one on the big screen, my heart was pounding like a jackhammer by then. By the time the winner was about to be flashed, I had a split-second gut feel that we had lost. So when they flashed our show’s photo, the Rushers went wild! I swear, nothing can describe the sheer electric joy we felt at that very moment. It’s a blur to me now, but I remember it feeling SOOO good.
(Photo courtesy of Mark Cerbo of nextjam.blogspot.com)
We went backstage for the interviews with the winners, and by then we had tweeted the great news and we were getting a flood of congratulatory tweets from everyone. We also had our share of celebrity sitings. One went like this: I was sitting down when I felt a kalabit on my shoulder and a meek voice asking, “Excuse me, can I have my book signed?” I said sure and looked up, and it was Shamsey Supsu! Can you imagine how my jaw dropped? She said she listens to the show and so we begged her to have our picture taken with her as well. She was the nicest girl ever! What an unassuming, down-to-earth celebrity. I understand why people love her so much. I hope we can guest her on the show one of these days! She’s definitely on my wishlist.
Backstage, we saw a familiar face – Xian Lim! We said hi, and we could tell from his initial expression that he didn’t recognize us (maybe because we actually looked decent that night). But the moment the recognition clicked, he gave us the biggest smile and even took a picture with us. Such a nice guy.
Of course we took the opportunity to snap a photo with his love team, the beautiful Kim Chiu. Kim was telling us: “Grabe, sobrang fan niyo yan.” Xian was so cool he even took a picture of Gino with Kim. Such feel-good celebs!
We also ran into Gino’s friend Bela Padilla. We definitely squeezed out a promise from her to guest on the show, so I’m hoping she’ll spill some secrets of Gino on air! I can’t wait to have her guest too!
We had so much fun that night, also communing with our co-radio jocks who were there as well. Of course the ever gracious Nicole Hyala and Christsuper, whom we always bump into. There’s just a mutual admiration thing going on there, lots of respect for what each team does on radio. And major props to Boys Night Out, who gamely approached us to congratulate us on the win. Slick Rick even tweeted his congratulations to us. Such a class act, that’s why if ever we were going up against anyone in the industry, it would be quite an honor to be up against them. It was fierce competition, without ever becoming ugly or negative. It just has to be said, congrats as well on a good fight, Boys!
Okay, so we get to the blind item. ALL the celebs we encountered were SUPER nice…except one. She was on her way to her seat when we approached, so maybe she was tired or not in the mood, but when Delle asked if we could have a photo with her, she rolled her eyes and made a face as if she were annoyed. To be fair, she said nothing, but the face spoke volumes. At first I thought I read wrong, but as we were walking away, we all asked each other, “Is it just me, or was she a total *****?” Apparently when we saw her reaction, we all wanted to just say, “Look, if the idea is so offensive to you, then we’re sorry for the intrusion and never mind the picture.” We just assumed that since the whole OMG Awards was about the fans, that most celebs would be okay to approach. Honestly, I’ve met tons of celebs, local and foreign, and not everyone was friendly. I understand that sometimes celebs get tired and are not in the mood, but this is the first time I felt so small interacting with a celeb. She made us feel 2 inches small. In her defense, I’m sure tons of her friends and fans would swear that she’s actually a nice person, but what we saw that night was NOT nice. But then that’s OUR version, we could be absolutely wrong about her. We ourselves are often accused of being suplado/suplada, but it’s only because we’re actually shy. So we’ll think nalang that maybe she’s shy as well and awkward in social situations like us.
UPDATE: Someone told her about the incident and she said she doesn’t remember rolling her eyes at us and so didn’t mean anything by it. She said sorry and no offense meant. And the look was probably because her falsies were bothering her. So I guess that’s that.
But to end on a positive note, everyone else was good vibes that night, the other celebs, the people behind the OMG Awards, and most especially the RUSHERS!!! Even until we left the arena, we met up with them and had a great time taking pictures and chatting (and the occasional teasing about our plus ones). We ended up grabbing a bite to eat to celebrate the victory, and we all slept with the BIGGEST smiles on our faces.
Again, thank you to the OMG Awards, thank you to Monster Radio RX 93.1, and most especially thank you to everyone who voted for us, online and via text, we owe this victory to you guys! Congratulations to us!!!
(Photo courtesy of Ash Ash Bigash)
(Photo courtesy of @OscarDelaHopia)
Wow, has it really been that long? People are calling it the show’s sweet 16. Imagine, if Delle and I had a baby when we started working together, she’d be 16 years old now! What a freaky thought.
We went from this:
To this:
From FM radio’s love team, to the Kikay Barkada! It’s been quite a road, the one we’ve traveled. The highs were (are) high, like the one we’re riding as this very moment, but the valleys were low indeed. When I think back, I marvel at how we weathered the rough patches. Heck, we’ve outlasted many marriages! Someone recently told us: “This is like your fourth wind?!?” But this latest incarnation of The Morning Rush, The Kikay Barkada, with Ginoboi, the irrepressible latest member of the family, is quite the creature! This anniversary is EXTRA special, having been the 3rd in a string of blessings that washed over us like a tsunami of good vibes. To celebrate this in the wake of winning the Tatt Award for #trendingradio and the OMG Award for Best Radio Show (not to mention the unexpected success of the Top 10 book), the anniversary is the icing on the cake. I have never felt so fortunate and blessed to be doing what we’re doing that right at this very moment. To be quite honest, it makes wading through the muck of the difficult times all worth it. When we celebrated the rounded-numbered 15th anniversary, it actually felt like an ending. I had this fearful hollowness in my gut that something’s ending. With Delle having a baby, and our personal lives evolving at racing speeds, I actually didn’t know what the future had in store for us. Little did we know that this whirlwind we’re experiencing right now was about to unfold. Gino’s arrival, the birth of the Kikay Barkada, the book, the awards, the past 6 months have been the best of our lives. Not to mention the manic support of the Rushers who literally toil and trouble their days in support of whatever project we may have in the wings. The outpouring of love (and I don’t take this word likely) is breathtaking.
So here we are, the latest version of us, this weird, dysfunctional, but happy little family we call our own. How long will this last? Who knows. But while we’re on this ride, let’s all enjoy it. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!!!
