Big Queer Filipino Karaoke Night! produced by Tender Container with Associate Producers Newworld Theatre and New(to)Town Collective is a queer, 19+ show that encourages singing, laughter and drinking! Located at the XY, this cozy space invites audience members to feel like they are at an open stage Karaoke/stand up night where they become part of the show. Davey Calderon, the writer and performer of this one-person show artfully uses the entire bar space throughout his performance, mingling with audience members as he tells his story about his trip to the Philippines intermixed with Karaoke songs sung by both himself and volunteers from the audience. And while his interaction with the audience made it feel very personal, it did lead to some stage blocking problems, as he does have his back to the audience at certain portions of the show. Also, the lighting cues were a bit behind at times, but that should be improved as the show continues its run. Other than that it was a fun, energetic show. All in all, Calderon strikes the right balance between funny, sweet, and authentic when telling his stories that make for an enjoyable performance and a safe space to display your vocal talents! Big Queer Filipino Karaoke Night! produced by Tender Container with Associate Producers Newworld Theatre and New(to)Town Collective is playing at XY 6 - 16 September as part of the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival. ~ reviewed by Jenna Masuhara Click "read more" for the full video transcript.Hi theatre addicts, this is Jenna and I'll be here reviewing Big Queer Filipino Karaoke Night at the XY bar, and this was produced by Tender Container with associate producers New World Theatre and New to Town Collective, and the playwright was Davie Calderon, as part of the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival. This is my first Fringe Festival show, so I'm very excited for this. I'm expecting there to be a lot of singing and laughs and a bit of talk about intersectionalities of a queer person who's also Filipino and how that works. Yeah, I'm hoping it to be a lot of fun and I'll see you after the show, bye!
Hey, so I just finished watching Big Queer Filipino karaoke night, for the 2018 Vancouver Fringe festival. I'm gonna say it was quite a lot of fun. Do you wanna first do some warnings? It is a 19+ venue, it is at the XY bar, so you can't bring your children to it, it's an adults only event. It is a smaller area, so there's not a lot of space and probably better to get there early to get a table suite, cause it is like a bar setup with ... the story is a karaoke sort of setup where people go up on the stage and sing. Also, if you don't like interactive theatre, this probably isn't the show for you, since there is a lot of audience interaction and he does pick people to go up on stage and sing karaoke songs, which is a lot of fun cause it's like a karaoke night out but in a space with him telling stories about his trip after the Philippines and his family. Which is really touching and sweet and sincere and really authentic, which I really like about him. Also, if you aren't comfortable drinking, depending on where you sit it might affect you, because there was a time when he sat down with a group of people and he poured them alcohol for them to drink. So if you don't like alcohol and you happen to be one of those people, sitting there may get a bit awkward. Other than that, I think that that's it for content warnings. Yes overall it was a fun night. It started out, I guess one of my criticisms I would have would be the technical side of the show. I felt like there was some smoothing out that could've been done. The start, there's still a bunch of people who are coming in and had not taken there seats yet, so it was very noisy and you couldn't really hear what he was saying at first. I feel like a lot of people missed out on the first couple of minutes of his show because he started right away and people weren't sitting down. Also throughout the play there's some lighting changes where they didn't focus on him quite enough or there's some cues that were missed. But I feel like, as they go along with the festival, as though it should be a bit more smoothed out since I think this was the first or one of the first showings of this show. So there's gonna be some little bumps and bruises along the way. For the content, I really liked the content. It was his story. Like I said, of him going back to the Philippines, and it really did reflect about him being ... wanting to be a chameleon when he came back, not wanting to reveal that he's queer, which makes sense since you feel like that culture may not be as accepting at times. I'd like to say that, yeah, this is a one man show with audience interaction. So the character is AV Calderetta, and he runs the show, he's a drag queen, and he has a great presence and a cute costume and really shows that he has the artistic talents to do this sort of work. How this works is you get called up onto the stage to sing karaoke, he picks people or they volunteer. First one was that he picked, then the others were volunteer. So if you want to go up and sing, you can definitely be the first person to put up your hand and you'll be able to, he gives you two song choices and you pick one and you sing and it's a lot of fun and people are singing along with you and clapping along with you so you feel really supported singing. It's a fun night, and I would ... if you like singing and if you like music and you like hearing stories shared, then this is the show to go for you. To close it off, I'm Jenna, I was watching Big Queer Filipino Karaoke Night, which was produced by A Tender Container with associate producers New World Theatre and New to Town Collective. If you saw the show, comment below, and if you wanna see more reviews, be sure to check out our theatre addicts YouTube channel, and to check out our site for more reviews and interviews that'll be put up there. See you next time, bye!
1 Comment
Karen Roller
14/9/2018 10:35:30
I was happy to find the stories more endearing than horrifying which is what I had anticipated. But definitely an interactive show - I was a little on edge about that but agree a safe space was created and I feel like everyone was comfortable. Some awkward moments, so I feel the show could still use some fine tuning but overall it's a fun show and the stories are heartwarming.
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