by Edward J. Mallillin
There's been a wave of hilarious Pilipino American comics in the last several years. Jo Koy, Justin Rivera, and Joey Guila especially come to mind. However, before all of them, there was Rex Navarrete, who has been making audiences laugh for two decades with his signature brand of comedy geared towards Pilipino Americans.
You might say he's the comedian for us.
Born in 1969 in Manila, Navarrete moved to the United States at age three, spending most of his childhood in South San Francisco. While in college at San Francisco State University, his professor encouraged him to perform, resulting in Navarrete's debut performance at UC Santa Cruz in front of 800. Over the next decade fans would see him evolve into a comedian for Philippine America, creating material and characters who would serve as reference points to get his stories across to his audience -- an audience that was able to relate to Navarrete's own experiences.
Two decades later, he finds himself on the verge of returning to FPAC with a significantly bigger resume than his last performance at the Los Angeles annual event: three concert albums (Badly Browned, Husky Boy, and finally Bastos), three DVDs (Hella Pinoy, Badass Madapaka!, and one on the way), a television series on MTV Philippines, Rex in the City, a masters degree from Berkley, and countless sold-out performances throughout California, New York, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and colleges around the world.
His influence on aspiring Philippine American comedians is immense. Up-and-comer Earl Baylon (Room To Improv, Projekt Newspeak, and Flipped Switch) paid tribute to him in the film Brown Soup Thing and cites Navarrete as an inspiration: "Rex is the first comedian I ever watched live. To see him up there made my dream to perform seem tangible. Whenever I hear a classic Rex joke, it still makes me laugh."
Though he currently resides in Hawaii, Navarrete still enjoys returning to California, where he shot footage for his third DVD release in San Jose and will perform this weekend at the Festival of Philippine Arts & Culture. Los Angeles fans are excited for his return, where two generations worth of fans will undoubtedly come out to see him create new laughs.
Catch Rex Navarrete this weekend at the Festival of Philippine Arts & Culture! For more information on FPAC performances and times, visit www.filamarts.org. For more information on Rex, visit www.rexnavarrete.com.
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Comments
I didn't know he did that! I caught one of his workshops in college and remember him saying that he was always nervous when performing in front of Filipino (as opposed to Fil Am) crowds since he wasn't really sure how they'd react. Glad to see he won them over and even made a series out of it!
I've been following Rex's shows for a long time... he's the very first Pinoy comedian that I heard of and he made me laugh so much. Maritess and the Superfriends!
Who out there doesn't crack a smile when they hear these lines:
SBC Packers
The cow...jump over the moon!
Paint eggs...and enjoy chocolate bunnies
You're going to get a hairpiece!
Utot-D2
And so on...and so on...
You're so dark!