Something amazing happened today at the Canadian headquarters for the world’s largest consumer products company: Asiansploitation, with the backing of P&G’s Asian Professional Network to celebrate Lunar New Year, performed a 45-minute sketch-comedy show called “We Will Wok You” [not to be confused with our 2009 full-length comedy show of the same name] to uproarious laughter and applause from the 150+ or so P&G audience members of all backgrounds and functions. The auditorium, normally reserved for serious presentations and events transformed into a theatre where lighting, lapel mics, and a stage were brought together to give P&G an unforgettable experience.

That’s where Asiansploitation delivered comedy gold: with a selection of the troupe’s favourite and most-loved sketches in the past 5 years to combine story and songs with an Asian flair to celebrate the Lunar New Year on January 23, 2012.

Darrel and James in The Dream Sequence

But note that this is not a traditional approach for P&G to celebrate such an office affair: Past dragon dances, feng shui lectures, or dumpling wrapping competitions were all fun, but it was time to elevate Asian culture in the office to be hip and cutting-edge smart through something bold and easy! Bring in Toronto’s top Asian comedy troupe to perform a show to create “the perfect blend of culture, celebration and light-heartedness”, as noted by P&G’s Sales Director.

Most importantly, for those who were able to make it out to the January 19, 2012 show, there was all-around high praise: “I hadn’t laughed so much in ages” wrote Shab, a sales manager. Lisa, an executive assistant exuded: “many, many, many great laughs… a standing O to the troupe”; while Gautam from IT simply said that he “freaking loved it”. Not bad for a 45-minute lunch-time show that attracted a broad range of people from P&G.

Most importantly, the audience – Asian or not, was able to connect with the range of Asian messages in the show. The poignant moments brought sadness and laughter to create an emotionally satisfying show to people of all stripes and creeds. As the lights went up, the applause started and didn’t seem to want to stop. Two curtain calls later, the room lights were back on as people started filing back to their cubicles with smiles filling the air. Congratulations to P&G, the APN, and Asiansploitation as the once-packed and rancourous auditorium emptied to a dull roar.

To sum it all up with a quote: “the show made my day.” Thanks, P&G!

Read more Testimonials about the performance!
Look at more Photos from the performance!

A lot is going on, we just finished a Gig from at P&G and are currently working to bring you a show in 2012. Until then, check out this first webisode we made.
A special thanks to the non sploiters that helped us out with it, Shannon, Sena, Eric L CHANNNN.

Check me out on CBC tomorrow morning at 8:20am 99.1fm.

I’ll see y’all in a month! I’m heading off to Vietnam
-FRanco

Unfortunately, there were a few snags. With Andrea away in Australia and Franco injuring his back, what else could go wrong? After telling everyone and anyone of our upcoming show, plus the deposit made at the theatre, there really wasn’t any turning back.

Time to regroup and improvise. Time to implement Plan B. After many rehearsals and troupe meetings, we finally came up with script changes that we were happy with and that weren’t going to result in rotten vegetables being thrown at us… hopefully. It was evident that this show was going to be different from our summer show.

Fast forward to the show. It’s interesting to note that each performance had a vastly different audience. Friday evening, we were met with a group of working professionals – unwinding at our comedy show after a long day’s work. Our Saturday afternoon crowd consisted of several students and families. Yes, there were a few kids in the audience who seemed to enjoy the performance, but after all, what kid would not be amused by robots, ninjas, singing, dancing, and food? By Saturday night, while it was probably our most intimate (ie. smallest) crowd, they were definitely the rowdiest – just how we like them.

For those who missed our show, here’s a snapshot of what you missed:
Stroller Dads – Two dads from different worlds one-uping each others strollers. The pimped-out stroller vs. The high-end stroller, who won this race? Surely, it was the children.
Jingle Ladies – Two female roles and only one female actor. Which troupe member filled in the empty heels? Imagine a wig, a falsetto voice, and an audience vote.

Four Square – The name says it all. You may be the mayor on Four Square, but what’s happened to your social skills…?
Chinese Spelling Bee – Spelling, not with letters, but with strokes. And the sketch that coined the phrase, “monkey so biiig.” Kids and zookeepers everywhere are already using it. Are you?

Side note: we want to thank all of our friends and families for their support and coming to see our show. We expect to see you again at the next one!

The Toronto Fringe Festival promises theatre enthusiasm unlike any other time of year – the Annex bustles with all sorts of interesting characters with whom to chat about which shows they’ve seen / which shows are buzzing and we all culminate in a tent that serves beer.

My first Fringe was in 2005 working on The Fall of Team Justice with Luis Fernandes. It was based on a 15 minute short we created when we were at York for Creative Ensemble. Luis is Fringing again this year with his P-Dale at Theatre Passe Muraille – also featuring our very own Gene Abella! Gene was hoping to hang some Asiansploitation All Grown Up posters at Theatre Passe Muraille today and was disappointed to find that they don’t have space allotted for postering, so Luis offered to hang them on the P-Dale set – because that’s how awesomeness rolls!

Speaking of awesome – Gene has also hooked up Asiansploitation with support from A Depper Kind Of Love at Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse and Brian Froud’s One Man Celebrity Disaster Relief Charity Benefit Awareness Telethon… Show at St. Vladimir’s Theatre. So many shows to see!

Not only is Gene performing in a Fringe show, so are Jeff B Santos and Darrel Gamotin. Darrel can be seen in Swoon! at Factory Theatre while Jeff can be heard in Gravestone Posse at CUIT Radio Station at Hart House. These boys are busy!

And if that’s not enough Asian representage in the Fringe for you, then you must see Kim’s Convenience. This play was born in a fu-GEN Potluck Festival and is ram-packed with amazing Asians. fu-GEN produced Byron‘s Brown Balls. We love fu-GEN and can’t wait to see Kim’s Convenience!

As an homage to their Hip-Hop Competition, we opened the Show with some Freestyle Rapping from Franco and Darrel.

The audience was surprised to see Gene and Lana in their midst, while they gave ‘Filipino Family Value’ advice to their “Son” Darrel in our next scene.

To keep up the Filipino theme, Andrea’s Kindergarten Teacher went Head-to-Head against Franco’s Computer Progammer in “Please Your Lola”!!!

We ended our set with crowd favourite “I’ll be White for You”. I heard some clapping as the intro was playing, but I wasn’t sure if it was because of the Sketch or because they were ‘Boyz to Men” fans.

We also had a chance to show off our ‘Asiansploitation” T-Shirts while promoting our new Show “Asiansploitation All Grown Up”.

It was a great afternoon of Filipino Entertainment, Food, Music and Food!!!

Jeffy B (pics to follow)

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