Yep, I emceed from time to time here in Riyadh.

[Warning: this is a very self-indulgent entry!]

The photo combo shows me emceeing an event at the Philippine Embassy last year, which featured Riyadh-based Filipino fashion designers’ creations including wedding gowns with a Filipiniana motif. [Apologies if the shots are blurred; they were taken from another but now-defunct site.]

It may look quite glamorous from certain indications, but truth to tell, emceeing at these kinds of events, call more for you to be able to respond quickly to situations than to be able to stick to a script (which, more often than not, is non-existent actually). Para bang, kinuha kang emcee kasi ikaw na rin ang bahala sa spiels mo. He he. All you will get from organizers is an outline or a sequence of the events. Bahala ka na sa buhay mo onstage. Ha ha ha.

If my kind and generous critics are to be believed, they say I’m quite the effective host. Kayang-kayang sumalo. Sabi nga daw nung isang parent, “This guy knows the time of day.” My kind and generous critics find me witty onstage. They don’t know that what passes for wit is actually my big moments of being tactless. He he.

I started to believe (and delude myself, he he) that I have what it takes to make people laugh while I’m on stage, in high school, when I was thrust into joining the extemporaneous speaking contest for “Speech Week.”  There were four of us (representing each year level in high school). I was the second or third speaker and I was the only one who kept the audience in stitches. Though I did not win and one of the judges (my class adviser) even admonished me for making people laugh at the expense of other people, I had that adrenaline high.

Later in my high school life, I was thrust into the public light again when I was asked to emcee the preliminaries of a personality contest organized by the Junior Jaycees. I remember being once again a hit, for the atypical questions I asked of the contestants.

In college, I was the local emceeing celebrity at the dorm. I was always being called to emcee dorm-wide events precisely because I could make the audience laugh.

Huh! My pagka-Inglisero (Inglisera?) was taking me places! I mean, here I was, a promdi from Legazpi (I am an alumnus of the Aquinas University Science-Oriented High School), putting one over the Atenistas, the La Sallites, the Assumptionistas and the Scholasticans at the dorm.

At my first job right after graduation, my stint as English teacher somehow made me a perennial choice to emcee as if by default.

In Riyadh, my so-called emceeing career did not seem to take off. True, I was once again promptly labeled in the company as this guy who speaks good English in public well (alas, I am also quite the grammar Nazi hereabouts) and who could rouse a sleepy audience from its stupor, but whatever “fame” I had was confined to the company. And to the company’s bowling tournament awards nights. He he.

It took a Philippine Embassy-based group to notice me, and begrudgingly (my friend who was part of the group had to convince them to get me) at that, to break into the so-called big time.

To make the short story shorter, I was able to emcee their events for about three or four times. For free. And then the group disbanded. He he.

It was enjoyable (as I can channel my inner Kris Aquino/Boy Abunda) but it was tiring and challenging. I never worked with a script, only an outline. I had to rely on my wits. I made research, true, but everything stayed in my head and were never transferred to paper. And once again relied on my “powers” to use the stored info when I needed them. Specially with a co-host, I had to be quick to engage him or her into amusing repartee.

I haven’t had any more opportunities to host for more than a year now.

Hint. Hint. Hint.

He he.