Pinoy wins US comedy video contest
JUNJUN. Nathaniel Cruz's winning video shows how social media has become a part of the Pinoy life. Screengrab from YouTube (America Meet World)MANILA, Philippines – Filipino Nathaniel Cruz is the first winner of America Meet World, a US-based comedy video contest, which featured entries from around the globe.
America Meet World launched its first competition by gathering 138 videos from 21 countries, with a group of judges choosing 15 finalists. One winner was chosen from the 15 via public vote.
Cruz, who is based in the Philippines, gathered the most votes as a finalist and won a trip to New York for a meet and greet with executives from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Cruz, a doctor by profession and comedian on the side, highlighted the Filipinos' Pinoy penchant for social media in his winning satire comedy video, “JunJun: The Social Network Savvy Beggar. Episode 1 ‘Hunger.’”
The video follows JunJun (played by Cruz himself), a beggar wandering the streets in search of food. Set in a busy urban area and scored to by melancholic music, the video is perhaps more fitting of a dramatic documentary than a comedy sketch.
Halfway through the clip, JunJun gets the attention of a young boy, who pities the beggar and hands the man a box of food. An ecstatic JunJun squats by the side of the road and opens the box, gleeful at the sight of the full meal inside.
He then reaches into his pocket to snap a photo of the meal with an old smart phone, grinning while uploading.
“If you think beggars don’t use social media, think again,” said Cruz in the video description.
But Cruz added that the video “does not mean to diminish the tragedy of typhoon Haiyan."
“In fact it shows the kindness of my fellow Filipinos & the entire world. Filipino spirit is waterproof!”
In a Facebook message sent to Rappler, Cruz said he believes it is time for the Filipino people to be recognized in the field of comedy.
"Why else would we be dubbed the happiest nation in the midst of all the tragedies that continually come our way?" he said.
In a Q&A on the America Meet World site, the doctor, who was doing hospital rounds when he found out he won, said he dreams of one day hosting a late night show, “preferably without Leno lurking in the wings.”
Cruz said his family was his first audience. He realized the power of humor when he was younger, when he used it to “weasel my way out of situations where mom would've grounded me.”
South African comedian Nik Rabinowitz was announceda runner-up in the competition. In his video, "he traverses the city of Cape Town in search of material, cart horses and... fish."
America Meet World was created by New York-based media company and production house Single Palm Tree Productions, a company that "produces and curates comedic, short-form, digital video content from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East designed to both entertain and introduce Americans to new voices from these regions."
According to its site, the company believes that "comedy is an excellent Trojan Horse strategy to help build global understanding." – Rappler.com
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