Dolphy’s last performance ends with lessons and debates on comedy

Manila: Filipinos learned a lot of lessons in life after the death of the country’s iconic comedian, Rodolfo Vera Quizon, or Dolphy, who wore his signature white suit with a red handkerchief, in his last performance – while resting in a casket.

Dolphy is “more than just a comedian. He exemplified in many ways the best in Filipino,” said Gabby Lopez, CEO and chairman of ABS-CBN, a major TV network which was home to the comedian for several decades.

Admitting that Dolphy had the natural acumen to exemplify the Everyman, columnist Randy David of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, talked lengthily about the “portrait of the Filipino as Dolphy”.

His statement was in defence of Dolphy, following criticism in 2009, from a jury member who opposed the comedian’s nomination to become a National Artist because of Dolphy’s perpetuation of the mawkish and abject realities that many poor Filipinos identify with, thereby preventing them from aspiring for the impossible.

The Everyman was Dolphy portraying Kevin Cosme, a TV series entitled Home Along da Riles, (those who lived dangerously by the railway tracks)” which ran from 1971 to 1990. Another Everyman was Dolphy portraying John Puruntong in John and Marsha, a TV series about a husband being oppressed by his mother-in-law.

Congressman Teodoro Locsin wrote in Interaksiyon, of Channel 5, “Dolphy’s comic genius was his depiction of our situation as one where mockery is always about to break out. The best we can hope for is to turn it to laughter even at our expense, making it the only happiness that most Filipinos can afford to give.”

“A misguided tribute said that Dolphy’s long career of unrelieved comedy was redeemed when he gave a tragic turn to his usual character of a gay making the most of a bad situation. Yet that too was comedy but without pulling any punches as to where the condition of not belonging finally leads,” Locsin said.

This was in response to a criticism that Dolphy also perpetuated the notion that being gay or transvestite, the roles he played to the hilt, maligned or diminished homosexuals in an era where homosexuals have been campaigning hard for recognition and gender equality.

First of all, Dolphy was not gay.

But his movie Facifica Falayfay (a gay name ) was a hit in 1969 including a sequel, Fefita Fofongay viuda de Falayfay, in 1973. He also made Sarhento Fofongay, which antedated the entry of homosexuals into the police and the military. His My Father, My Mother, was about unusual parenting.

In a movie entitled Markova: Comfort Gay, Dolphy performed the role of an ageing homosexual who once served members of the Japanese army in the second World War. His sons Jeffrey and Eric Quizon were transvestites who portrayed various stages of Markova’s life.

“Dolphy could very well be a teacher in Pinoy sociology with how he accurately depicted the common man in dealing with everyday situations, in his signature comedic style… Dolphy had the ability to make the audience identify with whatever character he portrayed,” said Gerry Plaza at OMG, a website.

It was uncanny that Dolphy was not just intellectually analysed as a performer, but more as a man.

“He is an inspiration to all of us in the broadcast business with his humility, his talent, and his ability to constantly reinvent himself to live and fight another day,” said Lopez, the TV magnate.

His partner of 23 years, singer-actress Zsazsa Padilla, did not miss this point when she said, “In loving the man, I came to accept [him] and all that came with him, his legacy, his personality when not in front of camera, and of course his children. All these things were not easy [for me]. But he was worth it.”

Yes, being an actor is not just reaping awards and applauses, said Dolphy. In an earlier interview with the Star, he said, “If I live again, I will remain an actor. When people laugh (because of my performance), that makes me happy.”

Dolphy’s son Ronnie said that his father’s favourite song was Charlie Chaplin’s Smile because of this phrase: “You’ll find that life is still worthwhile if you’ll just smile.”

“Comedy is dead, long live comedy,” was a brief but deep summing up of a smile-ful life, from the comedian’s other son, actor-director Eric Quizon.

Saturday at the Heritage Park in suburban Taguig was scheduled as the last viewing day for the country’s national comedian. He will be buried on Sunday.