A talk with ‘Trumperte’ actor Jon Santos

MANILA, Philippines — Jon Santos’ car is a cornucopia of costumes and props. Pop the trunk, and you’ll find an abundant selection of wigs, facial prosthetics, body parts. It’s exactly what you would expect from a man who has built a decades-long career out of impersonating politicians and other celebrities. I would never wish for anyone to get robbed, but it would be pretty interesting to see the reaction of anyone breaking into his car.

“When you open my car (people think) ‘He’s either a con artist or a murderer!’,” Jon says. “Kasi may tenga ni FVR, may ilong ni Digong. There’s the hair of Melania, ulo ni Imelda…” When the topic moves to the sizeable breasts he wears while playing Mocha Uson, Jon laments “I have a storage problem.”

This chat about costumes, props, and how he must have the world’s most interesting Amazon wish list (“Oh yes… a lot of wigs”) was just a segue to our talk about Trumperte, Jon’s political satire show which is coming back for another run, this time at the PETA Theater Center.

Given the speed by which news — real or otherwise — spreads, Jon and co-writers Enrico Santos, and Joel Mercado have to constantly update their material, often hours before a show opens. Jon calls it “same-day writing” and it’s a constant source of anxiety. But in the end, that anxiety is part of the creative process.

“You embrace it,” he says. “Certain days, you leave it maluwang. I have a finalé, a little monologue as Jon on stuff that happened. Kaya ‘di ka na magkakaroon ng pagkakataon na i-produce with a full production design. ‘Di mo maigagawa ng character. Pag-usapan na lang siya.”

(That’s why you can’t produce it with a full production design. You can’t make the character that way, so you just talk about it.)

Laughter is the best agenda

When deciding which characters and events to satirize, Jon often has to step out of his own comfort zone… and he encourages the audience to do the same. “I go through that pendulum of iisipin ko from my comfort level, to what the audience deserves,” he says.

“Which is a buffet of stories about everybody and about everything. About everything that happened this week. About everything happening in this regime. About everything happening in 2018.”

Jon doesn’t overtly editorialize, but by making these personalities innocuous, by making us laugh (both with them and at them), he creates a safe space for us to engage politics — and I think empowering people to just talk is in itself a radical act. “Siguro, it’s not about agenda, it’s about putting a smile on their face,” Jon says. “I will not tell you what to think. Fortunately, matatalino ang mga ‘customer’ ko all these years.”

(Fortunately, my “customers” have been smart all these years.) 

That freedom from agenda give this self-described “court jester” and “equal opportunity offender” the chance to take on all characters from across the political spectrum. “Lahat naman kase ng nakaluklok at lahat ng nag-g-grab ng headline, ginagawan yan ng joke,” he says. “Insekto lang naman ako sa buhay nila. Napaka-busy nila para problemahin ang payasong ito na nagpapangiti lang.”

(Everyone who is in office or grabs headlines can become material for jokes. I’m just an insect in their lives. They’re too busy to worry about clown who’s just joking around.) 

Creative Anxiety

Jon doesn’t sweat the politics, but he does fret over the creative process. The acclaimed actor and writer reveals that he agonizes over “Every ellipsis, every comma, and every semicolon. (They) get overthought and overthought and overthought.”

“Yun ang isa pang anxiety ko, is an element ng buhay ko,” he adds. “It’s a family of engineers and sundalo. Ako lang ang naging professional na artist. Maraming artist in their own way, pero hindi professional. Ako lang ang performer.”

(It’s one of my anxieties, an element in my life. I come from a family of engineers and soldiers. I’m the only professional artist. A lot are artists in their own way but they’re not professional. I’m the only performer.) 

His family now embraces what he does, but Jon remembers the time they were first introduced to his material. “Na-realize ko na hindi ko pala sila na-warm up!” he says. “Isang araw, nasa TV na lang yung kamag-anak nila na naka-bestida!”

(I realized that they didn’t have the chance to warm up. One day they just saw their relative on TV, wearing a dress.) 

“My daddy is military; he processes what his son does for a living, and all of a sudden I’m in an event where there were two generations of soldiers. And my mother’s father was in the military, my father was military. (I tell them) PMA din naman po ako — Philippine Manggagaya Academy (I’m also in the PMA – the Philippine Impersonators Academy),” he says, laughing.

Headwind and Tailwind

To Jon, his long-time team of writers, artists and co-conspirators are essential to overcoming that anxiety. “I am not doing this alone,” he says. “May lima, anim akong tao na naka-committee basis din lahat ng bagay: every costume, every joke, every Dilaw joke, every Digong joke; tapos naka-committee basis din naman pati technical, pati ilaw, pati damit, pati promo, pati branding ng show.”

(There are five or six people in a committee for everything: every costume, every joke, every Dilaw joke, every Duterte joke; the technical, lights, costumes, promo, even the show branding also works in committees.) 

“You have to go through the process of worrying about the headwind — everything that you are going against,” he says, then adds: “And reminding yourself of the tailwind, of the things that are going for you.”

Jon Santos is our own cultural tailwind. By satirizing, and even one-upping, these insane events and personalities, he brings a semblance of sanity back — and we’re all better off for it. – Rappler.com

 

Trumperte runs from October 26 to October 27 at the PETA Theater Center in Quezon City.

 

 Iñigo de Paula is a writer who lives and works in Quezon City. When he isn’t talking about himself in the third person, he writes about pop culture and its peripheries.