Living Funny

Brand New Comedian Valentin Naguit Teaches Us How To Elicit Laughs Without Really Trying

- Kyle Edralin

Director, composer, and newbie actor Valentin Naguit’s worn plenty of hats. He’s directed some of the funniest commercials you’ve seen for TV. He’s made the music videos of stars like Karylle possible. But one role that he might relish for a while is to be the silly guy: eliciting smiles and lots of laughs into his work. One could almost say that he exemplifies the oft-quoted Filipino attitude of trip lang: whether it be singing in the shower for a Mother’s Day tribute, or playing his arguably most famous role yet: Mr. Payong.

Why comedy, of all things? 

Pinakamalapit yun sa puso ko eh, bilang isang human being. I’m really just a happy person in general. But I do have my emo moments, syempre, as you grow older, you grow wiser; may picture ka ng ideal world but it doesn’t really turn out that way. So I thought that “man, I’m wasting my life here if I’m not happy. So I decided to start laughing at the world instead. 

So what was your earliest experience of laughing at the world?