What did Imelda Marcos think about Frank De Lima’s impression of her?
Hawaii’s greatest, most outrageous comedian isn’t afraid to go out on a limb for a laugh. He’s been known to do Mufi Hannemann, standing on a stool with a bad wig. Tina Turner? Fair game. Elvis? Why not?
But what happens when they come to see your show? That’s what happened to the Portuguese Prince of Hawaiian Comedy, Frank De Lima. Imelda Marcos came to see him one night.
"Jim Nabors brought Imelda and Doris Duke to see the show," De Lima recalls. "I could hear the audience reacting to something. When I peeked and saw her, I wasn’t sure I could perform. But I was all made up. I had the wig, the sunglasses with gold trim, the dress with poofy sleeves, and the shoes. When I went out onstage, the audience roared for five minutes."
Afterward, Marcos went backstage and talked to De Lima. "She said she liked the show and that she couldn’t believe how much I looked like her."
De Lima’s career has spanned decades. Patrick Downes, one of De Lima’s writers, says he first met Frank at St. Stephen’s Seminary. "We formed a musical group, Hui o Hawaii, with Frank leading on ukulele, me on guitar and several others. We played the standards and backed up the hula troupe. It was a lot of fun."
"Frank is a natural performer," Downes says. "He could relate to people and make them laugh. He developed many comedy routines, such as KOHO Radio, which was a takeoff on a real radio station. He’d tell Portuguese jokes and do local accents."
De Lima left the seminary in his last year. "I don’t think he was made for the priesthood. He was developing as an entertainer and could see his whole life moving in that direction. A job singing at tour briefings led to a lounge act in Waikiki."
Hula Records’ Flip McDiarmid caught one of his shows and suggested a comedy album. The result was "A Taste of Malasadas," recorded live at the Noodle Shop in 1978.
By then the Pocho Prince was doing two to three shows a night with sold-out crowds and lines around the block. "He killed. People were rolling in the aisles with laughter. The show gave him leeway to learn the craft, make a bunch of mistakes, learn what worked and what didn’t."
"At some point we began developing characters like Mary Tunta, Pocho Man, Tita Turner, Cardinal Vermicelli and Imelda," Downes continued. "Once we had a successful character, like Imelda, I’d write for the character, not for Frank. It became easy to riff on her shoes or her love of dressing up or something. We’d milk it for all it was worth."
"Frank’s comedy is family humor," Downes says. "Every Hawaii family has a Portuguese godmother, a Filipino son-in-law or a Japanese mother-in-law; it’s all mixed. Writing for Frank is like finding humor in your own family. It’s like making fun of your brother’s cooking and finding a receptive audience, because it’s an inside joke. Frank uses inside-Hawaii family jokes. Almost literally, we’re all family."
"Frank is Portuguese, Hawaiian, Irish, Chinese, English, Spanish and Scottish. No Japanese. He wishes he had Japanese. He has a definite affection for them."
Larry Price says, "Frank De Lima can tell an ordinary story and make people laugh. He comes to the ‘Perry & Price Saturday Show’ and tells a joke but forgets the punch line, and it’s better than the joke. How many guys can pull that off?"
"Here’s the Portuguese seminary student who gets away with making fun of literally every single ethnic group in the state of Hawaii," Michael W. Perry says. "He does it with good humor and makes every one of them laugh."
For 30 years De Lima has visited local schools. He visits every public and private school in the state every two years.
"The Frank De Lima Student Enrichment Program was inspired by Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Green Jeans, who entertained kids on TV but also talked to them about life," De Lima says. "I thought maybe I could do that, too."
Downes says, "The program is his way of giving back. He loves kids and is very committed to this. He gets some grants now but has poured his own money into it for 20 years. He feels it’s something he has to do."
Bob Sigall, author of the "Companies We Keep" books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
