Born to perform

I remember when Bruno Mars first performed at the Super Bowl. He wasn’t super well-known back then, having just released his first album. (At least I think it was his first album.) And you know how the Super Bowl half-time haters are.

In an interview, they were asking him why he thought he deserved to be the musician for the halftime show. I was thinking, why did you pick him if you have to ask him that? But he just said, quietly and confidently, that he knows how to put on a show.

And boy, did he put out a show. There weren’t many haters that night. The highlight was when he sang Just the Way You Are. Not usually the kind of thing people sing in the high octane half-time shows at the Super Bowl.

I was surprised and proud. He’s half Filipino, and he often talks about how he was born to perform–singing and dancing for his aunties. I’m not trying to brag or anything, but Filipinos are kinda born to perform.

For example, almost every Filipino has a Karaoke machine in their home, even before it was easy and inexpensive to buy one on Amazon. Like I just did this Christmas for my niece Sadie.

Before, you had to order them from Japan or somewhere in Asia. And they had these rotating background photos of different places around the world that you got sick of looking at if you sang as often as we did. And the background music sounded like a one man band with a keyboard. And the words would be wrong sometimes. On rare occasions, they would fly by so fast you couldn’t read them.

I used to imagine these poor sweatshop Karaoke translators who were Asian kids for whom English is their 2nd language, working 14 hour days, trying to translate these songs. Sometimes I don’t even know what a song says in English, and it  is my only language. So that must have been stressful. I’m sure they fell asleep sometimes. Which is why sometimes the words would fly across the screen so fast that you couldn’t read them.

In addition to Karaoke, most Filipinos love to dance. Especially line dancing. I was really happy when line dancing became popular. Because before that, my dad would force my brothers and me to perform dances at parties and events to show us off. He has disowned me 3 times, and 2 of them were for not performing.

But once line dancing became a thing, I didn’t have to worry about being disowned anymore because my dad wanted to be the one to perform. Cut out the middle man! Just get the praise and adoration directly! Thank goodness.

As immigrants, we were forced to perform in other ways to make a good impression. And to prove that we deserved to be here. For example, my parents didn’t teach us Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines, because they were afraid it would interfere with our ability to speak English. Back then they didn’t know that bilingual people have 2 Broca’s areas in the brain–the part that lights up on an MRI when we’re using language.

Not sure what happens when you’re working toward speaking 5 languages like my brother. But I do know that it’s an example of neurospiciness. In his case, he is a polygot, once he masters German, because he will be able to speak 5 languages. Less than 1% of the population can do that.

Because my parents immigrated to the U.S. as physicians, we also had to perform academically. And be examples of those Asian model minority stereotypes.

Which was a lot of pressure. Having to be valedictorian, a good citizen, sing in the church folk group, win pageants, win tennis matches, get all the academic awards in high school, get into good colleges, graduate with honors, pursue advanced degrees, be awarded fellowships, be renowned in your field, be a professor, be whatever someone wants you to be.

But as traumatizing as it was, I wouldn’t be able to do all of the things I’m able to do today if not for this demand to perform.

And a few days ago, someone contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in turning my material, probably Normal in Training, into a screen adaptation. Which would be awesome! I’m way more qualified to do that than I am to act. Although I could probably play myself. I’m not sure why Talent Trek Agency or that UGC creator business even picked me, to be honest. But I do know how to write.

Well, I guess do know why they picked me. Because, I may not ever be asked to perform at the Super Bowl, but like Bruno Mars, I was born to perform.