So much for me asking Roderick Paulate to move over — Rick Astley finally meets Roderick Paulate, the “Rick Astley” of the Philippines! There’s a very interesting back story to this involving Gabe Mercado, Tals and JC Medina putting up a Facebook group asking Kuya Dick to become the front act. The rest is history:
At 4:02 in the afternoon, I received a call from a my good friend Ken. Rick had somehow heard of Kuya Dick and was game to do a number with him. The producers had gotten in touch with Kuya Dick and while flattered, he felt quite reluctant to do it.
Sadly I wasn’t able to watch – so many others did – Gabe, Didi, and even Amor called me asking where in Araneta I was for the concert! Boohoo! Had I known this was his alleged last concert before his retirement I would have gone. Well, it’s okay at least I still got to meet him in person!
Thanks to Aileen, another closet fan of Rick Astley! Aha! There are so many of us who were in hiding apparently!
I’d been ignoring my phone for the better part of the day as I was preoccupied over finalizing the venue for the blog awards and making my way through press conference after press conference. It was only a few seconds – but when Alora asked me if I had gotten her plurk, I had to reply saying no I haven’t, please text me instead since I’m out.
“You can go to Alchemy later at 10PM. Rick Astley launch party will be there.”
OHGOD. Couldn’t bring anyone. Guest list only. So I had to make some change of plans for the evening because, well, I learned in school that urgency takes precedence over importance (“in matters of prioritizing, what needs to be done immediately always supercedes what is seemingly important.”) Rick Astley was only here for 2 nights and this was probably the only night I would be able to meet him in the flesh.
The first thing I did upon arriving at Alchemy was to text Marcelle as I knew he really wanted to meet him and a few texts later, Marcelle popped into Alchemy (he’s famous – he got in despite the tight security … so girls ….. *ahem* …..). Turns out there were so many other closet Rick Astley fans – a friend from grade school and even Vespinoy was there with his wife.
So not only was I able to shake Rick Astley’s hand once. I was able to shake his hand three times (!!!) and I remember clearly on the 3rd time I just had to scream “I’M A HUGE FAN!!!!!!” And there it goes. Manhood Fail.
OK now came the part where the host starts playing parlor games. Kel, myself and two other guys are pulled “on stage” for a Rick Astley lookalike contest. Yes dear friends, before you laugh, it apparently seems that aside from Mr. Bean, I also have a vague resemblance to Rick Astley – move over Roderick Paulate!!. So then comes the question and answer slash talent portion – Kel did some magic in front of the audience (it wow’ed as usual) and when the host asked me what my talent was, I just had to blurt out …
