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(Continued from Gay Idol: Vanessa.)

Some years back, while Vanessa was accompanying a friend to audition in an ABS-CBN show, he was spotted by Marc Logan. Vanessa was brought to Marc’s office where he was asked to sing. To Vanessa’s amazement, while he was singing per Marc Logan’s request, some ABS-CBN bigwigs (Noli de Castro, Korina Sanchez, etc.) took notice of the beautiful voice that was emanating from Marc’s office. To make the long story short, Vanessa was offered to be Marc Logan’s “sidekick” in his shows and segments. While Vanessa was telling me this part of his story, I saw how — with his industrial-strength hardwork and constant determination — he was able to turn his peculiar physical condition, a negative by any standard, into an advantage that propelled him to higher levels of success in his career. Vanessa continues to appear in some ABS-CBN shows every now and then.

Vanessa’s career in comedy bars blossomed, and continues to provide for him and his family to this day. His career has been challenged by encounters with diva personalities in the industry. He told me this story on how one diva in a prominent comedy bar in QC just suddenly turned belligerent on him, apparently due to a conflict arising from the diva’s ka-praningan on who is the bigger star. While the diva was nearly 6-foot tall, Vanessa’s midget size person stood his ground. “Wala naman akong ginagawang masama sa kanya, pinagmumura niya ako.” The conflict was eventually resolved but not without Vanessa’s courageous fight for the respect he so deserved. Indeed, a gay idol.

Catch Vanessa in his hosting stint at Bar Uno (Timog Avenue, Quezon City) every Saturday, and at Fun Line (Roxas Blvd., Pasay City) every Thursday and Friday.

* * *

Vanessa, Froilan Ibanez Jr. in real life, is indeed an inspiring figure. It is not realistic to expect anyone to be perfect, and we do not expect that from Vanessa, nor from anyone — the only objective of this “gay idol” post is to highlight some exceptional part of our “idol’s” life so that we can learn a lesson or two, which hopefully can inspire us to be even just a bit better. I believe that all of us should strive to always better ourselves, always, always, always. And what better way to do it but through the inspiration of our fellow gay folks. World Peace, everyone!

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 4th, 2007 at 2:33 pm and is filed under Personalities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

 

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