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Charmie: ‘We make people laugh, even as we face our own issues’

Meet Charmie, here as part of #KaraniwangLGBT, which Outrage Magazine launched to offer vignettes of LGBT people/living. “It’s funny,” Charmie said, “how we make people laugh, but we also have our own issues to contend with. Ganyan talaga ang buhay (But such is life)!”

This is part of #KaraniwangLGBT, which Outrage Magazine officially launched on July 26, 2015 to offer vignettes of LGBT people/living, particularly in the Philippines, to give so-called “everyday people” – in this case, the common LGBT people – that chance to share their stories.
As Outrage Magazine editor Michael David C. Tan says: “All our stories are valid – not just the stories of the ‘big shots’. And it’s high time we start telling all our stories.”

Charmie has been working as a host/standup comedienne for a while now, with her latest work in a gay venue in Marikina City.

“I start at around 7:00PM, or even earlier, just when the bar opens,” she said in Filipino. “And I work until the bar closes – I’d say after 4:00AM or 5:00 AM, largely dependent on whether there are still customers in the bar.”

No, her job doesn’t pay well. “I get just around P500 a day,” she said, so that the tips received from customers help “a lot!”. The amount isn’t a lot “kung may binubuhay ka (when you’re supporting someone).”

Because of the small earnings, she is also forced to find “raket (that is, additional work/job) to supplement her earnings.

“It’s funny,” Charmie said, “how we make people laugh, but we also have our own issues to contend with. Ganyan talaga ang buhay (But such is life)!”

Written By

"If someone asked you about me, about what I do for a living, it's to 'weave words'," says Kiki Tan, who has been a writer "for as long as I care to remember." With this, this one writes about... anything and everything.

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