Toronto Fringe Review: James Roque - Champorado

Champorado is a show as sweet and delightful as its namesake dish.

James Roque's new show is a hilarious exploration of the things that really matter in life. Roque is a masterful storyteller who effortlessly weaves together heartfelt and personal stories with sharp social commentary. Colonizers beware, or sit in the back, because Roque is going to pick on you (to this Filipina’s delight).

Filipino comedy is having a moment online right now, Roque himself having amassed quite a following for his comedy chops. The short form nature of the internet, however, does tend to reduce the Filipino identity to broad generalizations and stereotypes, which I find tired and exhausting. That is not this show. Roque refreshingly offers a full picture of his Filipino experience, it is specific, wonderful and one of the most accurate reflections I have seen of my own experience of the culture, which is “weird in the best way possible”.

The show kicks off with an homage to some of the quirks of being Filipino, setting the table for deeply personal stories of his own upbringing in New Zealand and his relationship with his immigrant parents, who themselves are delightfully weird. What then follows is a sobering meditation on the fact that his parents are getting older. Roque unpacks what this means for him and how this causes him to pause and reflect on what is most important to him: is it being a good person, is it success, or is it the simple things like spending time with his family, or enjoying a quiet moment of eating a warm bowl of chocolate rice pudding in the morning?

Roque is charming, hilarious and clearly a star. His ability to effortlessly go back and forth between hard truths and light hearted moments is impressive. He doesn’t hold back in his satire but will always bring the audience along (colonizers included). Every single punchline is earned, and there are plenty. This is a solid comedy hour: I laughed, I cried, and I left feeling grateful to be Filipino and as soon as I got home, I called my own parents to talk about the show.

James Roque - Champorado is now on until July 13 at the Fringe. Show times and tickets.