by Karen Wang
All of us have dreams. We probably forget as we age, but our dreams start to exist while we were still kids. As we grow up, our dreams would also grow along with us, which sometimes lead to change in plans—or in this case, change of dreams. Nothing in this world is permanent, and so are our dreams; but, of course, there are some exceptions.
While most of our dreams change alongside us while growing up, there are people whose dreams never change even when they’ve already fully matured into a fine adult. Then, there are also those who are forced to give up their precious dreams due to unfortunate circumstances and situations; still there are others who just chose to abandon their dreams, thinking that money is everything.
Humans are greedy by nature; they crave so much for material things that want to get them all in an instant, to be satisfied. But what happens after instantly getting them? They crave for more and more and more; they never get contented. Why? Well, simply because happiness lies not in the material stuff that we crave every day; they only give us temporary comfort and satisfaction. True happiness lies in love and passion.
Wanlu, a famous Philippine ventriloquist, is one of the living proofs that passion paired with strong determination can always bring you to your destination and, at the same time leave you satisfied and happy.
Juancho Lunaria has his hopes and dreams too, just like any of us. But his father unfortunately passed away, which made him stop pursuing his goal of becoming a dentist due to financial problems. No words could probably describe the pain he felt and the heavy burden he carried at such a young age. But as usual, the world didn’t seem to care for he was only a speck of dust existing within the galaxy.
He saw life in magic; and so, it was able to keep him company for a long time, supporting both himself and his own family. He kept the essence of magic alive for 20 years by sharing it to everyone during kiddie parties, product launches, birthday parties, and any other events that needed an entertainer.
Time quickly passed by, and soon enough he was getting physically tired of moving around his body too much when doing magic tricks. When he saw the ventriloquist, Edgar Bergen, performing with only two or three puppets, it gave him an idea. He also wanted to perform something unique and entertaining without having to carry so many things with him, and so he made a name for himself in the world of ventriloquism.
Like all other success stories, he needed time and patience. He practiced his ventriloquism acts by talking to himself in front of the mirror almost every day. “You just have to be insane. They say that you have to be insane and it’s true, otherwise the character of the puppets will not come out effectively. There are times when I want to stop myself because I was afraid of offending people. Like when I say ‘Hi girls,’ if there are teachers around, they might misunderstand me; but my puppet Congressman Dominador or Cong Dom for short, has his own character, so I just have to maintain it to become effective. I even filled out some bio-data forms for all of my characters—what are their names, where they live, and what their hobbies are. I just try to live the character.”
He even took a risk with his money by investing on puppets made with the best quality. “It was actually a big risk because the puppets I use are really expensive, ranging from 3,000-4,000 US dollars. So, buying one was a big risk because I wasn’t even aware if it was going to be accepted by the people. But I realized if you want to excel in something, you just have to work hard: show everyone how entertaining it is, how useful it is, because puppetry can be used in a lot of things. Medical purposes—I have a five-year-old son who has ADHD, puppetry has helped him a lot, and teachers can use puppetry in teaching. I was quite confident that if I worked hard, I’ll get the results I was hoping for.”
The first stage of success was really a struggle, but Wanlu was able to deal with it due to his earnings from being a magician. And from then on, he promised himself to only use the money he earned from puppetry in purchasing more puppets because he didn’t want to be addicted to the point that he’ll want to sell his house in order to buy more.
Through strong determination, hard work, and patience, Wanlu was able to reap the efforts he had sown through the years. He was only a beginner when he acted like a professional and braved his way through Talentadong Pinoy, a TV5 talent show, wherein you have to win for five consecutive weeks in order to become one of the hall of famers. His win also paved the way for him to become one of the talents of TV5 and he also represented the Philippines on numerous international puppeteer festivals.
From then on, even the common Filipino people knew the word ‘ventriloquist’, which made him feel very proud of his achievements. To have taken the first step when the profession you’re in doesn’t even exist in your country is such a brave act of pursuing one’s passion. “After winning Talentadong Pinoy, I don’t know what happened, but all of a sudden there were a lot of ventriloquists. There were some in Pilipinas Got Talent, and now in Pinasikat and Bet ng Bayan."
"Suddenly, we had a lot of ventriloquist. And, I’m not one to toot my own horn, but I think I influenced a lot of them. I don’t mind, as a matter of fact, I’m very proud. In fact, I’ve done three battle of ventriloquists for the past three years. The first one was at the red barn, there were eight ventriloquists. The second one was at SM Masinag, the third was at Resorts World Manila—the biggest so far. It’s usually held during my birthday, March 30. So far I have three champions, in fact this December 13, those three champions will have a solo show in a comedy bar which I produced for them. Basically I want to show everyone that I’m monopolizing ventriloquism. I don’t want that. So I’m trying to help other ventriloquists succeed in the art. So far the industry is doing well.”
Wanlu is not one who is selfish of his success; he knows how to give back what he has earned. In order to share his blessings, he went to Tacloban with the simple wish of touching the Yolanda victims’ lives by making them smile and forget their worries even for a short while. “After the storm I went there four times. The first time was December 25, on Christmas Day I was there. Instead of being with family, I went there to make the people happy. It was about a month after the storm, and the emotions were still high. Going there just for press, et cetera wasn’t really nice. So after that, I went back and instead of just performing, I used puppetry to teach children. If you notice there were teachers, we taught them how to make puppets and perform puppetry.”
Wanlu is also unlike most of us, who expects our efforts to be returned by money or fame. In fact, he didn’t even keep track of how much money he gained after spending a lot from purchasing his puppets. “I don’t keep track because I’ll only get tense. If you’ll look at it, my earnings aren’t really big; so if you’ll always focus on your monetary earnings, you’ll only get disappointed and disheartened. I think I’ve already recovered, well I don’t know how much to be exact in monetary terms; but I know I’ve recovered much more than money.”
Juancho Lunaria will always be remembered not only as Wanlu, one of the pioneer ventriloquists in the Philippines; but most importantly, he will be remembered by many—locally and internationally—because of his strong drive to pursue his passion without thinking much of the rewards he is going to get back. He is indeed a living proof that we can remain happy and satisfied amid pursuing the dreams we thought were impossible to accomplish.
Instead of giving up our dreams, we should gather up the courage to go after them—be it a childhood dream or a newfound dream—as long as it’s a dream, we have to fulfill it; and no one but us has the power to make them come true.
While most of our dreams change alongside us while growing up, there are people whose dreams never change even when they’ve already fully matured into a fine adult. Then, there are also those who are forced to give up their precious dreams due to unfortunate circumstances and situations; still there are others who just chose to abandon their dreams, thinking that money is everything.
Humans are greedy by nature; they crave so much for material things that want to get them all in an instant, to be satisfied. But what happens after instantly getting them? They crave for more and more and more; they never get contented. Why? Well, simply because happiness lies not in the material stuff that we crave every day; they only give us temporary comfort and satisfaction. True happiness lies in love and passion.
Wanlu, a famous Philippine ventriloquist, is one of the living proofs that passion paired with strong determination can always bring you to your destination and, at the same time leave you satisfied and happy.
Juancho Lunaria has his hopes and dreams too, just like any of us. But his father unfortunately passed away, which made him stop pursuing his goal of becoming a dentist due to financial problems. No words could probably describe the pain he felt and the heavy burden he carried at such a young age. But as usual, the world didn’t seem to care for he was only a speck of dust existing within the galaxy.
He saw life in magic; and so, it was able to keep him company for a long time, supporting both himself and his own family. He kept the essence of magic alive for 20 years by sharing it to everyone during kiddie parties, product launches, birthday parties, and any other events that needed an entertainer.
Time quickly passed by, and soon enough he was getting physically tired of moving around his body too much when doing magic tricks. When he saw the ventriloquist, Edgar Bergen, performing with only two or three puppets, it gave him an idea. He also wanted to perform something unique and entertaining without having to carry so many things with him, and so he made a name for himself in the world of ventriloquism.
Like all other success stories, he needed time and patience. He practiced his ventriloquism acts by talking to himself in front of the mirror almost every day. “You just have to be insane. They say that you have to be insane and it’s true, otherwise the character of the puppets will not come out effectively. There are times when I want to stop myself because I was afraid of offending people. Like when I say ‘Hi girls,’ if there are teachers around, they might misunderstand me; but my puppet Congressman Dominador or Cong Dom for short, has his own character, so I just have to maintain it to become effective. I even filled out some bio-data forms for all of my characters—what are their names, where they live, and what their hobbies are. I just try to live the character.”
He even took a risk with his money by investing on puppets made with the best quality. “It was actually a big risk because the puppets I use are really expensive, ranging from 3,000-4,000 US dollars. So, buying one was a big risk because I wasn’t even aware if it was going to be accepted by the people. But I realized if you want to excel in something, you just have to work hard: show everyone how entertaining it is, how useful it is, because puppetry can be used in a lot of things. Medical purposes—I have a five-year-old son who has ADHD, puppetry has helped him a lot, and teachers can use puppetry in teaching. I was quite confident that if I worked hard, I’ll get the results I was hoping for.”
The first stage of success was really a struggle, but Wanlu was able to deal with it due to his earnings from being a magician. And from then on, he promised himself to only use the money he earned from puppetry in purchasing more puppets because he didn’t want to be addicted to the point that he’ll want to sell his house in order to buy more.
Through strong determination, hard work, and patience, Wanlu was able to reap the efforts he had sown through the years. He was only a beginner when he acted like a professional and braved his way through Talentadong Pinoy, a TV5 talent show, wherein you have to win for five consecutive weeks in order to become one of the hall of famers. His win also paved the way for him to become one of the talents of TV5 and he also represented the Philippines on numerous international puppeteer festivals.
From then on, even the common Filipino people knew the word ‘ventriloquist’, which made him feel very proud of his achievements. To have taken the first step when the profession you’re in doesn’t even exist in your country is such a brave act of pursuing one’s passion. “After winning Talentadong Pinoy, I don’t know what happened, but all of a sudden there were a lot of ventriloquists. There were some in Pilipinas Got Talent, and now in Pinasikat and Bet ng Bayan."
"Suddenly, we had a lot of ventriloquist. And, I’m not one to toot my own horn, but I think I influenced a lot of them. I don’t mind, as a matter of fact, I’m very proud. In fact, I’ve done three battle of ventriloquists for the past three years. The first one was at the red barn, there were eight ventriloquists. The second one was at SM Masinag, the third was at Resorts World Manila—the biggest so far. It’s usually held during my birthday, March 30. So far I have three champions, in fact this December 13, those three champions will have a solo show in a comedy bar which I produced for them. Basically I want to show everyone that I’m monopolizing ventriloquism. I don’t want that. So I’m trying to help other ventriloquists succeed in the art. So far the industry is doing well.”
Wanlu is not one who is selfish of his success; he knows how to give back what he has earned. In order to share his blessings, he went to Tacloban with the simple wish of touching the Yolanda victims’ lives by making them smile and forget their worries even for a short while. “After the storm I went there four times. The first time was December 25, on Christmas Day I was there. Instead of being with family, I went there to make the people happy. It was about a month after the storm, and the emotions were still high. Going there just for press, et cetera wasn’t really nice. So after that, I went back and instead of just performing, I used puppetry to teach children. If you notice there were teachers, we taught them how to make puppets and perform puppetry.”
Wanlu is also unlike most of us, who expects our efforts to be returned by money or fame. In fact, he didn’t even keep track of how much money he gained after spending a lot from purchasing his puppets. “I don’t keep track because I’ll only get tense. If you’ll look at it, my earnings aren’t really big; so if you’ll always focus on your monetary earnings, you’ll only get disappointed and disheartened. I think I’ve already recovered, well I don’t know how much to be exact in monetary terms; but I know I’ve recovered much more than money.”
Juancho Lunaria will always be remembered not only as Wanlu, one of the pioneer ventriloquists in the Philippines; but most importantly, he will be remembered by many—locally and internationally—because of his strong drive to pursue his passion without thinking much of the rewards he is going to get back. He is indeed a living proof that we can remain happy and satisfied amid pursuing the dreams we thought were impossible to accomplish.
Instead of giving up our dreams, we should gather up the courage to go after them—be it a childhood dream or a newfound dream—as long as it’s a dream, we have to fulfill it; and no one but us has the power to make them come true.