Hawai’i comedian Frank De Lima made a triumphant return to Los Angeles appearing before a sold-out crowd of mostly transplanted — and totally delighted — Islanders on Oct. 24.
Taking the stage at the Nakaoka Community Center in the suburb of Gardena, De Lima told the 200 Aloha shirt-clad fans that he first began playing at L.A. venues “in the late 70s at the Kono Hawai’i Restaurant and showrooms such as the East West Lounge; in the early 80s at the Long Beach Airport Holiday Inn; then at the Torrance Airport Holiday Inn; and in the early 90s at the Normandie Casino.”
This was De Lima’s first live show in L.A. in 20 years — and what a show it was! For about 90-minutes Hawai’i’s clown prince performed “Uncle Frank’s” greatest hits, cracking jokes with his trademark ethnic humor and singing fractured melodies with “Hawaiian-ized” lyrics set to popular tunes, wearing goofy costumes poking fun at a variety of kooky characters. The slimmed down De Lima, who has shed more than 100 pounds for health reasons, climbed into a sumo wrestler fat suit, dancing and singing as he spoofed the traditional Japanese sport.
Changing into customary Chinese garb and playing off of the stereotype of Chinese people supposedly being tight with money, De Lima portrayed the host of a zany version of the TV game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" that he renamed "Who Wants to be a Five Dollar-aire," inviting members of the audience to join him on stage to answer wacky questions at only one dollar per point.
In another vignette De Lima donned a shaggy black wig and sunglasses to portray a tipsy Don Ho slurring his words through a barely intelligible version of “Tiny Bubbles,” accompanied by recorded music. Of course, De Lima’s piece de resistance is his takedown of Imelda Marcos while wearing a puffy-sleeved Filipiniana dress and another more manicured black wig. Satirizing the Philippines’ overthrown former First Lady, who had to flee with her husband President Ferdinand Marcos from Manila to Makiki, De Lima changed the lyrics of the "Chorus Line" song “What I Did for Love” to “Kiss my shoes goodbye.” Although the crowd-pleasing comic told me in an interview that he generally stays clear of political humor to avoid alienating and polarizing audiences, De Lima’s Imelda is comparable to Charlie Chaplin’s mockery of Hitler in the 1940 classic movie, "The Great Dictator."
As is De Lima’s wont, the equal opportunity court jester — who says his “chop suey” lineage includes “Irish-Scotch-English-Spanish-French-Portuguese-Chinese-Hawaiian” — made fun of all of multi-culti Hawai’i’s nationalities, sparing none, including the group he told me in an interview that he identified with most: the Portuguese. The former seminarian joked that: “The Jews think they’re the chosen people because they wandered around the desert for 40 years. But we Pawdagees can’t find our way home every night!” As for Haoles attending his show, De Lima quipped that they probably didn’t understand anything he was talking about.
Native Hawaiians, too, came in for some ribbing from the part-Hawaiian De Lima, especially in his act’s grand finale: A knee slapping, pidgin English, “kanak to da max” rendition of Kenny Rogers’ Country Western hit “Lucille,” hilariously re-set in “One bar in Kalihi.” With the Gardena throng shouting “hana hou!”, De Lima’s encore caused the extended event to go into overtime, if not overdrive.
Throughout his trip down comedy memory lane, De Lima was also interweaving his personal reminisces of and ruminations about growing up in Pauoa Valley, attending Chaminade and his ultimately unfulfilled aspiration to become a priest. (Religion’s loss is comedy’s gain – only God can decide who is better off for this turn of events?) Remembering the 16 homes on his block with eight different nationalities, De Lima mused onstage: “So much culture, so much idiosyncrasies, so much phraseologies in a little boy’s head … I was ‘Mr. Question Mark,’ I wanted to learn different stuff … I had a special gift from God: Daydreaming,” Frank shared frankly with the spectators, many of whom have been his fans for decades. At the end of his gig, lei maker Lamme' Malunao walked onstage and draped a ti leaf lei around De Lima’s neck.
The Hawai’i comedy legend, who is now semi-retired and living in Las Vegas, was brought to L.A. by promoter and podcaster Kamaka Brown, who was born and raised on O‘ahu’s North Shore, and presented the Gardena fundraiser for “the Sandwich Islands Social Network, a group of dedicated volunteers serving to reconnect Hawaiians and Hawaiians-at-heart with the spirit of Aloha. SISN produces media content and live events that entertain, educate and inspire the Southern California community,” according to Brown, who now lives at Simi Valley. Also a stand-up comic and senior citizen, Brown opened for De Lima at what he called the “Jurassic Unkoz” (or Uncles) act, which periodically included what the punster called a “Hawaiian T-Rex” prancing about onstage in a dinosaur costume. (Of course, several of the "Jurassic Park" movies were filmed at O‘ahu’s Kualoa Ranch and on Kaua’i.)
Promoter/podcaster Kamaka Brown, right, opened for De Lima, left, in what he called the "Jurassic Unkoz," or Uncles, which, of course, included a dinosaur costume. (Courtesy Catherine Bauknight) 
Local kine merchandise was for sale at the show. (Courtesy Catherine Bauknight)
Inside the spacious Nakaoka Community Center, the Ho’olina Foundation did brisk business selling BBQ pork manapuas and spam musubi. Another table featured Frank De Lima merch for sale, including DVDs, CDs and T-shirts featuring the comedian’s smiling face with the words: “Pawdagee Head Quadas.”
Among the audience of mostly local people now calling SoCal home was Janice Remland, who said she was Portuguese, grew up in public housing at Honolulu’s Mayor Wright Homes and attended McKinley High School. “When I was 18-years-old I saw Frank and I thought his Imelda was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. … It made me decide to become a comedian,” gushed Remland, who stated she’d performed at California clubs such as the Comedy Store.
Referring to De Lima’s ethnic humor, Remland added, “We have to be careful doing comedy nowadays” out of fear of being “canceled,” due to jokes some may regard as offensive. “It’s refreshing to go back to comedy that celebrates nationalities. … I loved Frank’s show! It brought back some characters. Awesome!”
She agreed that De Lima gets away with his gentle spoofing of Hawai’i’s different ethnicities because it’s always done lovingly, in a good-natured way, never mean spirited.
For fans back in the Islands who miss De Lima since he moved to Las Vegas in January 2025, the good news is that he’s returning for the “Celebration of Laughs Tour” with Andy Bumatai and Augie T on Nov. 20 at the Kahilu Theatre in Waimea, Big Island; Nov. 21 at the Hawai’i Theatre in Honolulu; and Nov. 22 at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center in Kahului, Maui.
During his Gardena gig De Lima candidly shared observations about the aging process, but having never lost that innocent inner child observing the world from his Pauoa Valley doorstep, Frank De Lima is now 77 going on seven, and a good fun time was had by all at his L.A. comeback show.
For more information, go to: sandislands.org.
For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter.
