Augie T remains true to comedy

Augie Tulba has been a busy man. Over the past two decades, the comedian known as Augie T has worked his way to the forefront of Hawaii’s comedy scene, where his fresh observational humor and spot-on sendups of local characters follow in the tradition of Andy Bumatai, Frank De Lima, Mel Cabang and other giants of local comedy whom he teams up with on “Augie’s Comedy Crusade.”

AUGIE T’S COMEDY CRUSADE Augie T, Andy Bumatai, Mel Cabang and Frank De Lima: Where: Pagoda Hotel, 1525 Rycroft St. When: 8 p.m. today Cost: $15 Info: 479-0576 AUGIE T “LIVE” With Andy Bumatai, Jose Dynamite, Lil Guy and Mike Tulba: Where: Pearl City High School Auditorium When: 7 p.m. Saturday Cost: $10 Info: pearlcityband.com

Tulba will work with Bumatai, De Lima and Cabang tonight at the Pagoda Hotel, the last of several scheduled appearances for the group.

Bumatai joins Tulba Saturday in a benefit at Pearl City High School for the school’s marching band. Joe Dynamite, Lil Guy, and Tulba’s brother Mike, a musician, also will appear.

“It’s a cool show,” Tulba said of the Pearl City gig, enthused that his brother would be appearing.

He does about eight benefit shows a year, he noted, and has raised about $50,000 for local organizations over the years.

“The biggest thing for me right now is finishing up this new reality TV show based on my new company (Hi Alarm, a home security company),” he said. “It’s called ‘Funny Business’ and it’s basically about me and my partner, who’s from Tennessee, Art Miller. We’re from separate worlds. So I educate him, he educates me.

“We got everyday people in the show. We got people from China making it, we got this haole guy from Tennessee, and me, trying to work together. … I want to show the integrity behind what the guys in our company do. They’re like you and me, they’re just trying to make a living in Hawaii.”

If that premise isn’t the classic, yuk-yuk situation that one might expect from a comedian, that’s OK, because Tulba is more than just a pitchman for Hi Alarm. He’s been made a vice president of the company, a post he received by fate and circumstances after Miller caught his act at Dots Restaurant in Wahiawa and, as part of a deal for commercial appearances, offered him a home-security system.

“I go, ‘I don’t want a system because I live in a quiet area in Ewa Beach,’” Tulba said, “But my dad is in the beginning stages of dementia, and this system has cameras and I can see my dad and my mom through an iPhone. …

“While I was in Alaska, my dad fell and the system ended up saving his life. So when I got back, I thought, ‘Maybe you should think about maybe being more involved.’”

TULBA DOESN’T think it’s unusual for him to redefine his life around a business venture. Though his stage persona is frantic and seemingly spontaneous, he is in fact very introspective about life and career. That stems from a life that has had its share of misfortune as well as humor.

“My younger brother was the first casualty of ‘ice’ (methamphetamine) at the high school level,” he said. “Over 20-something years ago, he shot himself (fatally). A lot of people don’t know that side.

“I want people to see a lovely comedy, but I’m also a businessman,” he said. “I’ve been labeled that comic, crazy local boy for so long, but people don’t know that about eight years ago I realized that this is a business, and that I have to treat my comedy like a business.

“I wake up every day like everybody else and I write comedy.”

In fact, Tulba has been very prolific over the years, writing not just new material but making an entire production out of it.

His 2006 show at Farrington High School, “Then and Now,” featured VIP treatment for guests. His 2010 “I Was Left Behind” tour was advertised with a trailer that had Tulba running barefoot along city and country roads, through forests and on the beach, emphasizing that he was taking the show to each island.

“Every year I try to write a new act,” he said. “I totally understand that people want to see the vintage Augie, so I always keep stuff in there that I know people want to see. … They love it when I do the Filipino guy, they love the dialect. I try as much as I can to add those elements in, but I also talk about stuff that’s passionate to me. Like this year, the elections and rail.”

His style of comedy — talking about events and people of the day and then putting his own twist on it — provides a consistent framework for new material.

“I try to keep my eyes open to whatever’s going on, but I’m not going to lie to you, it’s getting harder,” he said. “I’m 44 years old, and my priorities have changed.

I know people want the vintage Augie, but the problem is my kids are adults now. … (He has a 28-year-old son and a 12-year-old daughter). When they see me acting like that, it’s kind of weird, you know what I mean?”

This all stems from humble beginnings in Kalihi that saw Tulba, who was later found to be dyslexic, struggling in school until his teacher noticed he had the gift of gab and encouraged him to try out for the school’s speech contest.

“I was like, ‘I’m failing English,’” Tulba said. “I’m going to be embarrassed to do the speech contest. But the teacher, every day for like two weeks, would help me polish my little speech.

And I remember, on stage, the curtains opened, and … all my haole friends were like ‘Get off the stage, you gonna get busted!’ And I was like ‘no, no, no, I’m in the tournament.’ And I found out that people cheer on the underdog — and when I won the speech tournament, that changed my life.”

IT WOULD BE many years and many careers — including stints as a Golden Gloves boxer, a hospital worker and a retail cashier — before Tulba, then in his mid-20s, took to the stage at an open-mic competition. He wound up winning.

“The owner of the club was like, ‘I don’t understand a thing you’re saying, but you made people laugh, so why don’t you come back?’”

Within a week, at his cashier job, Tulba ran into De Lima and asked him how to become a comedian. De Lima said, “I don’t know” — an answer that busts Tulba up to this day. But within two weeks, Tulba not only ran into Bumatai while working his other job at Kapiolani Medical Center, but wound up opening for him at a show in Waianae.

That led to him opening for Bumatai for the next few years in Waikiki.

“It’s been a sweet 20 years, a lot of challenges, a lot of learning,” Tulba said. “If something ever happened to me, I can honestly say I’ve lived my life to the fullest.”

– Steven Mark / smark@staradvertiser.com