I guess it was my calling to make people laugh by dressing up as and sounding like anyone other than myself. I started playing around with my voice at the age of nine. I was hooked on Voltes V, a Japanese cartoon series where characters join together to form a giant robot. I was so fascinated by the characters' voices that I asked my parents to buy me a tape recorder so I could record my version of the characters' dialogue. Every time I played the tape in front of my classmates, they always ended up laughing.

When I was ten and in Grade Four at Tenement Elementary School in Taguig City, I was cast to play an old man in my first school play. All you have to do is act like your grandfather and deliver your line, the director said. However, when I was on stage, I decided to put a little spin on my cha-racter. I put on the voice of an old man and exaggerated the dialogue. To my surprise, everyone in the audience, including the director, laughed. I've been cast as an old man several more times in my high school and college years. I'm not sure if it was because I looked old even back then or if it was the only fitting role for me.

My real name is Beethoven del Valle Bunagan. My father named me after the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven, not because we shared almost the same...