(He passed away on July 26, 2023. We miss you, Brod Willie)

By: Brod Bebong Arreza’82 DLSU-AUF

Brod Willie Nep’s humor would make us laugh out loud first and think hard and long after.

Rare is an artist like him who tickles our funny bone and pricks our conscience at the same time.

There will never be another Willie Nepomuceno. When God created him, he threw away the mold for good. Sui generis, ika nga.

If you think there is, and that there will be another, ponder this thought :

Of all the artists born in this musically-gifted land, who wowed audiences from West Avenue to West End, was there ever someone like Willie Nep who reduced powerful men – presidents – into punchlines ?

Would there be another like him who could shift from one character to another by simply tussling his hair?

He parted his hair on the middle, and he became Gringo. Raising it like a bouffant, he became Marcos. Parting it sideways, he was Enrile.

With an economy of moves, and minimal props, he shoehorned himself into one character after another – right before his audience.

Chomping a cigar, and he became FVR. Arching his back, with his hands in the front pockets of his pants, he was Erap. A cardinal’s cap, and two balled napkins stuffed into his mouth, he was His Immensity, Cardinal Sin.

His shows were part magic, part music, all mesmerizing. Kaya hanggang ngayon walang nakagaya.

For half-a-century, he was an equal opportunity alaskador, and from Marcos to Noynoy, his subjects paid good money to personally hear him lampoon them.

They would sit in the audience, lapping up his jokes so creatively written that they wouldn’t know if they’re being praised – or pilloried.

“Kapag hindi ka na-impersonate ni Willie Nep, hindi ka pa made,” was a former Senate President’s lament of how he never made it to the list.

That Brod Willie Nep was able to pull it off – of turning powerful men into comedy material – was that his spiels were never insulting – biting and belittling they may be – but were never disrespectful.

But it didn’t mean that he held back, on the contrary his was a career of constantly pushing the envelope.

The lore was that he honed his skills in the parliament of the streets. During the First Quarter Storm, he would send thousands of demonstrators rip-roaring with laughter with his spot-on impersonation of Marcos.

Others would subvert with incendiary speeches, his was satire.

The other truth was that he roadtested his spiels before the toughest audience. His Beta Sigma brods, with their UP Diliman AS Annex steps tambayan as his stage .

So picture this : A student without power taking on the most powerful man in the land, cutting him down one joke at a time.

And what do you see ? A profile of courage.

Years later, Marcos would pay him the greatest compliment when , during EDSA 1, as rumors swirled that he had hightailed it to exile, he told reporters that standing before them was the real McCoy and not Willie Nepomuceno.

Kahit noong naging guest si President NoyNoy sa fraternity ball ng UP Beta Sigma, unang bukambibig nya : “Pati pala si Willie Nep, brod nyo !”

But Brod Willie Nep was more than an impersonator. He was a gifted singer . He was a painter.

But of all the sobriquets that he got, it was “the man of a thousand voices” which stuck on him, and ironically overshadowed his many other splendored talents.

He was a kind, compassionate and generous human.

A man whose acts brought powerful people down to earth kept his feet firmly on the ground.

Mahigpit kung kumamay sa mga kapatid.

He responded to calls for fundraising for people in distress, and for causes he championed, and headlined many Frat affairs, gratis, well, except for the customary jug.

I remember one, for then political prisoner Brod Boy Morales, future DAR secretary, where Brod Willie Nep, famous for his repertoire of songs, ended his spiel with the Dioknoesque longing “that one day we shall be able to sing our own songs.”

And from all his acts we can discern this lesson we should heed if, as Brotherhood of Scholars we indeed are, we want to build a nation for our children : We should not elect jokes into office. Or the joke will be on us.

By being a man of thousand voices, Brod Willie Nep gave voice to the Filipino.

Rest well, great and noble Beta Sigman.