With an unmistakably impish glint in his eyes, Mark Averilla, more popularly known as Macoy Dubs, brings to life a number of characters on his social media accounts. His most popular—and perhaps most polarizing—is Auntie Julie, the name-dropping, private school-educated aunt who unwittingly embarrasses her teenage children, to the delight of his followers (57,000 on Instagram, 248,000 on Twitter).

In minutelong videos, Macoy skewers and pokes fun at his character, who hands out P1,000 bills to obedient inaanak (godchildren). One of his IG followers (@philliptuazon) described Julie as “’yung tita/ninang mong manlilibre sa Starbucks tapos kahit tall/grande lang gusto mo, gagawin niyang venti kasi love ka niya basta mag-bless ka sa kanya.”

Julie is a proud Povedan who keeps in touch with her classmates whom she calls hermanas, tends to her ornamentals at home, loves her daughter Cassandra and champions her bisexual son Roberto.

Macoy even has the look down pat: “siopao” pearl earrings, pearl strands around the neck, and a silky round-neck or button-down top. Alternately, Julie wears a silver leaf-patterned necklace and matching earrings—just to mix things up. He even has that unconscious tic where the character tucks her hair repeatedly behind her ears.

The send-up is witty and relatable, so when Macoy announced that he was taking a break from doing Auntie Julie, fans were perplexed. Apparently, he had received multiple messages telling him to stop putting out videos. Warnings were made and nerves were frayed, so last month Macoy captioned an IG video: “It might be the last of . . . the #AuntieJulie series.”

Lifestyle caught up with Macoy during his brief hiatus, where he talked about how he started doing comedy, how he prepares for each video and his surprise at how Auntie Julie became a polarizing figure.

The 27-year-old Macoy is a teacher in Letran and works at the ad agency BBDO, but said he has always wanted to be a comedian. While in college, also in Letran, he would write comedy skits where he got to mimic his professors and the school priest.

Based on experience

“These skits inspired me to come up with my one-minute videos on TikTok,” Macoy said. One of his first characters which debuted on Twitter, a government employee, was formed after his experiences at the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) offices.

“I was filing my income tax, and the BIR employee I dealt with at the time was cross and didn’t hide it. Later, at the NBI where I needed to get clearance before starting work at Adobo Magazine, I made the mistake of smiling when they took my ID photo. ‘Why are you smiling? Didn’t I tell you, neutral face lang?’ the NBI staff asked me rather crossly.”

Although his videos appear spontaneous and unrehearsed, Macoy said it takes a while before he’s satisfied enough to upload the videos on his social media accounts.

“I probably do three takes per video but I always have a script ready. I also let some of my friends watch first because I need to know from their perspective if it’s offensive or not. Before I post political content with commentaries, I usually share it first with my lawyer friends to check if I might get sued. Mahirap na makasuhan.”

If he takes all these precautions before posting, why was “harmless” Auntie Julie singled out by some factions? It turns out Macoy had already been attacked online when he posted content a few months ago where he mentioned the names of several senators. He is also vocal against the Terror Law.

Trouble with trolls

“I began getting threats on my Facebook page Macoy Dubs, but I ignored them,” he said. “When I began posting the Auntie Julie videos, I think I was already being monitored. A group of trolls had formed a chat group which sent messages telling me to take down or delete the Julie videos because they said that I was no longer funny, that I was ugly, and that my being gay was a mistake.

“I admit I was hurt because I wasn’t really acknowledging the trolls, but then it eventually got to be too much. The week I tweeted I would stop posting Auntie Julie videos, I was feeling very vulnerable; I had issues at work and personal issues to deal with.”

After a breather where she “watered her orchids,” Auntie Julie is back.

“I was able to lean on the support of friends from high school and college. I even got validation in the form of emails from girls from Poveda, Assumption and St. Scholastica, who said they were fond of my videos.”

Despite the nameless trolls that tried to drag him down, Macoy and Auntie Julie seemed none the worse for wear.

“It’s difficult to be a comedian in a ‘pikon’ country, especially when the political climate is not that stable because people get offended so easily. I’m not affiliated with any organization. I just do content,” he said.