If there’s one thing that the Philippine King of Talk is mighty afraid of, it is growing old.
Abunda articulated his fear during his interview with writer G3 San Diego for her online program “#LivewithG3” where the discussion veered towards his age. The online show was uploaded on YouTube last Monday, Feb. 1.
“65 years old. Am I right?” San Diego asked Abunda, to which he immediately replied “No naman.” (Actually no.)
He noted that she probably got her information from online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which allows internet users to provide sometimes unverified information on its pages.
“Thank you for raising that because that is on Wikipedia and that was wrong. I am not 65 years old. Totoo iyon (It’s true). I had my lawyers actually write Wikipedia to make that correction,” he said.
But Abunda believes that he got his “karma” for lying about his real age.
“Pero (But) I plead guilty. You know why it is 65, because I’d been lying about my age. I’ve been lying about my age for as long as I can remember. Sometimes I would say I’m 52, I’m 48, I’m 59, I’m 60. My karma is Wikipedia,” he explained.
Abunda thinks his sister is 65. “She is older than I am. I am a lot younger than 65,” he added. When San Diego asked if he was “just 50,” he laughed and said, “I wish.”
He then thanked G3 for raising the age issue.
“That’s a nice conversation because I’ve always been afraid to grow old at a certain point. Not anymore. Hindi na masyado (Not so much.) I’ve always been afraid to grow old because that’s the currency of show business,” he admitted.
“When you say you’re old, you are on your way to irrelevance. You are on your way to being a has-been,” he said of his assumptions about age. “So, for the longest time being a manager and being a talent by accident, I sort of you know, distorted my facts in terms of my age.”
“I’m not as afraid anymore as I was before to grow old. But there was a time I was horrified,” he added.
Getting older will sure come one’s way but for Abunda, it also means getting replaced by a much younger personality.
“Wisdom comes with age but you have to be realistic that also when you grow older in our business somebody comes around and does your job better or presents a different look. We are aware of that. We die. We kill for relevance. We kill and we care too much about premium, etc.,” he explained.
Abunda reiterated that lying about his real age has brought him karma as best articulated by his long-time partner Bong Quintana.
“I’m a marketing guy. I do branding. I am an active citizen of the business and I am aware of that. Sabi ko nga, ang karma ko and Bong would say this, ‘Ang karma mo, nagsisinungaling ka tungkol sa edad mo. Ayan, naging 65 ka tuloy (You got your karma for lying about your age. Look, now you’re 65).’”
Abunda started in the business as a PR guy for concerts, events and shows before he started managing stars, which have included Kris Aquino, Dawn Zulueta and Ariel Rivera. NVG
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