‘Abroad:’ Comedian Isabel Kanaan represents Filipino immigrants’ stories in sketch comedy series

Cast members of “Abroad” (File photo: @abroadcomedy/Instagram)

Filipino immigrants are the star of an ongoing sketch comedy series that recently premiered on OMNI Television, titled “Abroad.”

“Abroad” is a 12-part Tagalog-English show in Canada, co-created by and starring Filipina-Canadian comedian Isabel Kanaan.

For sure, many of them can relate to it as it is based on Isabel’s own experiences as an immigrant herself that she told from her comedic perspective.

Migrating as a teenager

“Emigrating to a new country can be challenging, but ABROAD is here to prove it can also be funny,” read a December 2021 post on “Abroad’s” Instagram page, and attesting to this is Isabel’s own story.

As a teenager, Isabel moved to Canada with her family in 2008. She told Philippine Canadian Inquirer (PCI) that this was because they wanted to give a better life to her two brothers who were diagnosed with autism, as Canada had programs and grants for them.

With a new environment that was just different from where she grew up, the young immigrant experienced such a culture shock.

“Nag-land kami sa Toronto tapos Burlington ‘yung place namin (We landed in Toronto and Burlington is our place), which is also my tita’s (aunt’s) place and we stayed with them for a while. So, on the highway, ang daming trees, greens, grass ‘tas hindi ako sanay kasi sa Pilipinas, sa highway puro concrete (there are a lot of trees, greens, grass and I’m not used to it because in the Philippines, there is more concrete on the highway).”

Coming from a tropical country, Canada also surprised her with its cold weather.

“I arrived in August so technically it was summer time pero talagang nilamig ako (but I really felt cold),” she said, adding, “Everyone was wearing shorts tapos ako naka-jacket (but I was wearing a jacket).”

These differences did not stop as she saw more at school. Isabel enrolled in a Catholic school, just like where she studied when she was still in the Philippines. Perhaps she thought that there won’t be much of a change since both are Catholic schools but when she entered her new school, what welcomed her was not what she expected.

“In the Philippines, our skirt was supposed to be two inches below the knee. Here, it supposed to be above the knee and I was like, ‘What?’ Parang na-culture shock talaga ko non tapos (I really got culture shock then) when I came into school, no makeup kasi bawal yon, ‘di ba (since it is not allowed, right)? And then when I arrived in school I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, who are these models?’ Everyone was wearing makeup.”

As a Grade 12 student at that time, Isabel admitted that she felt lonely during her first couple of months in Canada.

There was sadness because she did not have friends; although she tried to make some, it was hard for her. Isabel recalled spending a lot of time alone in the library during lunch to do her homework and then right after school, she would head straight to her part-time job.

She also did not step out of the house a lot due to the cold weather; she would just spend most of her time facing the computer to chat with her friends in the Philippines as well.

Isabel did what she can do to adopt the culture of the country she is living in now. She studied the English language and also the accent. Since she finished her homework earlier and had time at night, Isabel would go on YouTube to practice English pronunciation.

But as she went with the flow, a part of herself was lost.

“At first, I really didn’t question stuff, which I think now was a problem because when I first arrived, parang (I was like), ‘Ah okay, talagang I will hide or not look at my Filipino side’ parang ganon in order to assimilate because culture shock so I was like, ‘Okay I need to adapt to this,’ so I will not be—parang be connected with my Filipino roots.”

“But eventually, it got really tiring because I was like, there was something missing, ‘di ba (right)? ‘Yung pagka-Pinoy ko parang nawala (My Filipinoness seems to be gone).”

It did not sink into her… until she met her kababayans (fellow countrymen) when she entered university.

Reconnection

Isabel Kanaan (File photo: @abroadcomedy/Instagram)

Isabel worked her way up to have extensive acting and performing arts experiences that earned her various recognitions including RBC’s Top 25 Canadian Immigrants award.

Ever since she was still in the Philippines, Isabel has always been interested in performing arts, specifically dancing, which she enriched through joining summer programs.

“I was more of a dancer in the Philippines but then during one high school project, they wanted us to do a monologue and I did that for the first time and that’s when I cut the bug, and then after that, in my summers, I would do like musical theater.”

But when she went on with her life in Canada, not only did she disconnect from her Filipino roots but she also got detached from her passion for performing.

“I like performing, but when I got here, I was like, ‘Oh okay enough of that’ ‘cause I was like, that won’t happen here. So, I went to university and then I really focused on the academics, you know, parang just adjusting here.”

“I kept switching my programs because—I just wasn’t happy.”

This changed after meeting a fellow Filipino who graduated from an acting program in York University.

“At that time, I’ve been in Canada for five years na so I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this feels better,’ I feel like I can do that again, which is something that I always wanted. So, I think, when I started acting again, that’s when I really felt that I overcame those challenges.”

“The person that I met actually was in the Filipino Student Association at my school so parang I reconnected na with my roots there.”

Isabel embarked on her acting career, switching to Seneca College to take Acting for Camera and Voice program and then entering Second City to do its Conservatory program. This is where her being a comedian began.

Although she was the one who was bringing laughter to her friends in the Philippines, Isabel said that she actually did not see herself as someone humorous.

“It’s funny because in the acting program, my professors told me I can find the comedy in anything and I didn’t really find myself a funny person but I was like, ‘Oh okay, that’s cool,’ so I really took that to heart, especially when, you know, kaka-graduate ko lang tapos (I just graduated and then) I kept auditioning and the roles that I would get are very like comedy so I was like, ‘Huh, maybe I should lean on to this.’”

And she did.

Her driving force to keep going with acting is her Filipino roots. Through it, Isabel aims to have more representation of Filipinos in the Canadian media and show her kababayans that it is okay to keep their roots intact or reconnect with it.

“It’s so important because that was the reason why I hid my identity in the beginning; why I disconnected from my Filipino roots because I saw on TV, no one was doing that so I thought, ‘Okay so I guess I have to do that too’ but that’s wrong, we’re hiding a part of ourselves.”

“I don’t want immigrants to come here for them to think—to go through what I went through that they have to disconnect also.”

With this goal in mind, the idea for “Abroad” came about.

The making of ‘Abroad’

It all started with Isabel making TikTok videos in 2019 about her being a Filipino.

Some of the first clips that she created were about how is it like entering a Filipino Christmas party and a few funny and relatable interactions between Filipino moms and their children; like how they would ask their kids to help but would scold them when they try to do so or when their mom starts calling them by their full names and holds up a tsinelas (slipper)—Filipino kids know what will happen next.

“The producers saw some of my TikToks and they liked it so they reached out and they’re like, ‘Oh we want to do a show about you.’”

“The TikToks that they saw were parang me in Canada as an immigrant ganun ganun, like Filipino comedy and so I said, ‘Okay if you want a show about me, I don’t want it to be from the perspective of a Canadian, I want it to be from the perspective of an immigrant coming to Canada because that’s my perspective.’”

The filming of “Abroad” started in November 2021 and ended in February 2022, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Isabel shared that during their filming, they were tested almost every day and a staff member would monitor if COVID-19 protocols were being followed. If they did not feel well, she said they would inform the cast and crew about their condition and would just stay home to prevent an outbreak, which caused a lot of productions to shut down during the pandemic.

“It also goes to show how much our team respected the show. They were looking out for their health as well because they want to be on the show, they want to keep working on the show.”

Joining Isabel in the series are also Filipino-Canadian actors including Aldrin Bundoc, Joy Castro, Nicco Lorenzo Garcia, and Justin Santiago. Isabel said they have known each other as the Filipino community in Canada is pretty tight, specifically the Filipino theater community.

“That’s how I know some of them like Joy, I’ve seen in audition rooms and we’ve never actually seen each other otherwise but we respect each other’s work, and then when I saw their auditions I was like, ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’ so it was really, really nice because finally here was a show where we could work altogether.”

It was indeed a collaborative work between the show’s diverse cast and crew as everyone gets to pitch in their experiences during the production, which they would put in the script.  Between cast members, Isabel got new discoveries from her co-stars’ different immigrant stories. The biggest one, she said, was learning how other Filipinos who were born in Canada can still speak Tagalog fluently.

“That just goes to show how their family really celebrated the culture and kept it going and I loved that. And there are some that kind of went through what I went through, you know, they kind of disconnected with their culture and only reconnected later on or some of them don’t even reconnect.”

Meanwhile, with “Abroad’s” crew members who are from other cultures, Isabel shared that it was very heartwarming to see them laugh and relate with the series, and then they would also share their own narratives that are similar to others.

Learning about her colleagues’ experiences, Isabel believes that there is no reason to hide one’s identity when some people, even those from different cultures, can relate to them.

“I’m hoping this show would kind of show them it’s okay to reconnect and, you know, you might find out stuff about yourself that you wouldn’t otherwise.”

The first season of “Abroad” is expected to end on July 10, 2022. With the remaining episodes, Isabel said viewers can expect more laughter and themes that they would not think were related to the immigrant experience.

Want to find out what are those about? Then catch “Abroad” on OMNI Television every Sunday at 8:30 PM!