KALAPAKI BEACH — There were two kinds of tears flowing the evening celebrating the 10th anniversary of Dickie Chang’s “Wala‘au” cable TV show. The first set of tears were from those overcome with hysterical laughter at the evening’s lighter events,
KALAPAKI BEACH — There were two kinds of tears flowing the evening celebrating the 10th anniversary of Dickie Chang’s “Wala‘au” cable TV show. The first set of tears were from those overcome with hysterical laughter at the evening’s lighter events, including a videotaped, man-on-the-street interview conducted in Honolulu by the evening’s co-emcees, Howard Dashefsky and Ron Mizutani.
They asked Honolulu people what they thought about Dickie Chang, but the responses they got were not about Kaua‘i’s Chang, making for a hilarious presentation. The second set of tears began flowing when Na Leo Pilimehana took the stage near the evening’s end, and Nalani Choy and Lehua Kalima Heine talked about the noticeable absence of the third member of their group, Angela Morales. Morales’ husband had been very sick, and she made the decision earlier in the week not to attend the function at the Kaua‘i Marriott Resort & Beach Club here, said Choy. Taking the stage for a performance that would mark just the first time in 20 years together that all three of them did not perform together, Heine had the unenviable task of informing the crowd that Morales’ husband had passed away just two hours before.
Still, Heine and Choy sang, first “Friends,” and then many of the other familiar hits of the multiple-Hoku-award-winning group, backed also on guitar and vocals by Brian Kessler, one of the original members of the Hawaiian Style Band.
Another chicken-skin moment is when Chang called his O‘ahu family to the stage, including uncles and mother Betsy Chang, 77. “I’m proud of my son,” said Betsy Chang, who her son described as a woman of few words. The two members of Na Leo Pilimehana who took the stage and enthralled the crowd vowed to bring the entire group back at a later date for the 700 people in attendance in the Marriott ballroom for the event that was attended by a who’s who of business and government on the island, mixed with common local folk who have been touched by Chang’s wit and immortalized by Bruce Albert Smalling’s camera over the last decade.
There was a former mayor (Maryanne Kusaka) and the current Mayor, Bryan J. Baptiste, and a video appearance by another former mayor, the late Tony Kunimura, as well as county councilmembers, mayoral wannabes, state Sen. Gary Hooser, and a host of state representatives.
There were the obligatory county, state and legislative proclamations and certificates, Malani Bilyeu providing dinner music, a sung invocation including state Rep. Ezra Kanoho, D-East and South Kaua‘i, Victor Punua Sr., Wallis Punua and others, and music and merriment the entire night long. A 42-minute taped retrospective on 10 years of Chang and “Wala‘au” only seemed long by those who were planning the evening. Keeping political candidates separated at different tables, keeping cops away from robbers, prosecutors away from the prosecuted, and other juggling kept Chang busy in the days, hours and minutes before the ballroom doors opened, he said. Still, he wanted to thank all the people who came, and figures when all is said and done he’ll manage to donate around $2,000 or more from the proceeds to the Hawaii Hotel Association Kaua‘i chapter Visitor Industry Charity Walk.
Paul C. Curtis, associate editor, may be reached at 245- 3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@pulitzer.net.
