Since it debuted in 2022 on OMNI Television, Abroad has remained entirely singular.
Created by the incredibly funny Isabel Kanaan, the half-hour comedy sketch show is in both English and Tagalog, and in borrowing from her experiences as a Filipino immigrant in Canada, it’s garnered a dedicated, multigenerational and multicultural audience.
Abroad‘s third season, which premiered in May, continues to deliver, with spoofs on not only the immigrant experience, but of the Filipino celebrities you love. Better yet, it continues to see Kanaan play ringleader as she hops from one wild circus act to another, playing everything from a grandmother to a flight attendant to a nanny. You name it, she’s played it.
A graduate of Second City and Seneca College’s Acting for Camera and Voice program, Kanaan has been a long-time student of comedy. She was a part of CBC’s sketch comedy troupe Air Farce, The Sketchersons, and Second City’s House Ensemble and Educational Company. She’s also written and appeared on TallBoyz and This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
But where Kanaan truly has been able to come alive and showcase just how far her talents go is with Abroad, the rare comedy series to be created and led by an Asian performer in Canada.
(A little pause here to give OMNI kudos for having long offered a platform for Canada’s diverse performers and stories. As Kanaan says, while other major networks have often seemed to follow more of a quota, OMNI has always allowed room for all.)
That diversity is reflected in the writers’ room, which changes each season so Kanaan can give opportunities to new (and beginner) writers. The room includes Filipinos and folks of various other cultures, offering a wide range of experiences to pull from. And that’s the process, and the rule: choose a uniquely immigrant moment, and then “find the funny.”
Even with a diverse groupthink, like so many performers who are inspired by their culture, Kanaan does feel pressure. She shares, “I want to do right by my people, but at the same time, I am aware that not everything in our culture is to be praised. We’re putting a mirror to Filipinos’ faces sometimes and being like, ‘Hey, do we want to continue this toxic behaviour?’ So, obviously, you’re going to get a lot of defensive people, right? But that is what we wanted; it’s generating conversation. It’s bridging the gap from our ancestors’ thinking to modern thinking. It’s bridging the gap from Filipinos in the Philippines to the Filipino Canadian diaspora. It’s nerve-wracking, but it needs to be done.”
“It’s bridging the gap from Filipinos in the Philippines to the Filipino Canadian diaspora. It’s nerve-wracking, but it needs to be done.”
Isabel Kanaan
You might wonder, as this writer did, why Kanaan chose comedy of all genres as the lens through which she views her experiences as an immigrant? After all, so much of the content out there on the subject is a lot more, well, tragic and dramatic.
Overall, the truth is, Abroad is very much for Filipinos. In fact, one of the elements that’s helped make Abroad the unique show that it is and so widely appealing is that, Kanaan shares, she and her team are very open to what fans have to say. As the show has gone on, it’s gained an interactive following, which never hesitates to let her know who and what they want to see more of (and who and what they don’t).
“It’s only fair, because I’m doing this for them,” says Kanaan. “So it doesn’t make sense for me to not listen to them. I like to think of it as a collaboration with the audience.”
“I think [comedy] is the most digestible,” she says. “The immigrant journey isn’t always fun. It has a lot of hardships, but we’ve seen and heard that time and time again in the media. In my experience, there were hardships, but there were a lot of funny moments, too. And that is what I never got to see on TV. I almost felt guilty for laughing and having fun.”
As a bonus, she says, using comedy in this way makes it easier to spark discussion where it’s desperately needed: “In a dramatic narrative, or even just straight-up news, people can turn a blind eye because it can all get very overwhelming. But with comedy, people are able to open their eyes and listen more.”
Needless to say, for Kanaan, creating and working on Abroad has been “very healing.”
It’s not just other Filipinos and Filipino Canadians noticing, the industry is finally giving Abroad its flowers: this year, the show was nominated at the Canadian Screen Awards for best sketch comedy program or series, and the cast was nominated for best performance in a sketch comedy. With a big grin, Kanaan jokes, “To be recognized in Canadian television is like passing a second Canadian citizenship test. It’s so great!”
“The immigrant journey isn’t always fun. It has a lot of hardships, but we’ve seen and heard that time and time again in the media. In my experience, there were hardships, but there were a lot of funny moments, too. And that is what I never got to see on TV. I almost felt guilty for laughing and having fun.”
Isabel Kanaan
Kanaan’s next big project? Her new baby, who made her a mother earlier this spring. As someone who wears all the hats on Abroad, and is also the host of The Filipino Channel and MYX Global, Kanaan admits, “I’ve been juggling [a lot] for a while now, and it’s working. But to be honest, the new thing right now is me being a mom. I am wondering how that work-life balance is going to go for me. Especially coming from an immigrant family, which is all about the hustle.”
She will, of course, work part of that out in her show. She says, with a laugh, “We have this character called Passive Aggressive Mama, which may or may not be based on my mom. Now, me being a mom, it’s funny, because I was raised by this passive aggressive mom, but I don’t want to be this passive aggressive mom. How do I navigate that? I’m learning. And it’s really cool, too, to find the funny there.”
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