THE COLORFUL, versatile actor Bernardo Bernardo was so quotable in my Q and A with him via e-mail that my recent column on him ran in two parts.

Despite the two-part space devoted to BB, who just finished the LA premiere engagement of the play “The Romance of Magno Rubio” (with a wonderful cast that includes Ramon de Ocampo, Paolo Montalban, Arthur Acuña and Jojo Gonzalez), we still have some quotable quotes left from our interview. So we are sharing some of the Q and A segments which did not get printed due to space constraints.

And here’s a photo of Bernardo Bernardo (standing) with Ramon de Ocampo in “The Romance of Magno Rubio” courtesy of Matt Zugale.

A lot of Filipinos in the US remember you fondly from the period when they were still living back home. They saw you in the movies, TV shows and plays. Most people smile when they recognize you. But some have probably mistaken you for someone else or have forgotten your name. What have been your humorous experiences in this regard?

With or without Alzheimer’s, people do tend to forget. So, I either understand. Or, forget.

The elitist theater life gave me my creative chops and credibility, but it was the mass-targeted TV sitcom that made me a household name for a while, through “Home Along Da Riles,” and the reflected unsurpassable star magnetism of the living legend, Dolphy.

My arched eyebrows and whisker-capped Bardot pout were familiar emblems of Kevin Cosme’s swishy, snarky arch-nemesis Steve Carpio for 10 years (with regular replays on TFC global cable up to now). Still, people would mistake me for: Pasay City’s Councilor Du Jour Justo C. Justo (gay, moustache, double name — Bingo!… “Konsehal!!!”).

Worse, in a very public setting in the US, like a church, maybe; someone would say, very LOUD, without any malice (with a resounding slap on my shoulder): “Hooooy!!! Kilala kita! Ikaw yung BAKLA!!!… sa TV! Ano nga’ng pangalan mo?!”

What have been the most memorable incidents so far, on and off the stage in your performances of “The Romance of Magno Rubio”?

Actors get to be very territorial. When I did the Chicago Victory Gardens Theatre run, I auditioned and was given solos for both Mike Velarde’s “Ikaw” and Fabian Obispo’s “You’re Not From,” and did obligatory chorus parts for “Ako Po’y Pilipino.”

The winds shifted.

For the Off-Broadway revival, Paolo was given “Ikaw” and Ramon did “You’re Not From.” I was designated chorus and assigned to sing falsetto (which I hated!) and I had to learn to play the freakin’ mandolin!

You can say, I was not a very happy camper. It was a damp late spring in New York and I was living in a friend’s hallway in Elmhurst (grappling with noise, cockroaches and mice) and had to walk, take a bus and a train, transfer, then walk again, to and from rehearsals lugging my rehearsal bag and the mandolin.

Every day.

So, there I was during crash mandolin sessions with Fabian Obispo, gingerly holding this stringed instrument, saying, “Alright, I’ll take it home but I’m not going to learn it.” In the meantime, Paolo was learning to play the harmonica beautifully and improvising with virtuosic skill on the mandolin while Ramon was channeling his inner Andres Segovia, evoking wondrous sounds from his guitar! And I couldn’t even get a decent note out of the plucking mandolin!

Finally, with dogged determination, I triumphantly learned to play my mandolin part. We were all happy and surprised. End of story? Not quite. During the technical run, I realized that I was positioned in a dark spot where, without my eyeglasses, I could not see the strings!

The saga continued.

The unintentionally funny incidents?

Don’t tell anyone. Ramon de Ocampo is a health buff to the extreme. At one time during the run, Ramon had a high colonic prior to a show. Uh-uh. And somehow it made him air-headed.

For the first time ever, he was delivering his memorable monologues with a touch of Alzheimer’s! And in a shadow scene highlight of the play where I mouth his lines (lip-synch), offstage people were stifling their laughter at my hopelessly rattled expression, my blabbering lips chasing in a tremulous twist after Ramon’s on-the-spot monologue changes!

Now, I know why they call it a HIGH colonic!

In fairness to Ramon, he is known for his razor sharp memory. He knows everybody’s lines. Out of the corner of my eye, during line rehearsals, I would see him mouthing the lines being delivered and I pretend not to notice. He gets really, really impatient when people flub their lines.

At one time, during a show, he delivered my lines to me! The expression on his face when he realized what he was doing was priceless.

Photo by Matt Zugale