Photographed by JL Javier for the June 2025 Issue of Vogue Philippines
Filipino comedy is often tied to family tropes and accents, but Victor Anastacio satirizes modern-day social tensions instead.
Victor Anastacio had always been the class clown, naturally quick-witted and effortlessly funny among friends. It wasn’t until his third year at Ateneo de Manila University, however, that he gave stand-up comedy a serious shot. Thanks to fellow comedian Ryan Puno, who invited him to audition for a contest. That moment sparked a passion that he nurtured on the side, even as he entered the corporate world, taking two roles after college.
But the more he read books by Robert Kiyosaki and other self-improvement authors, the more disillusioned he became with the idea of staying in a traditional 9-to-5 job for the rest of his life. The structure felt stifling, and the comedy bug never really left. Eventually, Anastacio took the leap, leaving his banking job to become a full-time comedian with Comedy Manila. To make ends meet and keep his creative momentum going, he also worked as a TV host for ABS-CBN and booked commercial gigs with GMA Network, steadily building a career on his own terms.
After performing in bars around Makati with sparse crowds early in his career shift, Anastacio achieved his first viral hit in 2017 with a TV commercial that detailed his story as an up-and-coming comedian. He found more success in 2024 when he landed Areté in Ateneo and Music Museum as venues for live shows, where audiences roared with laughter as he threw simultaneous gags about the Pinoy middle-class experience. Several videos from these specials also made rounds on TikTok, with one clip touching on the sight of glaring homelessness in the party district Poblacion and another on the condescending charitability of his fellow Ateneo alumni.
“Yun naman yung role ng [that’s the role of] comedy worldwide; parang binabaril yung mga [like shooting the] sacred cows,” he explains. It’s a fitting metaphor in a country where, he notes, people can still be arrested for performing religious satire.
“I’m also addicted to information, documentaries, and books. I also like to dissect,“ Victor says. He also hosts a podcast titled Intellectwalwal, where he discusses current affairs with other public personalities such as Pia Hontiveros. Often favoring colonial mentality and religion as sacred cows to poke at, the comedian also says he’s not afraid of touching on the same topics repeatedly albeit in different iterations.
“My philosophy has always been the idea of turning a negative matter into a positive energy.”
“I’ve been wishing for so long that my humor becomes relatable,” he says. “I just hope that more people become open-minded so that they don’t think it’s only for the intellectuals.”
But while the 39-year-old now has all the potential to rely solely on the internet for his career, Anastacio remains steadfast in establishing himself in live comedy. He’s at his most meticulous when preparing for stand-up, following a set formula consisting of strong openers and endings that sandwich a laidback middle section. His social media accounts mostly serve as marketing for his gigs, while he takes advantage of open mics to practice rough ideas.
“Mas perfectionist ako sa live kasi feeling ko yung talaga yung totoong trabaho ko, [I’m more of a perfectionist when live because I feel like it’s my real job],” he says, adding that he aims to etch himself and his peers in Comedy Manila as household names in Filipino stand-up.
His commitment to live specials is also motivated by the acknowledgment that his competition isn’t actually fellow comedians; it’s digital screens. As people’s attention spans continue shrinking at an alarming rate, Anastacio believes that engrossing audiences during one-hour specials has become feats in themselves. He even hopes to put up a segment called the Wala Akong Netflix Special to make it clear that making online content isn’t his main priority.
Live specials, both during and after the event proper, make for memorable shared experiences. As seen in Anastacio’s shows, a variety of everyday absurdities continue to aggravate the common Filipino; but he still hopes for his sets to pull audiences away from their phones, even for a little while, and spark lively discussions during the post-show tambay [hangout].
“Comedy is like therapy,” Victor says. “My philosophy has always been the idea of turning a negative matter into a positive energy. That’s something I always think of in my stand-ups.”
By ANN GABRIELLE DOMINGO. Photographs by JL JAVIER. Talent: Victor Anastacio. Vogue Man Philippines Editor: Danyl Geneciran. Producer: Julian Rodriguez. Photographer’s Team: Nikki Bonuel.
