Vintage Stand-up Comedy: Kent Bowman

Kent Bowman - Ka'Umania 1960s

On: Thursday, December 11, 2014

Kent Bowman	Birth name aka K. K. Ka’umanua, Kent William Bowman, Kent H Bowman	Hilo, Hawaii, USA
Sep 02 1923 - Dec 20 2007 age 84	Official Site	Wikipedia

Kent Bowman aka K. K. Ka’umanua (K.K. Cow–Manure)

Bowman popularized fractured fairy tales with his precise and brilliant mix of classic characters told in Hawaiian pidgin, decades before they became theatrical commerce for the late Lisa Y. Matsumoto and her trilogy of "Once Upon One Time" plays with music. He was a marvelous storyteller who had the wisdom and wherewithal to juxtapose familiar literary figures into da kine local scene. "Goldie the Blonde Malihini and the Three Wild Pua'a" ("Goldilocks and the Three Bears"), "Rumple Dakineskin" ("Rumpelstiltskin"), "Little Lei Puahi" ("Little Red Ridinghood"), "Hau Kea and the Seven Menehunes" ("Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs") and "Keaka and the Beanstalk" ("Jack and the Bean-stalk") were driven by his attention to detail, a local accent and his storytelling skills. To egg on local politicos, Bowman also concocted a senatorial candidate of the people, K.K. Ka'umanua (if you know how to pronounce it quickly, local-style, you'll get the essence of his intentions), whose motto was, "You no can say something nice about someone, talk stink about everyone." He used to get speaking requests from many political and civic organizations that expected him to appear as Ka'umanua, the people's choice. "Kent and I did a radio show on KCCN, when it was located at Sand Island, and he'd rush to the studio from his day job," recalled McDiarmid. "As for the K.K. Ka'umanua name, we were sitting around one day, talking about creating a character, and he decided on Ka'umanua, giving him all the benefits of every crooked politician we could think of. He decided on initials instead of a first name, and we joked, one day K.K. Ka'umanua might join the Ku Klux Klan." Bowman recorded five Island albums that galvanized his recording career and served as early inspiration for others to follow, such as Rap Reiplinger, Booga Booga, Andy Bumatai and Frank DeLima. He had a way with words and was able to turn English into phrases in Spanish, Tagalog and Japanese. Full article: Honolulu Advertiser

01 K'Umania, Living Legend