Aloha, My Name is Captain Cook comedy record by Andy Bumatai
date: label: date made
content: 1980
name: label: Associated Name
content: Cook, James
label: maker
content: Bumatai, Andy
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Andy Bumatai record Aloha, My Name Is Captain Cook. The LP sleeve features a photograph of Bumatai in a costume and tricornered hat (a parody of British naval uniform) saluting, wearing a nametage that reads "ALOHA/my name is/CAPT. COOK".
label: Description (Brief)
content: Andrew Jackson Bumatai is a comedian and entertainer who has helped shape the local comedy scene in Hawai‘i. Bumatai was born December 24, 1952 to a German mother and American military father, and is of Native Hawai‘ian, Filipino, French and German ancestry. The family moved to Hawai‘i when he was a teenager, and he became known as a class clown at Waianae High School. Bumatai dropped out of school in the 11th grade and worked odd jobs before deciding to begin performing as a stand-up comedian in his 20s. While he struggled to find work in the fledgling Hawai‘i comedy scene, he did work notable gigs opening for one of Hawai‘i's most popular comedians, Frank De Lima, and earning a spot in the sketch comedy group Booga Booga. He recorded a comedy album, Hawai‘i’s First Stand-up Comic (1978), and created several comedy specials for Hawai‘i's KGMB-TV, including High School Daze (1980) and All in the Ohana (1981). He began working on the mainland in the 1990s, and performed in national programs with Whoopi Goldberg, Rosie O’Donnell, and Pat Morita, as well as appearing on television in series like Raven and Marker.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Bumatai’s comedy draws on the unique culture and diverse population of Hawaiʻi. As Los Angeles Times reporter Dennis McLellan wrote in 1991, “The islands’ cultural diversity also allowed him to show off his flair for dialects, mimicking everything from Hawai‘ian pidgin English and Samoan to Japanese and Chinese,” and noted his particular flair for poking fun at tourists’ naivete and misconceptions about Hawaiʻi. Scholar Roderick N. Labrador has studied ethnic humor in Hawaiʻi and recognizes Bumatai’s work as part of the heyday of local comedy on the island during the 1970s and 1980s. Labrador joins a group of critical observers who point out that the subject matter of this local comedy scene has often reinforced pejorative ethnic, class, and gender stereotypes in a locale that’s often touted as a so-called racial paradise. Comedy continues provide much needed information about the dynamics of power, place, and identity.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Bumatai’s third comedy album Aloha, My Name is Captain Cook was released in 1980 and includes routines on topics ranging from Chinese names and being Filipino/Hawai‘ian to the contemporary comedy scene.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Hawaii
topic: label: Subject
content: Comedy
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
label: See more items in
content: Popular Entertainment
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2023.0056.01
label: accession number
content: 2023.0056
label: catalog number
content: 2023.0056.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sound recording
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: vinyl (record material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (sleeve material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 in x 12 in; 30.48 cm x 30.48 cm