Frank DeLima & Na Kolohe - Don't Sneeze When You Eat Saimin - Live @ the Noodle Shop!

Name: Frank DeLima & Na Kolohe
Album: Don't Sneeze When You Eat Saimin
Year: 1981
Style: Comedy
Similar Bands: Juvinile Comedy
"One-Word" Review: Localized-Hawaiian-Meh-Humor
Based Out Of: Honolulu, Hawaii (The Noodle Shop Waikiki Sand Vila Hotel)
Label: Pocholinga Productions

Don't Sneeze...cover
Don't Sneeze...back

Don't Sneeze When You Eat Saimin (1981)

1. The Meanist Paniolo Palolo Ever Had 3:54
2. The Lexography of Non-Local Locution 6:38
3. Sashimi Street 6:24
4. Don't Sneeze When You Eat Saimin 2:42/
5. Lucille 4:58
6. Island Airwaves 3:48
7. Pakes 1:36
8. Babooze 5:46
9. The Japanese 0:40
10. The King of the Jungle 1:00

Album Rating (1-10):
2.0

Members & Other Bands:
Frank DeLima - Writer, Producer, Ukulele
Partick Downes - Writer, Music & Lyrics, Cover Design, Graphics, Recording & General Editing, Snapshots
Dean Shimabukuro - Writer, Guitar
Dean Lum - Writer, Bass, Recorded
John Chang - Touch-Up & Final Editing
Ray Tanaka - Cover Photo

Unknown-ness: I had seen this record at the thrift shop where I volunteer time organizing their records. And I re-shelved the album many times into 1982, not giving it much thought. Eventually I picked it up and looked at it. From the title and front picture it seemed very silly, but it might be a interesting record from the early 80's. I figured "Live @ The Noodle Shop" would mean it was a live record, so it would have a good energy. The image on the back is a collage of different clippings and pictures, adding more to the chaotic feel of good 80's albums.

Album Review: Little did I know or anticipate that this would be a comedy record from Hawaii. So it will be a little different to review an album that is not music. The album starts off with a dated and localized jokes. The first track is a joke-song is a tale of a Portuguese tough guy from Palolo. The joke is that he’s not tough at all. All his toughness examples are either on a small scale or sound like they should be tough, but are pleasant. The second track is an audience participation sing song joke, making fun of local dialect & jargon. Some of the audience response is unintelligible, but the jokes are lost on outsiders anyway. These are inside jokes, where Hawaii is on the inside. The bit ends with a joke about why your ass crack (or the local word for it) is the direction it is: if you slip down the steps, you don’t go (lip-flapping sound). The audience seemed to like it. The sections are broken up with fade-ins and fade-outs, making each joke seem prepared, and staged, rather than a non-stop live performance. After speaking in Japanese for a bit, the next joke is introduced as an educational program translating numbers in Japanese. He invites Animal from the Muppet Show on stage to assist in the joke, only to be greeted by a poorly parodied Kermit first. Animal is obviously fooled naively, as he only knows English: one = itchy, two = knee, three = sun, four = she, five = go, and it falls apart from there as it is supposed to. The next is one of Frank De Lima’s most famous bits, “Don’t Sneeze When you Eat Saimin.” As you can guess, it tells what will if you sneeze while eating noodles. It delves into other dishes too. It is very juvenile in its sense of humor. “Lucille” is another song-parody about a girl leaving our narrator. After one stanza, it is announced that the song was written by Kenny Rodgers, written about a couple he saw in Hawaii. So Frank re-writes the story, as it must have originally occurred in Hawaii, before Kenny transcribed it for mainlanders to understand. “Island Airwaves” is a sample mockery of the radio stations they have in Hawaii. It has little musical examples and talk sections with all their idiosyncrasies explored. “Pakes” is an informational comedic explanation of racial slurs in Hawaii. But the jokes are still comical and tame in their tone. “Babooze” is about being a Portagee: “Hawaiian term for Portuguese.” Basically, they are just stupid jokes, with the Portagee input as the idiot, intermixed with a drinking melody reciting of Ba-Ba-Ba-Babooze. Again, the crowd seems to take to these jokes very well. “Japanese” is a very short information giving lessons explaining more Japanese words and stereotypes. “King of the Jungle” is just a joke recited without music. Basically these are all just acoustic silly songs, revolving around Hawaiian humor and Hawaiian stereotypes. It is nothing to really write home about, so I’ll just stop there.

Stand Out Track:
Don't Sneeze When You Eat Saimin

Links:
Frank DeLima - allmusic
Frank DeLima - myspace
Frank DeLima - Wikipedia
Frank DeLima - website
Frank DeLima - interview Hawaii 411
Frank DeLima - Honolulu Star Bulletin song
Frank DeLima - Honolulu Star Bulletin 25th Anniv
Frank DeLima - Short Bio
Frank DeLima - Buy Hawaiian Music
Frank DeLima - 2004 Interview acidlogic
Frank DeLima - Bio Booklines Hawaii
Frank DeLima - Making a Difference
Frank DeLima - Best Na Hoku HanoHano Comedy Album 1982