Pinoy taxi driver Joel Laguidao has become a beloved figure in the U.S. capital state of Washington D.C.—and it's all because of the karaoke setup in his cab.
Laguidao has been featured in The Washington Post and NBC's The Today Show. He's been dubbed as "The Pinoy Karaoke Cab King."
Laguidao had worked as a truck driver in the Philippines, before he and his family migrated to the U.S. in 2001. His wife had gotten a job at a bank. Laguidao says he was lucky enough to get a job as a cab driver.
"OK naman itong trabaho ko. Flexible. Kung gusto kong mag-trabaho ng five hours [pwede], 10 hours [pwede rin], o pag gusto mong kumita [ng mas malaki] magdamag...walang tulugan," he said.
As The Washinton Post article written by Dan Zak revealed: "He became a cabbie because he liked to drive and was accustomed to three-hour truck rides hauling coconuts from the mountains into the port city of Davao."
In 2007, though, Laguidao decided to have some fun to fight boredom when he gets stuck in traffic or when he's just waiting for passengers. He installed a karaoke setup in his cab. "Libangan para maalis yung lungkot. Alam mo naman dito sa America, syempre yung pamilya namimi-miss mo rin di ba?" he said.
The karaoke setup also entertained Laguidao's bored passengers. They readily flip through the booklet with the numbers codes corresponding to songs, type the codes on the karaoke microphone's keypad, and belt out their chosen tunes.
Laguidao revealed, "Talagang shock sila, pag pick-up ko pa lang, biglang kakanta, tawanan na, hanggang bumaba tawa ng tawa lang."
Despite his growing popularity, Laguidao doesn't charge an extra fee for the use of his karaoke setup. He says he's happy that it draws passenger and that it makes them happy. —report by Don Tagala, ABS-CBN North America News Bureau
Source :
https://anc.yahoo.com/news/pinoy-hailed-as--karaoke-cab-king--in-u-s-050405409.html
