3 incandescent mascots to lead City Lights parade

Outside Honolulu Hale last week, three 9-foot-tall Christmas-tree light bulbs cavorted outside — dancing and singing a holiday song, in harmony. Drivers passing by on King Street did a double take. The mascots that will lead the 31st annual Honolulu City Lights Parade stayed in character, and in tune, as they rehearsed for Saturday’s main event.

All are accomplished, young, local performers, enthusiastic about taking on a new role for the Honolulu City Lights parade and opening night celebration.

Thank the Friends of Honolulu City Lights for bringing the idea of a mascot for the event to fruition. Volunteer Loretta Jardine came up with the idea of Christmas light characters; the Friends agreed, and executive director and parade coordinator Joan Manke searched out costumes.

“We just had to have them,” Manke says.

Once the costumes were secured, they had to be filled. Manke didn’t look far to get that job done: Her son, Eric Manke, a Kamehameha Schools grad with a degree in film production from the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Academy for Creative Media, is a former character performer at Disney World, with all the necessary skills to bring the Christmas lights to life.

Manke has performed on all of Honolulu’s community theater stages, as have his pals, the three dancing bulbs. His “day job” is as dailies operator for “Hawaii Five-0,” where he is the first to see and review each day’s tapes before sending them on to Los Angeles. He’s not camera- or microphone-shy; his father, Jim Manke, is a former news director at KGMB TV.

Manke says he knew immediately whom to recruit, though taking on the volunteer position as a dancing light bulb would not be easy work. With three phone calls, Matt Pablo, Corinne Makahilahila and Andrew Reyes all came on board.

THE VOLUNTEER performers agreed to wear the innovative — but bulky — nylon costumes, in red, yellow and green. To light the LED harnesses, worn over their bodies, they also needed to strap on two 10-pound battery packs. To stay cool in Hawaii’s climate, they also wear vests fitted with ice-cube wraps and a fan (which also inflates the suit).

During the Honolulu City Lights Electric Light Parade, Makahilahila, Pablo and Reyes will dance through Chinatown, downtown Honolulu and the Capital District for approximately 90 minutes, in motion constantly.

A “handler” will be along for the hour-and-a-half walk, as the performers can see only through small eye slits in the costume.

“You only ask really good friends for light bulb duty,” Manke said.

Ranging in age from their 20s to early 40s, the light bulb performers all have experience on the stage — or in parades.

“Claustrophobia is something that you can’t have,” says Pablo. A graduate of Bishop Museum Charter School and the Elite Element Academy at UH, Pablo, 24, cut his performing chops working as a young singer in the Don Ho show. He is now an emcee at Aulani’s Disney Vacation Club. His uncle is Ho’s faithful singing sidekick, Angel Pablo.

Reyes says he volunteered because he wanted to be part of something important to the community. The Pearl City High School graduate, 23, was a flight attendant for Hawaiian Airlines and says “small spaces are no problem.” He now works at Armani Exchange and has a resume with an impressive list of theater productions, in addition to what he calls “my early training as a character at Chuck E. Cheese.”

The third bulb, Corrine Makahilahila, was the GEICO Gecko in Honolulu City Lights parades past. Originally from Texas, she earned her degree in filmmaking from the Academy for Creative Media at the University of Hawaii. She’s now a photographer at Sea Life Park, and works both sides of a camera as an actor and director of local films. Manke stood in for her on the rehearsal day.

At last week’s rehearsal, chatter during the 20-minute-long dressing ritual broke up Honolulu Hale staff. “Does this bulb make me look fat?” one asked. “Do I have love handles?”

Though the costumes are 9 feet high, and the characters won’t fit through average doors, they aren’t as precarious as you might think. (If it’s windy on parade night, that might be a different story.)

The bright bulbs won’t be at Honolulu City Lights every night, but their parade appearance will be followed by other photo ops, including a Dec. 19 Movie Night on the Civic Center grounds, featuring the film “Polar Express.”

SPEAKING OF TRAINS, the second big scoop of City Lights news is the addition of a new train for keiki rides. Ala Moana Center has permanently donated its much-loved Candy Cane Train to the Friends of Honolulu City Lights as the Honolulu mall undergoes a transformation. Rides for children will be available throughout December.

To best enjoy the Electric Light Parade and opening night, organizers suggest viewers arrive early Saturday. The event begins at 4 p.m., with keiki rides and vendors offering food and gifts. Mayor Caldwell’s tree-lighting ceremony at Honolulu Hale begins at 6 p.m., with a 6:30 illumination of the 50-foot Norfolk tree, triggering a corridor of lights stretching from Bishop to King and Punchbowl streets. Parking is free at the municipal lots.

Photos of Shaka Santa and family are best as the sun is setting.

INSIDE HONOLULU HALE each of the more than 20 city departments has contributed a decorated tree, on personal time.

It’s a competition, and the teams take it very seriously, says Yvette Lee, who coordinates the contest: “The theme this year is ‘Choo Choo,’ but we have a story for every year.”

Students from the Early Education Center, a preschool on City Hall grounds, pick the winners. “One year,” Lee says, “what won the first-place spot was a big collection of Hot Wheels trucks and cars around the tree. It was ‘eye candy at eye level’ for the tiny judges.”

Capts. David Jenkins and Kevin Makulehua of the Honolulu Fire Department were keeping their tree decor plan quiet in advance of the event, except to mention that the garland would be model firetrucks, made of cardboard. Once again this year the parade will feature the Fire Department’s 1959 truck, a roofless American LaFrance model.