Two Palaweños are now gaining popularity in TikTok by creating comedic videos – Naomi Castro Llanto, 28 years old, and Ryell Sean Botona, 16 years old. They are both from Brgy. Tagburos here in Puerto Princesa City.
Llanto is a professional fire dancer doing different gigs before the pandemic hit. Her funny videos were featured in some GMA programs. Meanwhile, Ryell is a student who discovered TikTok as a new hobby and was surprised that his video dubbing ‘Madam Kilay’ videos was loved by many.
“Marami pong nakakilala sa akin pero hindi nila alam ang pangalan ko. Nagfa-fire dance ako sa mga bar dito, mga kasalan, birthday-han. Noong bigla tayong nagka problema tungkol sa pandemya natin, nagkaroon ng lockdown, nawalan po ako ng kita. [Ang pinagkakakitaan] ko lang kasi [ay] fire dancing, saan ako magfa-fire dance ngayon? Kasi bawal ngayon ang mga party-party, [kaya] nag-focus na lang ako sa TikTok, nag gawa ng maraming video at content. Iba-iba yung content ko sa TikTok,” Llanto said.
Llanto has 516K followers with 2.8 Million likes, while Ryell who also started doing videos in TikTok during lockdown has 400k followers with 1.6M likes.
During their guesting recently on Palawan Daily News’ Story Café, the two rising TikTok influencers from Palawan admitted that they didn’t expect they will gain this much attention. It started as a ‘katuwaan’ and later on, they took it seriously especially when different brands tapped them for sponsored content.
The basic lesson they learned from being Tiktokers is being true to one’s self. They said that you should not overcoat what you can and what you have, be confident enough to share your talent to others, and learn the art of ignoring bashers.
“’Wag lang matakot. ‘Pag may talent kayo, ‘wag kayo mahiya. Kapag may talent, ‘wag itago. Bigay sa atin ‘yan ni Papa God,” Botona said.
For Llanto, she is willing to help other creators here in Palawan. There are a lot of things about Tiktok that are very important to know especially when you are still starting.
“Di po ako makapaniwala kasi maraming nagsasabi na TikTok ka nang TikTok, wala ka namang kita. Pero ang maganda kay TikTok, wala ka ngang kita pero ginagawa ka niyang famous. Pina-publish niya ‘yong videos mo,” Llanto added.
Follow Naomi (@naomiganda21) and Ryell (@yell_sean) in Tiktok to see more of their fun content.
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