Gary W.
Sep 8, 2015
Keep looking. Thumbs down. Look for a real professional, not a fool. This guy MC'd a birthday party for our grand nephew last month in Mililani and he was a huge disappointment and it was pretty embarrassing how unfunny he was. He seemed drunk. He made fun of the birthday boy's name. Yeah, he ridiculed a 1-year-old. Classy guy. Instead of introducing the hosts, their family, and special guests like he was supposed to, he brought our young sons up on stage and "interviewed them", ridiculing their answers and they way they spoke (we live on the mainland.) It made everyone uncomfortable and made me very angry. The hostess (nephew's mom) finally had to go up to the stage and tell him to knock it off. The guy seems to have a problem with mainlanders. He was one insult away from having a real problem on his hands. You don't insult kids! He's lucky that my family is very easy-going and forgiving. He also made some creepy remarks on stage about the hostess' mom who is attractive and off-stage about some of the other women in my family. He pretty much ruined the party for us and I imagine a lot of others. He needs to be taught some manners.The hostess went to a lot of trouble to create a program and a timeline of events, which this guy didn't follow at all. For example, there were activities for the kids that he was suppose to announce. He never did. As a result, the kid's didn't get to play games, and receive gift books.
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Anne M.
Mar 10, 2017
Paid him 6 months in advance after he said if we don't hurry and pay he will get booked by others. Wouldn't sign a contract. Acted too good for those. Won't respond to texts or calls. Won't send us the contract back after he said he signed it. Took our money and left us hanging. One week before the wedding I had to rebook someone else losing all the monies we paid rodney. Total useless and let us down. Acted like any hotel was fine then he acted like he needed a five star resort so we even booked him hapuna beach and still no responses with us. Worst to deal business with.
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Riss P.
Sep 18, 2014
Hired Rodney for my wedding one week ago. He was hilarious. All of our guests enjoyed him. Friends and family commented later on how great he was. His material is completely improvised which is what we wanted. Yes, he made a lot of jokes about the wedding, my fiance and I, friends, family, etc, which is why we hired him. He's a great entertainer and excellent improviser! Again, this is why we chose him; we wanted some off-color jokes and lots of energy. If you're not into that and want something more structured, then let him know that, I'm sure he'll work with whatever you want. But if you want your guests to laugh the entire night, and save money on other entertainment since he'll keep the audience entertained the entire night, then I suggest booking him.
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Lauralee K.
Jul 23, 2016
Excellent at Dot's last night. Rodney improvised for over 40 minutes waiting for band set up. Hilarious, audience asked for hana hou, lady kept stalking and coming up on stage, but he remained professional and funny. Local humor, we were crying, from laughing so hard. Very quick witted funny comedian.
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Todd W.
Feb 7, 2016
Rodney is one of the bessest funniest local comedians around. I highly recommend seeing him if the opportunity arises. You will not regret it. One of the best local emcee you will find. You will spend more time laughing at his show more than you will spend eating your food.
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Kevin L.
Dec 21, 2015
He was the Master of Ceremonies for the Amy Hanaiali'i and Willie K concert at the Hawaii Theater. He was extremely funny. He was almost even better than the musical performance.
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Hansolo C.
Jul 14, 2013
I know that a lot of people probably think that Rodney Villanueva is a great entertainer....however, we had a very, very bad experience with him. I am hoping that this review will also help him out.We heard great things about Rodney and saw some Yelp reviews, so we decided to hire him as an emcee for our party. We were totally shocked to see how unprofessional he was. We had texted him to confirm his time that we were hiring him for. First of all, he arrived one hour late and said that he thought we had told him he was suppose to come at 11, when our text had 10 am on it. Then he went on an ego trip and tried to tell us how busy he was and how he was really booked - we didn't care how busy he was, we just wanted him to do his job. We had to ad lib for an hour because of his tardiness. Then, to add insult to injury, he didn't have the decency to apologize for being late and instead, went straight to the food table and made a plate to eat! I don't know of any professional entertainer that does this...usually, you do your job and then the host/hostess will invite you to eat! His jokes were not really funny and he made a lot of ethnic jokes about Samoans....not being sensitive that the next entertainers that were coming up were from a halau that had a lot of Samoans....now, i know that it is okay to do ethnic jokes, but i think that he should have been more sensitive and professional about it.The icing on the cake was that afterwards, he approached the the mother of the girl that he was emceeing for and asked, "Where is your other half?". When she answered that she didn't have one, he proceeded to ask why such a hot woman like her didn't have one (none of his business...it was a very sore point for her), and then said that she should go out with someone like him; that he would be a barrel of laughs for her....why on earth would he do this at a gig? he followed her around and tried to make conversation, and continued to put the mac on her, probably not even aware of how uncomfortable and upset she was with him about being late, unprofessional, etc., and now hitting on her. She was so uncomfortable that she went to others in the party to help her avoid any further conversations with him, yet he still tried to hang around to talk to her.I hope he takes this review to heart....it is not meant to insult him...it is meant to give others information so they can make an informed decision when selecting entertainers. I hope he makes sure that he is 1) on time or even better, comes in a little earlier (would be nice if he can scope out the place and see what the environment is like so he wouldn't be doing anything silly like insulting Samoans who are part of the entertainment); 2) Be prepared to eat after his gig; 3) Keep his gig professional and not hit on any ladies; 4) Take the time to apologize...maybe you may think that you are either a big star and don't need to, or maybe you thought you were right, but business sense should tell you to always be humble and apologize if you sense something went wrong.
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Rida C.
Oct 13, 2015
I attended a wedding party whereby Rodney Villanueva was the emcee. I found the event extremely entertaining and enjoyable. It was quite different from other wedding parties I have attended. If I would rate the evening with other wedding parties, It would be on the top of my list in terms of enjoyment and memorability. It definitely had the local flavor to it. I drove home that evening asking the question; "what is so different with this party? I usually attend parties for appearance purposes. I usually walk around and exit shortly thereafter. On this particular party, I stayed for at least a couple of hours. That was so uncharacter of me. I drove home that night asking the question; "what is different on this one? What was it? The "aha" moment came a few days later . It was the emcee Rodney Villanueva, a professional entertainer. Rida of Ewa Beach
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Adrienne O.
Mar 15, 2017
Rodney was our Emcee for our wedding on the Big Island 2 weeks ago. Our guests and other entertainers at the wedding thoroughly enjoyed themselves. He is such a professional and can improv to keep everyone entertained and maintain the flow of the event. The laughter he produces makes any event a success. Best Emcee EVER!!!
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Fix I.
Feb 12, 2014
OMG!!!!!!! I just saw this for the very first time and have to apologize for all of the incorrect information that this person has posted. I was at this party and was the only one in direct contact with Mr. Villanueva. set the records straight and the show the credibility of this person or persons who has posted this negative very untrue statements about Mr. Villanueva.The reason why I asked Mr. Villanueva to perform and host this event is because I know of his extensive as a professional MC of 42 years. He never swears on stage and is very entertaining as he that day and every other jobs that I have hired him for. First of all if this person has never heard of or been contact with Mr. Villanueva as he was doing this particular favor to me as a gift to my grand-daughter. No $$$ was exchanged because I have known Mr. Villanueva for many years and I have done favors for him and he has returned the favors to me. When I contact him for the favor, he is always accommodating and willing to assist. Where does this person or persons get off by saying and taking credit for hiring Mr. Villanueva. This person goes on to say that he has heard great reviews about Mr. Villanueva on YELP reviews, but there are no other reviews except his. I was the only person that ever texted him to confirm date and time. There was a misunderstanding on the start time, therefore he showed up at 11 and apologized to me. He did not go straight to the food table because grace was not said and lunch was at 11:30. Mr. Villanueva was the one to introduce the person doing the invocation. He did NOT brag about how busy he was and really booked he was. Regarding his performance, the rest of the audience had a great time, laughed at his jokes, and complimented me on doing a great job booking Mr. Villanueva for this party. He did NOT at anytime make any ethnic Samoan jokes of any kine and address it to anyone. Mr. Villanueva grew up with the leader of the band and was one of his guitar players in the past. Regarding the icing on the cake situation, where is it written that two people that are single cannot meet and get to know one another. As far as Mr. Villanueva following the mother of the girl, I never saw that because I was the one in charge and overlooked everything that went on at the party.LOL...taking this review to heart???? How can YOU NOT take this review to heart!!!!You have got to be kidding!!! If that is the case, why did you post this on YELP?????? If this is truly what you feel, you could have googled and got Mr. Villanueva's email address and emailed this to him instead of posting it on YELP for the entire universe to see....DUH!!!
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