Multi-talented Pinay comedian Fly Lady Di on how humour gives our power back

Multi-talented Pinay Diana Reyes—a.k.a. Fly Lady Di—is not only funny and relatable as a viral Instagram creator, but she’s also a fierce dancer, choreographer, DJ, comedian and visual artist.

Her videos are inspired by her heavy-on-the-Tagalog-accent nanay (mom), the titas (aunts) and the cousins she grew up with in Toronto.

“It’s a 42-year case study”, Reyes said, of her mom’s accent that led to her ‘expertise of some kind’.

Her IG account, followed by over 40,000 followers, has videos with over 3 million views.

“Ha?” she repeatedly says, just like what every Filipino nanay would echo out there.

The toxic tita series are all about the blunt, jab-to-the-bone insults titas dish out to every unsuspecting young person they happen to see—especially at huge Filipino gatherings where EVERYONE gets to hear every word.

Asked how she deals with toxic titas, Reyes said that humour is a great way to disarm and dismantle it.

“If we’re able to laugh at it, it diminishes the harm and gives us our power back.”

She remembers well the time she told someone she was on a date, and “faster than I can blink my eyeball”, the titas already knew she was dating someone who’s 22.

“They spread gossip really fast”, Reyes said.

Another recurring theme in her videos is about her mom saying, “I had many suitors when I was young.”

“It just became a rote thing that I remembered my mom saying. She could be sick in the hospital…but there’s always an excuse to bring it up. I think its hilarious.”

Reyes said that her nanay was a “baddie, a hot thing.”

Her mother in her 20’s was a seamstress, and had impeccable taste in fashion. “She was really gorgeous. Of course, everyone wanted to court her.”

“Even now, she’s a hot ‘seniors'”.

‘Where’s Lady Di?’

Reyes was named after Princess Diana. When she was a baby, people would ask, “where’s Lady Di”?

As a teenager, Reyes wanted a hiphop identity, which led to her inventing the moniker Fly Lady Di.

Reyes has visited the Philippines four times. On her third visit, she said something just ‘clicked’ and she finally understood Tagalog.

“It’s nice to come back to Canada and speak to your mom in Tagalog. It’s a different dynamic when you speak to them in their language.”

As a Filipina-Canadian visiting the Philippines for the first time, Reyes was shocked at the poverty she witnessed, the heat and humidity.

However, she was amazed that her parents moved to Canada to give her and her family a better life.

When her family moved to Markham, Reyes suffered from racist remarks.

“We moved to Markham and it wasn’t as diverse. We got called names, got teased, told to ‘go back to our county’ even though we were born here.”

“We had no one to look up to, no one that had our experience. We never got to see ourselves represented.”

Reyes fought hard to become a dancer.

“Dance has a special place in my heart. Everyting I do is dance-related. It’s the one thing I fought hard for the most.”

Reyes was not the “typical” dancer. She said dancers hava a certain body type.

“Whereas me, I was raw, brown, chubby, didn’t have formal training, was self-taught. In order to be successful I had to go to the United States.

“I broke the law for it, I risked everything to be noticed and to thrive as a dancer.”

Her lucky break happened when she moved to New York, got invited to a party where she met Voodoo Ray

“At the end of the night this guy looks over at me and says, ‘what are you’? I was like—‘what are YOU’? We connected.”

Little did Reyes know that Voodoo Ray was an OG New York City dancer and party promoter.

Lucky (bathroom) break

Reyes had no plans to be a DJ. Her friend was a DJ at a party when he needed to go to a bathroom break.

She was shown how to play songs on his laptop, then was asked again at another party to cover for the DJ and play a few songs.

When she took over, people started fist pumping and yelling.

At the end of the party, people were asking for her business card.

“For DJing, it was a natural progression. A lot of dancers do end up becoming DJ’s or hosts.”

Upcoming Shows

Reyes will be performing in Scarborough on Friday, June 21, 2024 as part of an all-star line-up of iconic Filipino comedians.

“Joke Lang” will be held at the Brighton Convention Centre located at 2155 McNicoll Ave., hosted by Big Norm Alconcel and comedians James Roque, Keith Pedro, and Ron Josol.

“Originally they had me DJ’ing, but because of the demand, I’ll have a little bit of time on stage,” Reyes said.

For aspiring Filipino artists, Reyes said to “do it from your heart. Don’t look at other people. If you don’t foster community, your business willl never thrive.

You (should) give more than you’re taking back.”