Friends say Kasino was life of the party

JAKARTA (JP): Friends who said a final goodbye Friday to comedian Kasino Hadiwibowo remembered that the laughs never stopped when he was around.

Kasino, 47, died Thursday night at the Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSCM) from brain cancer. He was buried in his family plot.

He was a member of the Warkop comedy trio together with Wahjoe Sardono, better known as Dono, and Indrodjojo Kusumonegoro, or Indro. They made numerous films and TV appearances together during a highly successful 22-year career.

Indro said Kasino had fought both diabetes and the cancer since his last brain tumor surgery in 1996.

"Two months ago, his condition became so bad that he had to be hospitalized for a month at the Ongkomulyo Hospital in Pulomas, East Jakarta," Indro said. "Later, he was moved to RSCM, where he was in a coma during the two weeks before he died."

Indro said Kasino's last message to him, following last year's operation at RSCM, was that the show should go on if he passed away.

"He told me that whatever should happen to him, Warkop should never break up. He wanted us laughing and being laughed at even after he was gone."

About 200 friends, including movie and TV celebrities, visited his residence on Jl. Kayu Putih, East Jakarta, to offer their condolences to his family.

Dono appeared as shaken as Kasino's widow Armini and his children, and stood stone-faced next to Indro. Other mourners included Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, longtime friend and fellow comedian Ateng and members of the Patrio and Bagito comedy groups.

Sys NS, now owner of radio stations Muara and DMC, was Kasino's cohost at Radio Prambors in the mid 1970s.

"Kasino was never sad. Whether he had money or no money, food or no food, he was still laughing," Sys said.

"He was a person who could channel his hunger or anger into biting jokes which somehow were received with laughter alone. I loved him because he had it in him to always laugh."

Most of the mourners said Kasino's death would finally allow him to rest in peace following a terrible battle with illness.

Born in Gombang, Central Java, Kasino is also survived by daughters Hana, 21, and Larasati, 10.

He began his career as a Prambors radio-host in 1974 and joined the Warkop team, which also included original member Nanu Mulyono, or Nanu, the following year. A graduate of the University of Indonesia's School of Social and Political Sciences, Kasino was famous for cutting criticism during performances on campus.

Warkop was invited to be on TVRI in 1978. Following Nanu's death in the early 1980s, the trio went on to make the slapstick movies they are equally famous for.

Kasino, who enjoyed big motorcycles and singing songs in several Indonesian dialects, collapsed in Bandung, West Java, in November 1996. He underwent his first operation on the brain tumor in the Advent Hospital in Bandung. (02)