Friends say Kasino was life of the party

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)