Charles Mack, also known as Chocolate, is my friend. In fact he was the very first friend I made when I began working at ICRT. It was my first day on the job and I met him and Ron as I walked past the FM studio. He came up to me and introduced himself as Chocolate. “Are you for real or do you degrade yourself to be funny?” I couldn’t understand why a black man would call himself Chocolate as if we couldn’t tell that he’s black. C’mon do I have to call myself Banana so that people know that I’m Asian?!
He told me that once appearing on a local TV show he met 文英阿姨 who had trouble remembering his name as Charles Mack﹙查理馬克﹚in Chinese. So she took the liberty to name him something that’s simple, catchy and easy to remember. Believe it or not it was Chocolate that made him famous.
We got along great upon our first encounter. I don’t remember what I said exactly but I’ll never forget what he said before leaving work that morning, “You’re such a DIVA! You should be on the radio.”
Till this day I’m grateful for Chocolate for he saw potential in me when I didn’t know that showbiz is in my blood. He would invite me to host events with him outside of the station and would ask me to be his sidekick on the radio.
Chocolate was never openly gay. Homosexuality is something he never talked about. He introduced his gay friends to me and we would hit the gay clubs for drinks and dance the night away. Everyone in the club seemed to know him well.
In the late 90s he used to come to work with a high school boy. He was pale, clean cut, tall and slender. He drove a white BMW. When we hosted events around the island there’s always a young boy waiting for us when we finished work. He would bring us food and drinks but never really said much. He was awfully quiet. I never asked Chocolate about his relationship with these young boys. It’s really none of my business. I figure if he wanted to talk about it he would say something. Nonetheless I always knew that young boys, from late teens to early 20s, are his cup of tea.
I don’t know what people think of Chocolate. To me he’s funny, optimistic, and warm and says the nicest things to me. He’s confident and tries to make people happy when they are around him. When we’re together it’s a nonstop laugh riot. He’s not perfect but he means well. I can never thank him enough for showing me the way into the world of broadcasting. He was so certain that I was born to be a personality. If it weren’t for Chocolate maybe there would never be DIVA on the radio. For that I thank you from the bottom of my heart, Charles Mack!
