Lat, the Kampung Boy - The Musical

When I heard of this project for the first time, it was through the comedian Kuah Jenhan of the Malaysia Association of Chinese Comedians fame. He was co-writing the musical with Harith Iskander. I was tempted to see it because I have grown up with Lat's comics like I did with Dandy and Beano, both British comics of old which I was told is his influences. I was expecting to see the story which I have seen in this comic comes to life.

Lat, the Kampung Boy - The Musical is what I expect it to be and a bit more. It did bringing the character of Lat and other characters, which I have read in the comics more than 30 years ago, to life and it also tell the personal story of Datuk Mohamad Nor Khalid. So, it has to tell the story which you expect to see and then wham!, it hits you with another side of the cartoonist.

The characters can be seen at two places when you enter Istana Budaya, the place they are staging the show. It is in every nooks and crannies of Istana Budaya lobby. The father, the mother, the school, the kampung house and a few scenes which will make you just want to snap a few pictures, like so many fans did. The cartoon is also used on the set but not that many of them (which is a shame). Then you will see the characters being embodied by the actors on stage. It is surreal up to a certain point.

I love the cast. Awie is great as an adult Lat. The kid who played Lat when he was in his kampung, Kota Baru and then in Ipoh, both in Perak. Frankie was there when he made the transitions from his tin mine laden (where monster lives!) kampung to the town where he learned about his musical inclination. Atilia, whom I always love hear her sings, is great as his wife, Pae, short for Faezah.

My only complain is the timing. Either they didn't planned it well or there are too many sets for them to manage. It started a bit late (at 8.40pm), has a 1 hour and 30 minutes of 1st Act, has a 20 minutes interval (which I personally think is too long) and then a 1 hour 2nd Act. I was already bored by the 2nd Act as I am not watching the cartoon anymore but the real life of the persons (Datuk Lat and his wife were there on that third night) who were actually sitting 3 rows in front of us. It is not that the musical is bad or the acting is bad, mind you, but it did feel a bit dragging in a bit.

I consider Douglas Lim is the saving factor which brings comic relief whenever he is on stage as the adult Frankie. He did put in a few snide remarks with reference to politics and will be familiar for those who have seen his stand-up comedy before.

However, as a musical goes, it is well executed and the sets are amazing. At the end of it, I know more of Lat than I have known before and I am amazed how someone from a rural kampung in Perak can be as popular of him. I consider him to be brave enough to allow his name to be used as he is still alive and well (some of the musical did touch on his characteristic and some conflicts in his life). And the merchandising is great. I even get myself a t-shirt which I consider to be cheap.

Go watch this musical which is still being staged until 5th April 2011. Experience Lat, the Kampung Boy and know the story of this national treasure.

The chicken pox conspiracy

Is he the one who did it?

 This is really a conspiracy theory. So, let me say it again. It is a theory. I am not proving or disapproving it with a test or evidence. After all, there is none and I am not qualified to prove or disprove it.

The theory is : Someone is infecting with a chicken pox strain so that someone else can take over the job of those being infected. 

I had chicken pox 2 months back. I was told it was an airborne disease and I can even infect people just by speaking to them. I had the high fever 3 days before any indication of the lesion that comes with the pox was coming out.

They look innocent but you never know what they are thinking

At the same day (same day mind you) my staff also had the pox. I was quarantined for 8 days. My partner took over. Nothing against her as she is a good partner and the level of trustworthiness we have with each other is very, very high. We have known each other for nearly 18 years since the day we start Law Matriculation together. And we have in business for nearly 11 years.

Evil cute and fluffeh cats

One month after that I recovered and I attended the Global Islamic Finance Forum who was attended by none other than our Prime Minister.I didn't shake hands or anything with him although I was only 5 meters from him at one time.

Lo and behold, 2 weeks after that, our PM was infected by chicken pox. 

My wife, upon reading the news (on Twitter) tweeted : I think my husband may have infected the PM.

That one was a joke. 

Someone did say : Nothing in life is ever a coincidence.

But, it is just a theory. And it may not even be true.

* This is a theory which does not allege anything which you might infer and any inference to anything at all is the product of your conspiratorial mind. 

Taking picture or posing for a picture?

Random pictures of people taking picture, either near KLCC or within KLCC....

And can someone answer me that question, taking picture or posing for picture?

The twin tower of KLCC is on the right side of my car and this is a fav spot for tourist to take picture of it

And this guy is actually the one taking the picture, but...

Tease...

Was watching Glee just now (am a bit late in catching the bug but Episode 3 and 4 were hilarious and the songs were a real trip down memory lane). There was a scene where the cheerleaders were washing cars in their bikinis.

My wife who was watching with me suddenly said :

"The idea is to tease, not to give"

It was mentioned in the first episode of Glee by the Celibacy Club President.

Tell me about it....

Zombieland!

Advertlets is giving away movie tickets to the movie Zombieland! If you are a moviegoer, I bet you have seen the trailer to this movie which is about two different people having to team up and kill zombies. Imagine 28 Days Later or 28 Weeks Later but with fun characters. And one of them is Woody Harrelson. Yes, the Woody Harrelson who stole the show in 2012 and of Cheers fame. He is the badass in Zombieland.

If you are not an Advertlets blogger, tough luck as they are giving away tickets for the movie to those who signed up with them. The link to their offer is here - Advertlets presents : Zombieland movie tickets.

What you have to do is tell them how much you want to see Zombieland. As for me, I would eat my own hand to get movie tickets to watch it. You do know that zombie even eat their own kind? Or they are far worse than a vampire as in they do not have any brain at all.

After watching Shawn of the Dead, the movie about 2 friends who ran to their local pub when their town is infested by zombies, I am itching for something in the similar vein. I bet Zombieland is the one to fulfill my craving.

Here is the trailer of the movie :

p/s : Doesn't the poster looks old school?

When you laughing, the world laugh with you...

...not if you tell bad jokes they don't.

It happened a few weeks ago when I went to this monthly comedy show which I have been following. I tweeted (using Twitter) about how bad the comedian was and as I saw another celebrity in front of me, I tweeted to her known Twitter name what she was thinking of his act. She Direct Message me (maybe not wanting people to know she replies to random tweet) and said that maybe he was not prepared for the show.

Come on....

He was the first comedian to go up there and he was supposed to represent Malaysia as there were two other international comedians who were supposed to perform later. And what surprised me more was this guy had been performing long before that show. I never heard of him but he seems to be well-known to a few people.

It was bad jokes in which sex was used as the basis for it. Which is not really that rare in Malaysia nowadays. But it just didn't work that night. It was tasteless, cringe inducing and just plain bad jokes.

And two days after that, I met the celebrity I had tweeted to and mentioned about the matter. She said she was going to use her for a fund raising which involves children. Arghh.... Good luck to her on that. Hope she does not have to pull her off stage...

He really spoiled the show that night and now I am having second thought of going to this show anymore.

Beer Car Wash

The top floor sign says

BEER CAR WASH

Anyone? Want to have your car washed using beer?

Actually, if you come to this shop in my office, the bottom shop (which you can see the word Car Wash there) washes cars. The shop on top with the sign which is blurred as the sign is too bright is actually a pub.  Both shops have the same owner. So, the shop's window on the 3rd floor which can be seen quite afar, in order to attract customers has the sign "BEER" which has an arrow on its left pointing up and "CAR WASH" which has an arrow pointing down.

And you get that nonsensical sign which is kind of a great idea too? If Singapore can have their topless car wash, we wash ours with beer....

Saturday night on wheel

No wonder they are one of the premiere export from United Kingdom. They are well-known to have very good music and their parties are legendary. They even have it on wheels. What I am talking about? Just look at this :

MINISTRY OF SOUND truck...

What do they carry actually, do they cater to live deejay session?

Why must we say "Ah...." when drinking coffee

That is the question my wife always ask whenever she hear me say that word after drinking my coffee especially when I drink my first cup of coffee early in the morning.

It is considered as one of her pet peeves as she had complained to me about the way I drank my coffee ever since I was still courting her. I can't remember whether I changed (for a while) my way of drinking or not but when we became husband and wife, I still make that sound when I drink my coffee.

Maybe I really am enjoying that first cup of coffee when I drink it...

Gay partner

With no malicious intent (which can always be construed whether I say this or not), I call any two guys or gals, who seem to be always together at events or whatever, when I refer to his or her other half, asking about the other person, I will always say "Hey man! Where is that gay partner of yours?".

Some will play ball and answer it good naturedly but some do take offense of this and protest vehemently that they are not gay and they are not a partner. I usually just smile back and ask back, "If you are not gay, and is comfortable with your sexuality, what is the problem? Will girls suddenly wouldn't like you when they heard me saying you have a gay partner.

As this is Malaysia and last I heard, there are still more heterosexual than homosexual (if what I know is correct) and I bet all women love to 'turn' any one of those handsome homosexual into a red blood heterosexual male. Especially in view of most men being too crude for their taste.

Hey, even I have a few 'gay partner' that my wife even mentioned that I always drive by a house of one of this guy I always hangs out with so that I might into him, just like a lover driving past his or her lover's house.

This note is more biased towards gay as in between men and men as women are more intimate with each other even with their best friend in contrast with men.

 

Gay partners of yesteryears

This is the real mobile broadband

Nowadays, when you subscribed to mobile broadband, you will receive a USB stick which you can put into your laptop or even desktop and get connected to the internet. However, you may sometimes reach places where there might not have connection. So, you have to move around. There is even a telecommunication company which offer these mobile broadband which enable you to create wifi within a certain radius. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you can create a broadband wifi area on the move anywhere you go. I thought this was not possible yet.

Then I meet this car :

 

  

That is one big USB stick on top of the taxi. Maybe the passengers can use the wifi it generates

What is wrong with this picture?

I have received a few emails and even seen it in a few blogpost. I always thought these pictures are all doctored pictures which used photoshop or all the other modern technology altering the real image. Then, I saw this cactus in front of my house naturally looking a bit like human's anatomy. Maybe nature do have a sense of humor...

 

  

What do you think? Coincidence?

Comedy Club KL : A report

The Comedy Club KL had its first two days run last Friday with 3 stand up comedians trying to sell jokes to Malaysian audience. The event was held at the Velvet Underground in Zouk, one of Malaysia premier nightclub and it was nearly a full house. I was one of the first to arrive and I couldn't find a seat. I was with my wife and I saw a few bloggers whom I have tweet in my Twitter that I would be there. I waved them over and I actually learned a few camwhore moves. When I look back these pictures, I now know why I rarely took pictures of myself. I have the same smile in nearly all of them. Not just smile. Expression too. Should that be a trademark post?

Anyway, the show was good but I now realised how best to do a stand up comedy. To relate yourself with your audience. In term of rating, Douglas Lim, the Malaysian had the best reaction from the audience. Then Hung Le, the Vietnamese Australian immigrant and lastly, the Australian, Greg Fleet. The Malaysian was supposed to be the filler then the Vietnamese as the secondary act for the night before the Australian doing his best effort to bring the house down.

When it came to the crunch, it was the other way around. People was laughing more in the first act, puzzled by the second act (Fleet) and picked the pace again in the last one by Hung. Fleet seemed to be in Malaysia more for a vacation than really doing his job of entertaining the audience. Even Atherton was good at warming up the audience in between each slot. It was not a bad show, mind you. All have their umph! moment but if you are paying money for people to make you laugh, then it is better worth it.

And as I mentioned earlier, understanding your audience and connecting with them is one of the main ingredient in ensuring your punchline is laugh at and you are not being laugh at. I am still going to come to their monthly show, as promised by them and hoping as they bring in more and more comedians, we can get better and better quality ones.

Here are some pictures, taken by me :

Here is the moderator Jonathon Atherton

 Greg Fleet

  

Hung Lee, the Australian Vietnamese immigrant

Here are those pictures where I really don't know how to post, taken by fellow bloggers Euveng, Evo (and that lady is Perfectionista) :

 

With the wife

 

With fellow bloggers

 

With Malaysia funny man, Douglas Lim

For more (better) pictures and comments, here is Evo's blog : Euveng.com the guy just beside Douglas there.

Comedy Club KL : A teaser

Went to see 3 (or 4) men selling jokes in Malaysia. Did it work? Wait for my post tomorrow. Here are some teaser pictures :

 

The front of the club

 
 

The tickets

"More chicks than Kentucky"

That is supposed to be a kind of one-upmanship prank, heard in a morning show of a local radio. It was a prank call, in which the prankster called the victim and asked him whether he is dating this one girl. The prankster is supposed to be the rival lover and was egging the guy. As the victim was a very ghetto type of guy who deemed himself a tough guy, he used street slang to make his stand.

In one part he was off like in a rant of 100 words per minute and in one part of it, just to show that he did not really care for the girl, he said this...

I have more chicks than Kentucky..." in reference to Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC as it is known here. 

And I think that was the classic part. And as the prank was the first ever prank by that radio station, it was a classic and every time there was a flashback on how they started this prank which the call "Gotcha!", it just cracks me up. 

That guy is one motormouth...They should make a song out of that word. Maybe Snoop will think of one.

Flatulence

One of the joke that gets really old when a couple starts to live together and share the same bed is when the man love to just let it go without a care in the world for the person beside him. Usually, it is the man in the relationship, or those who wants to be a man in the same sex relationship. Disregard for the contamination of the air within a confined area is the first thing that man regards as his 'mark' on his domination over his woman.

You do know that flatulence itself is a fart in layman term, right? That act of adolescent glee which the male of the species love to  This is especially true when they grows up among fraternities which are full of boys. I know of a few of my friends whose sport every morning. I mean, every damn morning, they will race up the stairs to our lecture hall and whoever reach the top will fart down on the others. I mean, this was during college. Just imagine when they were in school.

When you are married, when you spend nearly hours in bed with the same person and seen them doing things that you can only imagine when you were still young, this part of you who had been 'trained' to not feel any shame in just farting in whatever direction. Including if that was your face in the way. Then, smile as if it was really a joke...

Consider it as a marriage hazard, if you must...

Car OR wife?

Your wife called you telling you that she just crashed your brand new BMW into the divider....

What will be your question?

"Are you all right?"

OR

"How is my car?"

Real life situation, which happened to me once, and it was not even a BMW.

I chose the second answer.

...and in defence is that she still was all right enough to give me a call.

(I know, I am a bad husband)

Caught between the zippers

This is a simple post. In one man lifetime, he will at least once feel this excrutiating pain where either his manhood or his sperm producing sacks (sacs?) get caught in the zipper. When I post about Going Commando someone asked, wouldn't the manhood is in danger of getting caught in the zipper?

The answer is yes. I have this one friend who caught his thingy on his trousers and he was 31 then. Just imagine the pain. The wife had to kind of delicately pull down the zipper to release the part that get caught. 

Just saying OUCH!! is an understatement...

The bed came down

It was the most embarrassing/funny moment which happened at the most uncomfortable of time. Luckily no one who was hurt except for the bed. Yes, the bed broke while we were on it, while we were in the thick of thing. Nope, the bed is still being use even today. 

I repaired it there and then, using some wood I found in the store and the neighbours had to bear with me hammering away trying to repair the bed at 12.30am. As our walls are thick and we know you can make noises within the house without being overheard  as there were more than a few occasion we saw neighbours talking near their window or having parties within their home but we couldn't hear anything. I repaired it and we were sleeping back on it that same night. No one asked me the next day whether anything was wrong the night before when we came out for work. Maybe the walls are really thick or they just don't want to know why I was hammering in the dead of the night.

That was how passionate we were (and still is). We sometimes look at the bed while we sat at the same position and thought maybe we should move from that part of the bed just in case we are too heavy or something. 

Did we finish it somewhere else? Of course, we have a few other beds in the house and who needs bed when there is the sofa, the kitchen and even the walls... ; )

Sex is the answer to EVERYTHING!!!

I once had this one client who use SEX as the answer to all the problem that he has. Or for anyone who ask him any question. Or anyone within earshot when he is in his playful mood. Basically, he has this perception on everything. Here how it goes :

You feel tired? Too much sex

You feeling lethargic? Not enough sex

You feel unhappy? Not enough sex

You feel depressed? Not enough sex

You can't concentrate? Not enough sex

Not feeling healthy? Too much sex or not enough sex, it can be either one...

Basically, the idea is, all the problem in the world can be solved by sex. Or is it caused by sex?

You decide...

p/s - to a certain extent, I would like to say he is correct in a way...