Happy New Year. Issit? Maybe? Hope So

(Adam contemplating what's to come in 2006)

Wow! It’s been more than a month since I last updated this blog. Aiyoh! So sorry lah all those of you who have been visiting regularly despite that fact. Thank you so much for being so supportive. Why have I neglected to update the blog? Well, it is a combination of so many reasons la. I have been a busy boy the last few months of 2005. Also I have been laughing so hard at so many tragically funny things happening in Bolehland that it was hard to stop and come sit in front of the pc. The last big laugh of 2005 of course was the unashamedly stupid ‘expedition’ to drape a giant Malaysian flag over the Great Pyramid at Giza! Did you all remember to send thank you cards to the Deputy Prime Minister, the Selangor State Government and the ex-servicemen’s association for their valiant attempts to continuously provide us Malaysians with egg on our faces?

Oh before I forget, Happy New Year to everyone. Here’s wishing all of you a happy, safe, productive, healthy and prosperous 2006. There are so many things to look forward to in the Year Of The Dog.

The independent inquiry into the nude ear squat incident has been presented to the King and the Prime Minister. Now to see if we ordinary people get to find out what actually happened in that cell. But I would suggest that we don’t hold our breath la. As usual, I think if there was indeed any controversy the report would not be made public. And the usual reason would be doled out. It would pose a danger to public security or racial harmony or any one of dozens of stock reasons in the home ministry’s libraries. And if it was released we would probably find it to be some edited and boring document which would pale in comparison to what we can read on the Internet.



(Photo from The Star 17-01-2006)

In K.L. the spanking new Rapid KL (don’t you just love it when they really rub it in eh?) are quite a sight to behold on city streets. There are promises of regular and efficient services for the long suffering commuters of the capital city. And at RM2 for a whole day pass it seems like a real bargain. Now we shall wait and see if Rapid KL lives up to its name. Or wait for the day, which may not be too long coming, when we shall begin to see those new busses belching black smoke, bearing marks of disrepair and poor maintenance. In other words looking the way any old Malaysian busses should look. And eventually going back to being irregular and inefficient. We can only live in hope.

(Update: Today, January 18, 2006 I spotted the first NEW rapid KL bus that’s been Malaysianised. It had the rapid KL brochure and bus route map stuck up next to the entry and exit doors. Just 2 brochures that were not meant for that purpose stuck to the glass with strips of sticky tape. Very Malaysian.)

Okay, okay……Patrick please stop griping.



(BULI Balik poster courtesy of Afdlin Shauki’s blog)

Okay some better things to talk about. Afdlin Shauki’s sequel to his box office hit of 2005, BULI, titled BULI BALIK hits the screens on January 26, 2006. I had the privilege to see the preview of the movie with members of the media last week and all I can say is that you should go see it when it opens. It is a film that’s funny, provocative, intelligent. And it is SOOOOOOOOOO different from Malaysian mainstream movies that have been churned out over the years like so much popcorn. Afdlin is a genius.
Oh ya, BULI BALIK is probably the only chance you will get to see Patrick Teoh singing in a music video. Remember, BULI BALIK. Opening January 26 at a cineplex near you.

*** There is a special preview on January 25 at 10.30 a.m. @ TGV 1 Utama, for Afdlin’s kodoks. Tickets are still RM10 but you get to watch BULI BALIK one day earlier than anyone and you get to meet members of the cast too. BE THERE!


For updates on Afdlin's latest film project Sumo La visit http://afdlinshauki.blogspot.com





2005 Chinese Theatre Awards

The first week of 2006 I received a phone call informing me that I had been nominated for Best Actor in the 2005 Chinese Theatre Awards. The news almost floored me. Me? A Chinese language theatre award? Turned out to be true. The nomination was for a play I did in 2005 titled Chup! Take A Break. We Are Family. The title refers to the latest in a series of plays produced by Need Entertainment and directed by Ling Tang. Actually the show was a compendium of 4 little playlets. I acted in 3 of them. In Cantonese! In the first I played a chauvinistic pig of a husband who’s taught a few lessons by his hitherto submissive wife (Nell Ng) who is magically transformed into a self-confident modern day woman by the neighbour who is a witch. In the second I played a single father sending off his son to university in Singapore and finding it too hard to express what is in his heart. The need to hug is hindered by the need to preserve traditional decorum. In the third, a classic Chinese folk tale about filial piety, I played a son to 2 aging parents. The interesting thing was that my ‘parents’ were played by 2 actors who were young enough to be MY children. I remember that it was great fun working with the production cast and crew and the nomination was a bonus. Ha? Of course I didn’t win la. The award went to a most brilliant actor named Berg Lee who played my son in James Lee’s The Beautiful Washing Machine. My friend, Nell Ng was nominated for the Best Actress Award. It was sort of a first in the Chinese Theatre Awards' 5 year history because I think it was the first time that actors from English language theatre have been nominated. I am honoured.

Going slightly off track now.....

Actually I have never won an award in my life. The best I have always managed is second prize la. It started back in school. The first contest I entered was an inter-school Shakespeare Declamation Contest. This simply meant that we stood on stage and recited speeches from Shakespearean plays. I did fairly well in the contest and managed to reach the inter-school finals. I lost to Mano Maniam of the Anglo Chinese School who recited the Mark Antony speech from Julius Caesar… “Friends, Romans, countrymen…”. I recited the famous Shylock speech from The Merchant Of Venice… “If you prick us do we not bleed?…” So I got Second Prize which was a volume of the complete works of William Shakespeare. Mano's first prize was an English dictionary! Then when I started working as a radio announcer in Rediffusion (the great grandfather of Red 104.9 FM today) I was entered in an international disc jockey contest. It was for DJ’s of the various Rediffusion stations around the world which meant mostly stations in the West Indies, Africa and Singapore and Malaysia. Guess what? I won second place too. No prize though. Didn’t even get a congratulatory message from the management of my own station. Eh? Why and how did the blog turn this way ah? Sorry about that.




(Poster courtesy of Afdlin Shauki)

More good news for movie fans. Baik Punya Cilok written and directed by Afdlin Shauki has taken 2.6 million at the box office. According to Afdlin’s blog the producers think that the film will NOT go far beyond 2.75 million which is Pontianak Harum Sundal 2’s box office record. I saw the first Pontianak film by Suhaimi Baba and I honestly think that it cannot come close to Cilok’s appeal. If you have not seen Baik Punya Cilok go watch it soon. If you have seen it go watch it again. And again. Let’s show the producers and exhibitors of Malaysian films that we know Yusuf Haslam formula films are now totally NOT COOL!

And finally, this is the way I will look for the first quarter of 2006. I am playing Sam in Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming directed by Gavin Yap for the KLPAC in March. Gavin, wants the ‘familiar’ faces in his cast, Thor Kah Hoong, Ben Tan and me, to look ‘different’. So here I am, a Chinaman trying his best to grow some facial hair:-) Hahahahaha.........HAPPY NEW YEAR!