It was something I could never have expected when the brand manager of Mister Potato called me up.

Mister Potato: “Would you like to make a cameo appearance in our latest TV commercial?”
Kenny Sia: “What! Me? You sure? It sounds fun, but… I dunno how to act leh!”
Mister Potato: “Don’t worry about it, it’s just a cameo. Besides, there will be there people telling you what to do.”
Kenny Sia: “Does that mean I have to fly to KL?”
Mister Potato: “No, the shooting will be done in Bangkok!”
And with that I found myself in Bangkok, Thailand for this once in a lifetime opportunity to appear in an ad for Mister Potato.

Okay. I know I am not an actor, I have never acted before and I have zero clue on how the whole thing works.
I was confused, but at the same time honoured that Mister Potato actually has enough faith to handpick me to make an appearance in their TV commercial. Not only that, they flew me all the way to Bangkok to do the shoot!
Not like there’s not enough qualified actors in Thailand. But when such a big corporation like Mister Potato is willing to bend over backwards for me, of course I feel compelled to do a good job for them.

Question is, why of all places, Bangkok?
Well, if there is one thing I know the Thais are good at making (apart from spicy Tom Yum soup), it’s their rib-tickling pants-droppingly hilarious TV commercials.
The best thing is, I didn’t even know until I arrived on set that I would be working with not just one of the best production houses in Thailand, but throughout the whole of Asia as well.

Phenomena is the TV commercial production house responsible for a lot of those funny Thai commercials that you see circulating around the Youtube.
They are really well-known in the advertising industry, and even produced the most awarded TV commercial director in the world. In fact, they have won so many awards, they were even given an award for winning too many awards!

Fake Kenny doesn’t look like actual Kenny

I’ve never done any of these before.
Because I couldn’t attend any of the casting and fitting sessions before the shoot, Phenomena went through quite a bit of trouble for me.
We communicated a lot through e-mail, and when I found out they basically used this random guy to model for the photos for my wardrobe, I LOLed.
Can see from his face that he looked quite tulan lah, as if saying, “Nabeh this Kenny Sia didn’t come early to Bangkok. Made me to the dirty job for you only.”
Sorry, dude!

Then there’s this other thing about the casting process that really tickled my funny bones as well.
Before I flew to Bangkok, I was requested to fill out this casting form.
The FIRST question they asked, immediately after I filled out my name and age, was this:

HAVE YOU EVER MODELLED NUDE?
What!? What kinda question is that?
To me, that was almost like the equivalent of going up to a girl, asking “Hi, what is your name?”
“Now can I see your boobs please?”

I was really excited about doing my first TV commercial. Having slept only just a few hours the night before, I arrived on location bright and early at an ungodly hour of 6 in the morning.
Filming was done in a quaint park located some distance away from central Bangkok. When I arrived, two huge semi-trailers were already parked by the roadside and a team of about 30 workers was busy carrying stuff, clearing rubbish and setting up props to prepare for the shoot.

I was simply astounded by the level of preparation for this shoot and attention to detail for everything. It was pretty impressive. They got props for every little thing I could think of, and virtually every other thing no one could’ve thought of.
They were so attentive that they even prepared English-language signboards to cover up the original Thai ones in the background just in case, and even mini-trampolines so we could jump higher than what we’re capable of.

Actors are treated very well by the production team.
This is the food area, where the crew has very considerately prepared meals and drinks for us.
There’s also a makeshift laundry and clothing line to hang our wet clothes.

We all need to become fitting potatoes in our lives sometimes

I was promptly introduced to the wardrobe department, who already had my outfit ready.
In my opinion, the wardrobe department was the coolest department of the production team. The casting manager was this nice auntie who knew exactly what look she wanted out of me.
All I was asked to do was change into the T-shirt and pants they provided, and then just stand still on the spot while three people simultaneously worked on my hair, my accessories and my clothing.
In no time, I was transformed from Kenny Sia to “Guy In Boat” in the Mister Potato Commercial.

Practicing my facial expressions

If you guys had watched the video, you’d know that the ad was actually pretty short. In fact, it was only half a minute long.
How long does it take to shoot a 30 second long video clip? Certainly not one whole day, I presume!
30 seconds isn’t very long and by right, the filming process should finish pretty quickly. At least, that was what I hoped so I could bugger off and enjoy a 3-hour-long Thai spa session.

Despite it being only a 30-second-long TV commercial, in reality we had to shoot multiple scenes because the director wanted to have a wide selection of different footage at his disposal for editing later.
Some scenes even had to be repeated over and over again to achieve the best take. Even if one person accidentally made an error, the ENTIRE scene had to be resetted and then we had to do it all over again.
The whole shooting process was long, gruelling and tiring. For those of us as extras, there’s a lot of idling and waiting in between scenes, which was something I’m not used to since I’ve always been a workaholic doing many things at once.
On the good side, I had some free time to get to know my other cast members better.

Girl on park bench

The Thais are really fantastic people. Almost all of them took the effort to chat up to me eventhough we know we’re gonna have trouble communicating fluently. They asked me about Kuching, and some even wondered if I were some kinda movie star back home because I was specially flown in from Malaysia.
To that, I laughed and laughed and laughed until my left tit fall off.

For once, it was actually pretty refreshing to speak to the local Thais without them trying to sell me souvenirs/give me massage/ride their tuk-tuk.

Girl in boat

This is Yue Hwa. She is my “girlfriend” who I shared a bed boat with in the commercial.
In real life, Yue Hwa is a 19-year-old student whose exotic looks comes from her Italian and Thai parentage. She was the only person I spoke to in fluent Mandarin, which she claimed to have picked up herself after subjecting herself to Mando-pop songs by Fish Leong.

The first scene that Yue Hwa and I had to do was also our most difficult.
What we’re supposed to do is, on the director’s cue, shout out loudly, jump as high as we can from our boat into the river, and then swim as fast as we can towards the bridge.
“Swim like you are a crazy person!” said the director.
Sounds simple? Not quite.
I already made a mistake on my first try.
I was so excited that instead of LEAPING from the boat, I lost my balance and TRIPPED myself into river like a fat elephant.

It was the most awkward-looking jump I had ever done, and the wobbly little boat didn’t make things better.
Obviously I ruined their footage. And obviously I couldn’t do another take right away because I was already drenched in filthy river water.
So how?

The crew helped me out from the murky river and proceeded to blow me dry all over using a HAIRDRYER.
I barely even had time to catch my breath because 10 minutes later, I was put back on the boat and to do a second take.
Then another accident happened.

The director told me to act like a mad man.
But I got into “the zone” so much that as soon as the director yelled “Action!”, I threw away my paddle so hard that the damn thing flew and hit the head of the crew member behind me.

It must be the most excruciating pain ever and he complained to me about it.
Luckily for me, the guy was ok about the incident. Accidents do happen, especially when you’re dealing a noob actor with no prior acting experience.
Some other actor however, wasn’t as fortunate.

Among our cast, there’s this damn impressive stuntwoman whose role it was to run past the main character, jump off from the bridge onto this floating barge that’s supposed to cushion her fall.

Unlike me, Miss Stuntwoman is by no means a noob in acting. She has worked as a theatre actress before on the set of Wild Wild West in A’Famosa Resort, where she had to jump down from buildings and perform other death-defying stunts.
But somehow when Miss Stuntwoman leaped from the bridge onto the barge, she landed awkwardly and sprained her ankle bad.

The girl was in so much pain she had to be sent to the hospital immediately. At that point, I thought we might have to call off the shooting since we’re down by one cast member and there wasn’t anyone to replace her.
By right, the last thing anyone in her situation would think about is to finish the ad.

But instead of heeding doctor’s advice to stay at home and take a break, Miss Stuntwoman limped back to our filming location, bandaged ankles and all.
That, my friend, didn’t just take guts.
It takes BALLS.

The final portion of the ad was when we had to soak ourselves in river water. Ironically, it was the most unpleasant and yet my favourite part of the shoot.
There was this scene where we all had to poke our heads out from the murky river water, and then open our mouths wide and show our greedy faces.
Try as we may, this was how pathetic we all looked when we did what we did.

We were asked to hold our facial expressions for as long as we could.
But then our jaws got tired from opening so wide for so long, and we ended up looking a bit stupid like this.

Now, being immersed for three whole hours inside stench-filled disgusting river water wasn’t exactly my idea of fun.
We joked around and tried to take our minds off the odour. The production crew was also nice enough to pass us bottles of ice cold water during every break.

Somehow I couldn’t help but to laugh at myself at the irony of my situation.
While everyone else goes to Thailand to soak themselves for 3 hours in traditional Thai spas, I actually went to Thailand to soak myself for 3 hours inside filthy the river of Bangkok.

As we splashed around, I must have lost count on the number of times I inadvertently swallowed those dirty river water. And let me tell ya, it sure didn’t taste good.
All I could think about at that point in time was a glass of ice cold beer, and two cans of my favourite Tomato-Flavoured Mister Potato chips.

Still, we made the most out of the situation and even went on to shoot multiple endings for the TV commercial. Some of those alternate endings we shot were really quirky and funny, and if we’re lucky, Mister Potato could release those versions online.
After doing many different takes of me jumping from the boat, blowdrying myself, dipping in the dirty river and splashing around like a mad man, at long last the director shouted “Cut!” for the final time and called it a wrap.

There was jubilance in the air as we high-fived each other and congratulated everyone over the hard work we all put in.
Shooting this 30 second TV commercial took close to 12 hours. We arrived at sunrise and finished just before sunset. Honestly, I never felt more relieved to get a job done.

This was only my first acting experience and already I gotta say, I’m developing a whole new level of appreciation for professional actors and actresses.
It’s a 30 second long TV commercial. And of that entire 30 seconds, I only appeared on screen for less than 3 seconds.
And yet, it took some 12 hours and a whole production team just to get that 30 seconds perfect.

No doubt, swimming and drinking brown-coloured river water wasn’t exactly pleasant.
Still, I had fun. LOTS of fun. 🙂
I am always up for trying something new and this is exactly the kind of thrill I seek for. And I love it.
Thanks to Mister Potato, not only did I get a rare opportunity to work with the best production house, I actually learnt something new. If I’m not mistaken, I might be the first Malaysian blogger to score a part in a TV commercial.

It’s simply surreal watching myself on screen in a TV commercial that I am so proud to be part of. I can’t wait for the ad to officially go to air across all the TV channels in Malaysia next week.
Mister Potato is indeed one of my favourite snacks since primary school, and never in a million years would I imagine that I would see myself their TV commercial years later.
If given another chance, I’m sure as heck that I’m gonna do it all over again. 😉
One thing though.

After we all exited from the dirty river, we were directed to have a well-deserved hot shower in the public toilets nearby.
But then something hit my mind.
A public toilet in a park, located next to a murky river? Why do I get such a weird feeling that something might be wrong with this arrangement.
True enough, I walked to the back of the toilets and then I spotted this water pipe.
It’s a pipe that flows directly from toilets…

… right into the murky brown river.
Yes. For the whole 3 hours, I was actually soaking myself inside filthy used toilet water.
But yeah, it was all worth it. 😛

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Remember a while, I had to go to Thailand to act in a TV commercial?

That was nearly two months ago. And now, the final product is ready to be shown.
kennysia.com proudly presents, me, in the WORLD PREMIERE of Mister Potato‘s latest TV commercial – ‘Fish’.

Anyone manage to spot me?

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So, season one of Malaysian Dreamgirl is finally over.

The eventual winner of the Nissan Latio and RM10,000 Ambank Mastercard is none other than Cindy Tey.
There was a bit of a discontent among the viewers after the winner was announced. Eventhough Cindy won by the most votes, it was pretty clear she wasn’t the most popular among the viewing public. But in the end, votes are votes, rules are rules and it would be terribly unfair if we were to change the rules halfway through the competition.
Nonetheless, we learnt a great deal in making this series.

Malaysian Dreamgirl has been an extraordinary journey.
It has been an incredible experience not just for the 12 girls who participated in the contest, not just for the thousands watching it worldwide, but also for all of us in the cast and crew who were involved in the production of this show.

There is a lot I wanted to say about the show.
The truth is, I’ve been waiting a long time to write this because there are a lot of things I wanted to get off my chest regarding MDG, but somehow I just feel like it isn’t appropriate to voice it out when the show was still going on.
But now, I want to say my piece.

I first heard about Malaysian Dreamgirl back in December 2007.
Back then, no one knew what the show is about or what it is going to be like, except for the fact that MDG is gonna be the country’s first online reality model search.

Nuffnang was the one who brokered the deal between myself and Capxion Media. Over coffee, Capxion CEO Jerad and Program Director Edmund gave me a rundown about what their plan for this online reality show is.
To be honest, the first time I hear it, I couldn’t help but to feel a bit skeptical.

A show that is broadcasted completely online? Not even on TV?
Isn’t that a bit risky? What are these people thinking?
Who is gonna spend 30 minutes sitting in front of their bloody computer watching a reality show about some model search, when the TV screen is larger and infinitely more comfortable?
Why broadcast the show over the Internet? How are they gonna handle the bandwidth costs?
There is just too much unknown.

I could see it on his face. Jerad must have heard the same skepticism from the people he spoke to a hundred times over.
The fact of the matter is: nothing like this has ever been done in Malaysia before.
Malaysian Dreamgirl back in December 2007 was like one big blur of unknown. Capxion Media was a brand new company and the people behind it had close to zero experience in producing any form of television show before. Let alone one that is gonna be broadcasted exclusively over the Internet.
There were big challenges in front of them, and the chances of them failing is very, very high.

I wasn’t confident in their project at first. But a part of me couldn’t help but be impressed with their idea.
These people are creative. Creative people innovate. Creative people take risks when everybody else looked at it and said “No, I am too chicken to do it.”

Despite my initial skepticism, by the end of our conversation, Capxion Media had me convinced to work with them.
Jerad and his team had put together a plan that is downright impressive and virtually infallible. When I listened to him answer my questions without a shred of uncertainty, I couldn’t help but be amazed at how they managed to have a solution for every single problem that I raised. Even more surprising is how they managed to attract so many sponsors for something that has never been done before.

I told Edmund, for my own sake, that I would not take part a project that is doomed to fail. But now that they had convinced me how worthwhile this project, the only thing I want to see is Malaysian Dreamgirl suceeding.
I said that with all honesty and sincerity because I share their dreams. I want to see good quality Malaysian content on the Internet. And I would do my best to ensure good quality Malaysian content is recognised the whole world over.
Thus, “Kenny Sia the MDG Judge” is born.

In my first entry about MDG, I mentioned that I was put on as a judge to represent the views of the average joes. But of course we all know that that’s not true.
It is no secret to anyone that when Capxion Media hired me to become the judge for MDG that it was more for marketing reasons than anything else.

Let’s face it, I don’t know how to sing, don’t know how to act, never been in front of the camera except for a pathetic stint Deal Or No Deal. So who am I kidding?
The only reason why I am on the judging panel for MDG is because I have a blog that is read by many, and Capxion Media wanted to leverage on that.

Now, depending on how you look at it, Kenny Sia being on Malaysian Dreamgirl can be a good thing or a bad thing.
It is a good thing, because this is the first time ever a blogger in Malaysia has been asked to go on a reality show, purely because he is recognizable as a blogger. I don’t know any other company who is willing take the risk putting somebody who has no acting/hosting/modelling skills whatsoever in front of the camera. Especially in one of their first projects.
It is also a bad thing, because as many critics noticed, without any acting or hosting experience under my belt, people may not warm up to watching me on screen.
But I guess, everybody has to start somewhere right?

My actions and words irked a lot of people during the auditions in Episode 1.
I was called all sorts of names by the viewers. The general consensus was that Kenny Sia as the MDG Judge comes across as a horny guy who was overly excited everytime he sees a girl wearing short skirts coming to audition, as well as one that is utterly ruthless towards unattractive girls who don’t make an effort.

And their judgment would be right. 🙂
That’s exactly what my character should be isn’t it?
If you put an average joe on a modelling contest where all the girls are dressed to kill, of course he’s gonna get damn excited when hot chicks wearing skimpy clothings come through lah. No average joe is gonna sit still and behave themselves.
Unless they’re monks lah.

MDG Self-Portrait: This is what each girl drew of themselves. Blindfolded.

You wouldn’t imagine how many hate mails I received after that episode.
Kenny Sia as an MDG judge was rude and not a very popular person. But there are reasons why I did what I did.

My self-portrait the MDG girls asked me to draw, blindfolded

Firstly, I was playing a character, and I wanted it to be a memorable character. Because it was our first episode, I needed to make an impact. Controversy creates cash. No publicity is bad publicity. If there are people out there talking about what a horrible person I was, then that is a good thing for the show.
Secondly, it was to sensationalize the show. How boring would the auditions be if every judge were diplomatic in their words for fear of hurting girl’s feelings? Elaine and Jimmy cannot afford to be too harsh on these girls because they have a reputation in their profession that they need to protect. One is a former Miss Malaysia, and the other is well-known in the fashion industry.
The only person left to do the job is me. And I don’t mind because I always wanted to play the role of a bad guy. 🙂

But of course, now that the show is over, there are some apologies I think I owe certain people.
To the girl who auditioned in the green floral jacket, to the girl who wore the black sexy two-piece clubbing gear, to the girl whose face I said was too oily, I am sorry.

To Giselle the kindergarten teacher, I am sorry.
And I am even more sorry that I talked about you on my website. It happened because you were such a great potential and yet you didn’t get through. Although I did tell you the reasons why you didn’t make it, that was not broadcasted in Episode 2. And the people were confused and upset and questioning our decisions.
I should have explained politely, instead of getting in character as “Kenny Sia the mean judge” and wrote what I wrote. And for that I am sorry.

The crew behind Malaysian Dreamgirl took it upon themselves to listen to all the feedback online and they strived to improve in the production of every episode. If you watched Episode 1 versus Episode 16, you’ll notice a world of difference in the production quality.

Being part of the show, I sometimes felt that there was more dramas behind the scenes than in front of it. Sometimes it’s difficult for the cameras to capture everything.
Even during the audition stages, the amount of unflattering nicknames thrown around was incredible.
I swear if we were to show what actually happened behind the scenes, we are so gonna get in to trouble. People are gonna riot all the way to Capxion Media’s office. Among some of the nicknames given was “Senget Face”, “Klingon”, “A Box With Four Things Sticking Out”, “Pau Face”, “Drug Addict”.
Of course I ain’t gonna reveal who these nicknames refer to. Otherwise I might get another “Giselle backlash” online.

Reality shows are weird, and the people behind reality shows are even weirder.
I remember in the photoshoot for Women’Secret, Cindy broke down and cried profusely because she wasn’t happy with her performance. I was there at the scene and I was the first to notice her outburst of emotions.
By right, the normal thing to do is for me to go over, show my concerns and ask her what’s wrong.
But because we’re shooting a reality show, my immediate first reaction was “QUICK! QUICK! WHERE IS THE CAMERA!”
Looking back, that was kinda cruel.

Jay’s latest photoshoot is titled “Woman With Face Cramps”

But I must say, I have a lot of fun doing the show.
From the bottom of my heart, I want to say a big thank you to Capxion Media, especially to Jerad and Edmund for giving me an opportunity to become part of the show. Thank you for having the confidence in me, flying me all the way from Kuching to KL and putting me in front of the camera knowing full well that I have no experience whatsover doing something like this at all.

Thank you to the Top 12 finalists, who have been so fantastic and so cooperative. I still have butterflies in my stomach thinking back to that evening when Ash Nair, Jonathan Putra, Hansen Lee and myself were invited over to your place for a candlelight dinner. It was like in heaven, surrounded by such beauties who cooked and fed and entertained us.
If Malaysian Dreamgirl were about the search for the perfect partner, you’ll all be winners already.
Now that each of you have turned into mini-celebrities of your own, I have no doubt that you will all find success in your dream job in the near future.

Lastly, thank you to everyone who watched Malaysian Dreamgirl and accepted me for playing my role in front of the camera.
I know I had riled a lot of viewers up with my character. But don’t worry, the producers have not approached me to do Season Two yet, so my involvement in future episodes is up in the air. 😉

Together, we have managed to create something so truly sensational.
Never in my life have I seen a locally-produced ONLINE series that has created so much hype, that is so widely followed around the world, evoked so much emotions among the viewers and produced so many addicts who faithfully logged on to the website every Thursday and Saturday to catch the latest episodes.

I know of even Americans, Singaporeans, Australians who sent in SMSes to vote for their favourite contestants. Imagine that!
The cult following that resulted from the show went absolutely above and beyond our imaginations. And yet, this is just the tip of the iceberg for our uniquely Malaysian made content.
Season Two of MDG will definitely be bigger, better and a lot more exciting than what we just saw.

It was such a proud moment for me watching the Top 12 strutting their stuff on the catwalk at the MDG Grand Finale.
I felt as if I was their DAD watching his 12 daughters all grown up. Wtf like attending their graduation ceremony liddat.
But nothing beat the BEST moment for me during the Grand Finale. I actually met my SUPER DUPER BIGGEST IDOL EVER in my entire life.

Cindy’s Dad!
THE LEGEND HIMSELF. OMG.
But you know what? Meeting the man himself was not the coolest thing that happened that night.
Guess what the COOLEST thing was?

I got his autograph!

Oh yeah baby, who wants a piece of this? RM500 please.

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