Kids these days.

When I was in Uni, going to a prom means going to some boring overrated dinner at some boring 5-star hotel hosted by some boring emcees.
The old tired formula NEVER EVER changes.
Recently, when the organizers of the MMU Melaka Mystique prom night called me up inviting me to be a guest at their event, I was pretty much anticipating the same thing.

My expectations weren’t high. To start with, the prom was organized collectively by three student societies, namely the Business & Law, Engineering and IT societies of Multimedia University.
I have been to many events organized by students before. I know what it’s like.

I wasn’t expecting anything extraordinary like some stylo mylo VIP corporate event. Because let’s face it lah – this event is organised by Uni students.
Students don’t have much money to spare.

I know that because when I was in Curtin, I used to organize a lot of events myself.
One of the biggest problems we as students always run into is: NOT ENOUGH $$$$$. It’s damn near impossible to extort… extract money out of our sponsors because they never see much benefit in doing so.
On top of that, it’s difficult to get anyone to come to our events because we were so crap in our job.

So imagine my surprise when I found out that not only was the prom fully sold out in two days, these kids have enough money to rent out the entire Grand Ballroom at the Equatorial Hotel Melaka, hire Soo Kui Jien, Stephanie Chai, Estraged, Pop Shuvit and myself to provide entertainment, and STILL have enough money left over to donate to World Vision for charity!
Kids these days are sooooo lucky ok.

This is the vivacious Stephanie Chai.
She’s one of the few Kuching girls who’s doing exceptionally well in the KL entertainment circles.
Most people would recognize her from the countless magazine covers that she has graced, but lately I get to see her a lot because of that ad she did with Starhill Gallery which is always playing at the KLIA Express train.

Azwin Andy where are you staring?

Steph and I shared a car from KL down to Melaka. Not only is she the most down-to-earth celeb I’ve met, she’s a fantastic companion to travel with as well.
Throughout the trip, we swapped stories about Kuching, people we know, our jobs and our relationships. It made the two hour long journey seems a lot a shorter than it is.
Unfortunately, I was the one driving and we arrived late. It’s all my fault because of my super l33t na\/iGati0n skillz that even saw us ending up in a police station compound after making a wrong turn.

This is Jien, host of Malaysian Idol and most recently ESPN Star Sports.
I don’t like him.
Many times during the prom, there would be some hot chicks standing in a corner, giggling and pointing towards my direction squealing “omg he’s so cute!”
Then I would shyly wave back at them and smile, but they would not respond. Then I realised it was because Jien standing behind me.
That is why I hate that bugger.

This is Renee. She is my prom date for the evening.
Coincidentally, Renee was also last year’s prom queen. That’s cool because it’s not everyday you can get to date a prom queen, even if it’s just for one evening. 😉

On the other hand, I was lousy as her prom date.
Not only did I arrive late, I forgot to give her the traditional corsage. And most of the time the prom date was left alone at the table while I was busy taking photos to use in this blog entry.

The organizers were right in inviting Steph and Jien to emcee the prom. They were both fantastic and entertaining throughout the evening.
Considering how little preparation time they had, they did such an amazing job. Stephanie especially was lamenting to me how unprepared she was. She was only told what to do when she arrived at the venue.

Those two joked, danced, made everyone laugh and injected life into the party. I wish I could do what they do. They were so natural on stage and not once did they stutter or skip a beat.
Except maybe for this one time when they asked the VIPs to go on stage for the gong-sounding, only to stop halfway because they don’t know where the bloody gong was.

Ok lah, to be fair, that “thing” didn’t actually look like a gong. It’s not one of those heavy brass ones they use at Iban longhouses.
Still, it is a gong.
But it isn’t just any gong.
It’s a freakin’ MULTIMEDIA SUPER DIGITAL GONG.

Dun pray pray ok. That thing is so CANGGIH it can project POWDERFUL laser out of its surface when they hit it with a stick.
Those crazy Malaccans. Always like to do things differently down there.

Soon, it was time to announce the nominees for Prom King and Prom Queen.
Now, here’s the cracker. For Prom King and Queen, the nominees weren’t judged by how they look or how well they’re dressed. Instead, each nominee are required to go on stage and perform their “special talent”.

I gotta say, I was absolutely head over heels over how much effort each nominee put into their performances.
First up was Prom King nominee Q-bert.
Q-bert is a stereotypical engineering geek with a funny name and two botak lines on the side of his head (Jien described it as “No Parking” zone). For his act, he sung his lungs out like a reject on Malaysian Idol.

Next came Prom Queen nominee Joanne.
She came out and did what I thought was an extremely boring slow dance with Q-bert.
THEN SUDDENLY.

They broke off and abruptly changed into this energetic number to the catchy tune of “I like big butts and I cannot lie”.
It was complete with dance moves so hilariously over-the-top I could not stop laughing the whole entire time. It was more “cheerleading” than “prom dance” and the crowd absolutely loved it.
Needless to say, those two won the titles of Prom King and Prom Queen respectively.

Q-bert and Joanne weren’t the only notable dancers of the night.
For the award of the prom night’s Best Couple, the crowd narrowed down the selections to two guys and one girl. Steph and Jien stipulated that there must be an impromptu “dance off” to determine which two should be crowned Best Couple.
Naturally, you’d think that the two guys would compete for female attention right?

Wrong!

What happened instead was the poor girl being kicked to the side.
And the two guys danced with each other so passionately until their dance included THIS MOVE.

What the hell was THAT!
LOOK MA, IT’S THE PROM MONSTER WITH FOUR ARMS AND FOUR LEGS.
Ridiculous.
Everyone was so speechless they had no choice but to make those two winners for Best Couple.

Good thing the night was saved by Pop Shuvit and Estraged.
If you don’t know already, those two are among the best of the best live bands in Malaysia and they completely rocked those psychologically-traumatised students.

The prom started at 8pm and before long, it was already past midnight and time to wrap up the event. Time flies when you’re having fun.
Now, this is when another corker of the night happened.

After the prom night ended, the organizers arranged to have Steph, Jien, Pop Shuvit, Estraged and myself escorted out to the foyer for a photoshoot session with the students.
That’s fine, right? They hired us, the students paid for their tickets, so it’s perfectly reasonable that we stay and mingle around with them.
But get this.
We were escorted out by RELA and HOTEL SECURITY.

Outside the Grand Ballroom was the maddest reception I have ever personally witnessed.
Cameras were flashing non-stop as if we’re surrounded by paparazzis and everyone was trying to get their pictures taken. It was a rare moment of photo frenzy.
But surely, we don’t need RELA to give us protection. These are MMU students, not Hindraf protestors ok!

When we’re done and wanted to go back to our hotel rooms, a staff approached us and asked if we wanted to escape using the back door.
I was stunned. Suddenly I have no idea whether to cry or laugh at that suggestion.

On one hand, I could feel my coconuts instantly grow one size bigger. On the other hand, they’re talking to this guy who flies AirAsia, takes public transport and eats RM2.20 kolo mee by the roadside wearing just shorts and slippers.
Please lor. I am just Kenny Sia. Not Madonna.
So I reckon I could make my way to the hotel lobby without much problems thankyouverymuch.

Kudos to the organizers for doing such an amazing job putting together this prom night.
The food was great, the show was entertaining and the people were fun. I know I had fun.
It’s such a big difference comparing it to my University prom night. My Uni prom night was so bad, to make the comparison with theirs would be like comparing Princess Diana with Amy Winehouse.

The tagline for the Mystique 2008 is “A Fairytale Ending“.
I guess for everyone who attend the prom, their evening did have a fairytale ending.
Everyone. Well, except for me.
Because eventhough Renee my prom date was fantasticly patient, my night was completely ruined with the image of THIS forever burned into my head.


The horror.
Next time you see this creature, it’ll be in a Spiderman movie. As the bad guy.
Spidey is gonna have his hands full with this one.

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It was absolutely mindblowing.

Say whatever you want about him.
Call him overrated, call him an untalented actor, call him a sell-out. At the end of the day, there is absolutely no doubt that Jay Chou is THE biggest star to come out from the Chinese music industry.
His sold out concert at the Stadium Merdeka proves just that.

The funny thing is that I wasn’t even supposed to be at the concert. I just happen to be in KL around that time when I found out about the event.
Hotlink, as one of the co-main sponsors of the event, was gracious enough to extend a media pass for me. In return, I’m to cover the event on kennysia.com – which I plan to do so anyway. 😉

Thanks to Hotlink, I attended the Jay Chou World Tour concert in KL as part of the media contingent.
May I just say out of all honesty that the marketing comms people from Maxis are among the nicest I have dealt with. Not saying this just because they gave me free tix to the concert. I have dealt with hundreds of marketing people in my line of work, and the attentiveness of the two girls from Maxis, Catherine and Sham, are easily head and shoulders above the rest.

As if it wasn’t good enough that I attended the concert of a music artiste I idolised for so a long time, I was allowed to be in the media pit located right in front of the stage.
By 8:30pm, the spotlights were dimmed one after another. I could literally feel the electricity in the air.

The ground beneath my feet was rumbling. The 26,000 strong crowd were screaming their lungs out in pitch black.
Before long, dancers dressed as terracotta warriors scuttled out on stage for a short opening sequence. A floating platform emerged from beneath the stage. On that platform is the headliner himself – Jay Chou.

Just the mere sight of Jay live in person drove the entire Stadium Merdeka into a wild frenzy.

Dressed in what can only be described as an elaborate piece of purple ancient warrior costume, Jay opened with a fast-paced number Huang Jin Jia (Golden Armor) from the movie soundtrack Curse of the Golden Flower.

Rocking to the sounds of this energetic rock song, the Malaysian fans from the front to the back of the stadium screamed, jumped and danced to their heart’s content.
Jay Chou responded by tearing off his coat…

… into something a little lighter.
Some say this outfit makes him look like a Chinese Michael Jackson, and I couldn’t agree more. 😛

Sadly, we were only allowed to be in the media pit for the first three songs he performed. After my time was up, I was moved to the ticketed section on the other side of the stadium. But not before I caught this incriminating photo.

HOR! WHAT IS THIS?! Lyrics on the TV screen!?
Too bad got lyrics on the screen, he still didn’t use it. Quite a few times during the concert, he forgot the lyrics to his own songs and impromised by muttering some nonsensical gibberish.
Blame his lyric writer Fang Wen Shan for writing such cheemology Chinese.

After the first few uptempo songs, Jay followed up with his more soulful melodies like Zhui Hou De Zhan Yi (The Final Battle), Bu Neng Shuo De Mi Mi (Secret) and Tui Hou (uhh… Go-stan?)

A lot of effort was put into the visual presentation of each set of his performance, and I love it.
For Niu Zai Hen Mang (Busy Cowboy), he got his posse to dressed as clowns and Vegas showgirls. They even did a line dance and Jay Chou wiggled his ass on stage.
I thought was damn gay, but the fan girls love it anyway. Jay Chou mah. Anything he does, they’ll suck up to it one.

Jay Chou’s musical career started because he loves to play the piano, and the audience was treated to see just how good he is at it.
His famed crystal piano made an appearance during his performance of Hei She You Mo (Black Humour). Here, Jay showcased his amazing piano skills, playing Chopin’s many pieces before breaking into solos for songs like An Jing (Quiet) and Zui Chang De Dian Ying (The Longest Movie).
It was just him and the piano, and it was all really very romantic. It was so romantic that you could propose to any girl in attendance, and they would willingly accept your hand in marriage.

To watch Jay Chou perform these classics live on the crystal piano is already worth the price of admission itself, but he gave us more.
Chinese theatrics accompanied the performance for Qian Li Zhi Wai (Thousand Miles Away) and Qing Hua Ci (Porcelain Vase), which he sung beautifully like he was singing Chinese opera.

Another kick-ass moment was when a giant red shoe and two ah lian dancers appeared and danced around Jay Chou during his performance of Ye Qu (Evening Melody).
The outfit those two dancers wore reminded me of this one girl who auditioned for Malaysian Dreamgirl. Those who watched the first episode will know which one I’m talking about. 😉

Sexy tango dancers in red for Mi Die Xiang, which is a jazzy lounge-y number.
One of the girls had a HUGE smile on her face when she got to do her tango one-on-one with Jay.

The highlight of the concert for me was when Jay Chou introduced his proteges Nan Quan Ma Ma onto stage. Armed with a musical instrument each, the group held a very cool unplugged session. They interacted with the crowd, talked about Malaysia and performed re-worked versions of some Jay Chou classics like Ren Zhe and Shuang Jie Gun.
This part of the evening was my favourite because it was as intimate as it could get. Definitely one of the rare times I see the singer-songwriter side of this often times very commercialised artiste. He even sang a brilliant Theresa Teng classic Ni Zhen Me Shuo (How Do You Say), dedicated to the older fans in attendance just so they don’t feel left out.

The concert lasted for about 2 full hours.
Twice, Jay Chou teased the crowd by exiting the stage and dimming the spotlights, prompting all 26,000 of his fans to yell “ENCORE! ENCORE!” Then suddenly he’ll pop out and make everyone cheer like crazy again.
But eventually it was time to draw the concert to a close.

The finale was damn awesome. Jay rapped to Shuang Jie Gun, holding the microphone on one hand and playing with a nunchaku on the other.
For the final few lines of the songs, fireworks boomed and shot up to the skies everytime he sang “HUR!”. It was so cool I can’t even begin to describe it.

Personally, I thought the concert was exceptionally well done from top to bottom!
I totally enjoyed myself. Jay is always known for being shy and introverted, but at the conert he entertained us with such vigor and intensity. That just goes to show what a talented performer he is.

Some songs he sang at the concert also brought back some memories. During my student days, it was Jay Chou’s songs that took me through many uni assignments, many friendships and heartbreaks.
It was surreal yet at the same time nostalgic for me to witness this same person performing live in the flesh right in front of me. It was like somehow he played a part of my life.

For that, I’m really appreciative being given an opportunity to witness Jay Chou live in concert. Never in my life would I expect to be given this chance. Thanks again, Hotlink. 😉
Here’s a video I took on snippets of the Jay Chou World Tour concert in KL.

One thing I know for sure, this wouldn’t be the last time I attend his concert.

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Everyone wanna be Irish on St Patrick’s Day.

Even if you’re just a poor clueless little Malaysian.
St Patrick’s Day on the 17th March is a holiday originating from Ireland, where the Irish feasts all day long to commemorate the death of their heroic patron saint. Legend has it that good ol’ St Pat banished the snakes from Ireland and into the sea, thereby saving Ireland from certain doom.

Not much is known about the snakes after they’ve been banished into the sea.
But I’m pretty sure those snakes swam across the ocean into Malaysia, where they eventually grow up to become Petaling Street vendors.
No wonder they always try to rip people off!

Still, it was funny how last time when St Patrick caught snakes he was regarded as a hero.
Nowadays if we try to “catch snake” during working hours, we get scolded by our bosses.
Ridiculous.

Anyway, I was invited by the good guys at Guinness for the media launch of their St Patrick’s Day celebrations in KL. With good food, good company and freeflow of Guinness Draught offered all night long, of course I jumped at the opportunity lah!
The event was to kick-start a month-long celebration of all things Irish and Guinness. After enjoying such immense popularity worldwide, Ireland’s favourite black beer is bringing the spirit of St Patrick’s Day to Malaysia.
And I think it’s fair that they bring St Patrick’s Day to us. After all, we gave them like… Chinese New Year?

The evening was cheery and jovial despite it being a media event. We were served not just Guinness Draught, but a nice selection of sushis, nachos and quiches as well. Truly international!
Even the Guinness Draught served that evening was unique. The ice-cold beer was poured into the glass, then placed on a special surger unit to create “the perfect pint” – black at the bottom, and a creamy layer of froth on top.

Halfway through the celebrations, a bunch of dancers came out wearing some outrageous hats with famous buildings on them, to signify how St Patrick’s Day is celebrated internationally.

Sorry lah, but the last time I had to wear something like that on my head was when my teacher punished me in primary school.

Fortunately, the real part of entertainment that evening came later, when Emmanuel Stroobant from AFC’s Chef In Black showcased his culinary skills in front of the live audience.
The celebrity chef was tasked with coming up with a dish using Guinness as its key ingredient. It was really quite amazing to watch how he did it. I thought the guy is simply gonna pour Guinness on a rack of lamb and just say, “Nah, that’s your dinner!”
But no.

He smoked it.

He iced it.

He ground it.
Chef Emmanuel’s cooking demonstration sure beats me trying to cook Maggi.

In the end, the chef came out with Guinness-flavoured ice cream, and what can only be described as Smoked Guinness Lamb. It was really quite special.
I mean, if you asked me how to make Smoked Guinness Lamb, I’ll probably just get a lamb, feed it some Guinness, stuff a bunch of cigarettes in its mouth and say, “Nah, your Smoked Guinness Lamb”

The good news is, throughout the whole of March only, everyone can enjoy these good Guinness infused cuisine at participating outlets throughout KL.

Bossa Nova at Parkroyal, Bulldog, Delaney’s, Jarrod & Rawlins, Nikko Hotel and Sevenatenine will all be serving their own Guinness-inspired creations specially for St Patrick’s Day.

In the meantime, see if you’ve got the luck of an Irish by playing the game at guinness.com.my
There’s phat prizes to be won if you’re one of the top three scorers: a Dell Inspiron laptop, a Canon Ixus digital camera and an Apple iPod Touch. That’s some pretty flash prizes just for playing such a simple game.

The celebration in Malaysia will culminate with the main event – the Guinness St Patrick’s Festival this Saturday, 15th March at Plaza Mont’Kiara.
There’ll be some serious entertainment going on from 5pm onwards. Not forgetting of course – loads of beer, a slice of the Irish culture, and the magic of the Chef in Black himself.
If you love to party, there’s no reason not to be at Plaza Mont’Kiara this Saturday.

It’s the next best thing to celebrating St Patrick’s Day in Ireland itself. 😉

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What a wonderful, wonderful event last night.

My flight was delayed and I arrived at the venue one hour later than my scheduled appearance, but damn, what a hot crowd at 1Utama last night.
That was easily the most amazing crowd I have ever been in front of. Even the cold weather and drizzling rain could not dampen the crowd’s mood.

Liang, as usual, was excellent in working up the passionate crowd. When it was my turn to go up on stage, the roaring reception the audience bestowed on me was one normally reserved for rock stars and famous actors. Not bloggers!
Before this, the only time I had people chanting my name so loudly was when I owe them money.

That’s me showing off my sugar cane chopping skillz

Seriously, I have honestly never felt more welcomed and appreciated. Thank you to all of you guys at 1Utama last night. I’m just a boy from a small town, man, I don’t deserve this.
Of course lah, everyone was there not really to see me but to have a peek at Taiwanese superstar Jay Chou.

There was a buzz in the air when the man himself arrived backstage in a 4WD. The man was here on a promotional tour for his new movie Kung Fu Dunk.
Jay Chou wore jeans and jacket over a white T-shirt with pink lipstick mark, and he looked every bit like a talented superstar that he is.

Despite how well run the event was last night, there were two things that pissed me off.
The first one was how security completely refused to let an audience member who was disabled into the barricaded area. The guy was confined to the wheelchair and could not see past the barricades. He still went there with his guardians and the rest of crowd under the rain. He asked me to help him get permission to sit closer to the stage, and I asked the security in charge there to let him through. TWICE. Both times I was brushed off with a rude “Cannot! Cannot! Cannot!”
Dude, the guy could not even WALK. He’s not gonna rush up on stage and cause a big ruckus if that’s what you’re concerned. All he wanted was a better view of the stage and you would not even let him through? Don’t be an asshole.

The second issue I had was how over-protective Jay Chou’s entourage was. Security around Jay Chou last night was tighter than a fish’s arse.
You could not even step within 3 metres of the star without being hassled by his security. I’ve met the Black Eyed Peas before who are arguably a lot more popular than Jay Chou, and even they were only surrounded by less security guards.

May Zhee with the love of her life

It made the experience very impersonal and honestly quite unfair to fans like me who have idolised him and followed his career for so long. I commented how even the SPONSORS of the event itself, the ones who paid for their appearance, had trouble getting close to the star and have a chat with him.

Apart from those two issues though, I do appreciate the gestures from the sponsor and event organizer flying me down, and giving me an opportunity to meet up with the only Chinese celebrity that I truly admired and idolised since young.
At least I got his damn-difficult-to-obtain autographs!

Jay Chou left shortly after that, and I attended the gala movie premiere of Kung Fu Dunk at the GSC Gold Class cinema thanks to Mamee Funkees.
The movie itself is fun and has a few classic hilarious moments. It has a script is ridiculously unrealistic but it’s mindless combination of action and comedy, so do watch it when it comes out in cinemas this 7th February.

This is one photo I am gonna treasure a lot.

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If you wanna talk about who’s the King of Chinese Pop, you can bring up names like David Tao or Lee Hom.

But, love him or hate him, the ONE name that you cannot go past is Jay Chou.
Like many others, Jay Chou’s lyrical mumbling goodness has got me hooked since many years ago with his breakout single Ke Ai Nu Ren. Since then, I’ve been listening to his music frequently and following his album releases with anticipation every year.

In a climate of commercialised C-Pop where good looks take precedence over musical talent, and where every Chinese artiste is contented just singing translated versions of Western songs, Jay Chou’s originality is refreshing. In fact, he’s the only Chinese artiste I truly idolize. I like that in every new album of his, he is always ready to explore new themes while staying true to his roots.
His knack of fusing East and West, hip hop and pop, and the sounds of everyday elements like ping-pongs into music is always creative and is gonna stay interesting for many years to come.
It’s hard to find fault in this musical genius. Perhaps the only thing I hate about Jay Chou is that the lyrics to his songs are too cheem.
There is absolutely no chance in hell anyone can sing his songs during karaoke sessions.

Heck, I need to look up dictionary ten times just to sing his one line.
It wasn’t just singing he’s good at. The Taiwanese superstar recently ventured into acting and directing, releasing his first self-directed movie Secret to surprisingly critical acclaim. Even after Initially Disappointed with Jay Chou’s acting abilities, I have to take my words back after watching Secret. By that time, many guys are already throwing their arms up in air wondering “Is there ANYTHING Jay Chou can’t do?!”
But that’s not what this blog entry is about today.
My blog entry today is to tell you that Jay Chou is coming to town.

In conjunction with Jay’s new CNY movie Kung Fu Dunk, the good guys over at Mamee Funkees are bringing the Chinese King of R&B over for the Kung Fu Dunk Uth FEST.
The event is happening this 2nd February from 10am onwards at the 1Utama Central Park Avenue.
Jay Chou himself will be making a special appearance, and highlights of the Fest will include fashion shows, hair shows, kung fu shows, singing contests, t-shirt design contests, basketball challenges.
What’s more? There’ll be stage appearances by many well-known local personalities like Karen Kong, Liang and… KENNY SIA.

Me, Liang and David

Yes, I’ll be down Saturday next week for the Kung Fu Dunk Uth Fest.
Come 2nd February, 1Utama is gonna be more crowded than a Hindraf rally because everyone will be lining up to catch a glimpse of me and my coconuts.
Or more likely, they don’t really wanna see me and just wanna meet Jay Chou, like me.

But tell you what.
HOW GOOD WOULD IT BE if you join us backstage chilling out with Jay Chou up close and personal, and avoid the people mountain people sea situation outside 1Utama?
All you gotta do is get those specially-marked packs of the delicious Mamee Funkees and open up to see if you have the winning card. Who knows? You might get lucky, you know? (With the card, not with Jay Chou)
Even if you didn’t get to meet the star himself, there’s still lots of prizes like LG TVs, Apple iPods and movie passes to drool over.

All these is in celebration of the 7th February release of his new movie Kung Fu Dunk.
In this cross between Shaolin Soccer and Slam Dunk, Jay Chou plays a kung fu fighter trying to locate his real family. Instead he was duped by Eric Tsang into joining a basketball team, where he met and fell in love with Half-A-Twin Charlene Choi.
It’s an action comedy, which is gonna be interesting because I never saw Jay Chou as a comedian. His role in all his previous movies is this calm, quiet, introverted guy with only ONE facial expression.

The -_- expression.
We know Jay Chou has got that cool solemn factor nailed down, so let’s see if he could do himself proud as a comedian.

For more info about the Kung Fu Dunk Uth FEST, log on to uth.com.my. You could also join this Be Funky With Funkee contest, and it’s wacky fun.

The instruction on the website says to grab a basketball and a pack of yummy Mamee Funkees, then “take a photo and show us how FUNKY you are!”
“The one with the funkiest shot and slogan will win!”
I tried.


I failed. Miserably.
I think the most difficult part is figuring out what “funky” stuff I could do with a basketball and a packet of Funkees.
What exactly does “funky” mean anyway?

Does this look funky to you?

Does this look funky to you?
Wait, I have an idea.

Does THIS look funky to you?

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You may have heard this on the radio.

Battle of the Bands is the largest intervarsity charity band competition of the year. The Grand Finals is happening this Friday at Sunway Lagoon Theme Park from 5pm onwards. Tix available at the door or pre-booked on 016 2219007. Admission is free and the event will be broadcasted on MTVAsia. It’s all for a good cause, and the best part is – I’ll be doing my part volunteering as GUEST JUDGE.
Oh yeah, I’m gonna go all Simon Cowell on those poor kids’ asses. They better be ready.

If you asked me two years ago if I expected to see my name billed on an event poster alongside VJ Denise and Hannah Tan, I’d laugh at you so hard until my left tit fall off.

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Quite simply, the best damn live concert I have ever attended.

When Suki and Faizal spoke to the Black Eyed Peas, Pepsi ambassador to Pepsi ambassador, they asked what advice an accomplished international group like them would give to new budding music artists.
Will.i.am’s reply was “Stay hungry. Stay focussed. Keep your feet on your ground.”

See the Black Eyed Peas interview

Indeed, when we met them privately at the Marriot, we could hardly tell by their demeanour that The Black Eyed Peas are in fact one of this decade’s most successful pop group because they were so humble, polite and down to earth.

Later that evening we went to their concert, and the same four people that we met earlier had miraculously transformed into this electrifying, singing, dancing, ass-kicking entertainment machines.

The scene outside the Impact Arena was people mountain people sea.
Yet, despite that everything was incredibly well-planned and in control, so much so that we don’t even have to shuffle through the sticky crowd to go into the arena. I reckon there were more people lining up buying pork burgers at McDonald’s than there were people squeezing in the venue.

For appetizers, The Click Five opened for the show.

The Click Five – Jenny

I was actually less interested in their number one smash hit Jenny than the fact that they wore freaking SUITS during their live performances!

Wet patches. The side effect of wearing a suit to a pop concert

Dude, you guys are in Thailand ok?
The weather here is hot ok?
People don’t walk around wearing suits like its winter ok?!

As the crowd began to fill the Impact Arena, I had a chance to scout around and check out the local concert goers.
I wasn’t disappointed.

Here’s a picture of three guys and one girl.
Or was it three girls and one guy?
Dunno. Your guess is as good as mine.

Now, something cool unexpectedly happened to me before the actually concert began.
You see, normally when you go to concerts, cameras and other recording equipment are strictly banned. However, because I was the only person in the Malaysian media team with a proper SLR camera, the concert organisers not only issued me with a press pass, they also gave me access to the security pit area RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE STAGE.

It doesn’t get any better than that.
I had, literally, the best seat in the house. Any closer, and I’d have to join the Black Eyed Peas on stage. 😉

It was difficult to contain my excitement as I stood there behind the security barricade between the crowd and the stage.
It was even more difficult to contain my excitement as the lights to the Arena dimmed. The intro to the song Hey Mama was played, and out came The Black Eyed Peas!

They rapped. They danced. Fergie gyrated like Shakira. And the crowd was loving every minute of it.
Let me tell ya, I have seen crowds going nuts, but this was unlike anything I have ever seen before.

The atmosphere at the Impact Arena was indescribable. Even I had trouble holding my camera steady.
It was as if The Black Eyed Peas had just brought 20,000 people to the point of simultaneous orgasm. And they were still begging for more.

Not sure how their concert in KL was like after some over-zealous religious nut kicked up a fuss over Fergie’s wardrobe, but she ain’t holding anything back, baring midriffs doing her sexy moves and all.

Will.i.am and Taboo looked sharp in their suit and tie, while Apl and Fergie dressed it down.

Still can’t believe I was standing so close to them.
I mean, I could even see the frizz in Fergie’s hair and the foundation of her make-up. What the heck, right?

And did I mention Fergie looked delicious?
Or maybe I should say Fergalicious? Hur hur. 😉

That’s taking nothing away from the other band members of course.
Apl was especially delightful to watch. The half-Filipino had so much energy in him, thrusting his hips and break dancing for the eager crowd.

Apl grew up poor, but he is always proud of where he came from. Whether its a belt buckle, a jacket or his adidas, everytime he make a public appearance, Apl would always sport a Filipino flag or something representing his home country.

With so many number one hits under their belt, The Black Eyed Peas never ran out of familiar songs to perform.

An interesting moment occured during their performance of My Humps.
There’s this one point where Fergie threw a wad of cash notes into the madly screaming crowd.
Those on the front row thought it was real, but I picked it up and the dollar note looked something like this.

HAHA. WHAT THE HELL?
After a quick wardrobe change, the Peas came out again and sang Shut Up.

It was undoubtedly their most awesome showcase of the entire night.
Check out my video later and you’ll see that Fergie was so into her performance that she was almost crying. From there, she did a complete emotional turn-around and did SIX SINGLE-HANDED CARTWHEELS in a row across the stage and back!

Suki kept gushing over how much she admired Fergie for having the total package.
Fergie’s stamina was incredible.

Hermoine Granger

While the rest of her band members went backstage for a rest during Fergie’s solo performances, she was on stage like 95% of the entire time. And all that while, her voice remained intact and her performances energetic.
How could anyone not love her like that!?

For her solo, Fergie did Big Girls Don’t Cry, Glamarous and Fergalicious. I went completely nuts when she sang London Bridge.

That was my favourite song to look out for in the clubs, and it was simply awesome to hear it live.

Will.i.am only did one song from his solo album – I Got It From My Mama.
When I first heard the song, I thought to myself “Why kind of a stupid song is this!” If you never heard this song before, it goes something like.

Baby where’d you get your body from?
Tell me where you get your body from.
Baby where’d you get your body from?
Tell me where you get your body from.

Of course she got it from her mama!
I mean, where else could she possibly had got her body from?
Parkson?

Still, Will.i.am is definitely one of the coolest and most charismatic artists in the music industry right now.
At one point during the concert, Will.i.am announced to the crowd. “The bad news is, The Black Eyed Peas is breaking up…”

When the crowd roared in disbelief, he quickly interjected “No! No! No! What I meant was… We’re breaking up the fights.”
“The good news is, The Black Eyed Peas are never gonna separate!”

And with that, they carried on with their performances of Don’t Phunk With My Heart, Don’t Lie, and their new song More.
During one of their songs, The Black Eyed Peas did something really memorable.

Will.i.am got the crowd to turn on their mobile phones and wave it in the air. The result is a beautiful sea of dancing lights permeating throughout the arena.

With Where Is The Love playing in the background, suddenly everyone in the building felt as if they are connected like one big happy family.
Gotta give them credit for knowing how to work the crowd.

The Black Eyed Peas with their band, backup singers and dancers

The Black Eyed Peas is probably the only group in the world who can use a giant inflated monkey head balloon as a concert prop, and no one would say anything about it.

Alas, all good things must come to an end.
A wardrobe change later, Will.i.am Apl.de.ap Taboo and Fergie ended their phenomoneal, 2-hour-long, energetic concert with one final rendition of Let’s Get Retarded. With that, they left us breathless, excited and wanting for more.

What a great concert.
Here are two more videos I took during the show.

Part one of the concert. Check out Fergie’s one-handed cartwheel!

The conclusion of the concert here.

Faizal Tahir’s debut solo album is out now

I love doing this so much. Thank you again to all those who made this trip for me possible.
To think that three years ago, I actually had to resort to gatecrashing beauty pageants and begging organisers to let me to photograph their lousy events. And now there are actually people out there giving me press passes to not only watch the Black Eyed Peas but also travel with Suki and Faizal for it?
Wow.
To those who denied me the opportunity to photograph your events in the past, all I could now say is: suck on that. 😛

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A few weeks ago I was in Bangkok, Thailand on the invitation of The 8 Unit and Pepsi Malaysia.

It was a media trip and I was tasked to cover the Black Eyed Peas in concert. For someone like me who’s not even considered an entertainment reporter, obviously I was very excited. How often do I get the chance to watch such a huge international pop group perform live AND be allowed to take all the photos I want, right?
For Suki and Faizal, they got it even better.

Suki and Faizal took out the first and second places on 8TV’s One In A Million, and since then life hadn’t been the same.
The two of them were only just getting used to their new-found fame, and already Pepsi has snapped them up to become their official brand ambassadors in Malaysia. That is good news for them, because The Black Eyed Peas are also Pepsi’s ambassadors.
During this trip, not only would Suki and Faizal be meeting their idols up close and personal, they would be doing the one and only interview the Black Eyed Peas have agreed to for their Thailand tour.

We knew this trip was gonna be a memorable one. But even before we left the gates of KLIA, we were already met with some dramas.
You see, Faizal said he was so excited he didn’t sleep the night before. That’s understandable. But apparently the guy was so over the top about the trip, he had completely forgotten about the “no liquids on international flights” security rule.

Inside his hand-carry luggage, the bugger packed: a water bottle, perfume, toothpaste, SHAMPOO, three different types of hair creams and (I’m not kidding) A FREAKING HAIR DRYER. With so many prohibited items on board, obviously he kena stopped by security lah!
I can understand the perfume and the water bottle. But what the heck was he thinking bringing a HAIR DRYER on board?

Needless to say, most of his stuff was confiscated. Fortunately though, Faizal’s hair dryer managed to escape unharmed.
THE HAIR LIVES.

So anyway, after that silly incident at the airport, the group of us finally arrived at Bangkok Suvanarbhumi Airport together with the 8TV contest winners and corporate sponsors .

We were whisked away to the JW Marriot Hotel where the Black Eyed Peas was scheduled make their media appearance. Suki and Faizal went to the holding room to prepare for their exclusive interview.
Meanwhile, I was joined by other journalists in the press conference room.

You could feel the electricity in the air as the anticipation mounted on the arrival of The Black Eyed Peas. I could feel I was literally shaking in my seat, and it ain’t ‘cos of the Tom Yam Goong I ate earlier.
It is ‘cos this is the first time I’d be meeting a band of such amazing calibre.

Before long, the beautiful Thai emcee walked up on stage and spurted out a series of kaps and kongs and a string of other Thai words I couldn’t comprehend.

Whatever man. With a body so hot liddat, she can kong whatever she wants and I’d be happy to kap it anyway.
But sexy emcee aside, the highlight of the press conference was of course…

THE BLACK EYED PEAS.

TABOO!

APL.DE.AP!

WILL.I.AM!

FERGIE FERG, what’s up babyyyyy???

How many number one hits have they accomplished.
How many times have we danced to their music.
How many times we listened to their songs, from Let’s Get It Started, to Where Is The Love, to MY HUMPS. OMG.

It was such surreal feeling to see them appear in front of me, in the flesh just like that.
When you talk about music artistes that have achieved international stardom, you think about Britney Spears, you think about Justin Timberlake, you think about the Black Eyed Peas. If I have never been starstruck before, I am now well and truly starstruck.

Fergie may appear to be the most successful out of the group, but will.i.am is definitely the brains behind the Peas.
The guy is just the epitome of coolness. If anyone knows cool, it’s him.
will.i.am would hardly crack a smile, and when he does, it’s a smirk. The entire time he’s on stage, he was completely calm, collected and confident.

Still, the guy can be goofy without even trying.
Fergie, on the other hand, was everything I expected her to be, and more.
I’ve listened to her interviews before, and one thing that always struck me was how honest and down-to-earth she is despite her success. Normally, mega-stars would be deliberately try to avoid answering difficult questions.

But not Fergie.
Ask her about anything. From her crystal meth addiction in the past, to this one time she peed in her pants on stage, Fergie would tackle all those questions with nothing to hide.
How not to admire her like that?!

One thing I didn’t quite understand though was the local Thai media.
Opportunities like these don’t come easy, and normally you’d see tons of photographers stacked out on the front of the stage. But for some reason, the Thai photographers and reporters were all seen quietly sitting at the back of the room.
It was as if The Black Eyed Peas was their high school teacher who would ask difficult questions if they do not paying attention. The military junta sure has an effect on its people’s obedience.

So while the rest of the media cowered at the back, I strutted up to the front and took an empty seat on the first row labelled “VIP”. Not like there was any security to chase me away. 😉

I ended up with some of the best photos from the press conference.

The Black Eyed Peas presenting an autographed memorabilia to a charity auction winner.
The money they raised go towards helping disadvantaged children and tsunami-affected villages.

I caught up with the charity auction winners after the press conference, and they said they’ve paid 30,000 baht (RM3,000) each for a jacket from Fergie and Taboo!
That is just… incredible.

The best part of the evening gotta be when I returned to look for Suki and Faizal after their exclusive interview.

Yes, Fergie is actually THAT tiny

As it turned out, the Peas were still hanging around the room after they concluded the interview. I was lucky enough to catch them before they leave.

Knowing that this was probably my one and only chance to make an impression on Fergie, I seized the opportunity to hold her hand and say to her.
Kenny: Hey Fergie! I love your music!
Fergie: Thank you!
Kenny: …
Kenny: Umm… yay?
Ok fine, so it didn’t work out quite as well as I hoped for.
But that’s alright.

At least I got an autograph from all four of the Black Eyed Peas! 🙂

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I always envy those living in other cities who always get to go to really cool Halloween costume parties.

Virtual Insanity, Singapore

Kuching is hardly the place to celebrate Halloween. The past few times I spent Halloween in Kuching, we’ll hold a party in a pub somewhere, and then we’ll have three people turning up dressed as ghouls and draculas, and the rest will come wearing normal going-out clothes. So boring!
I don’t know what is it in Kuching’s river, but I think people here just aren’t generally interested in dressing themselves up in stupid costumes and dance like an idiot. Even Miri has a better party scene than Kuching.

Tombstone says “I cheated on my wife in memory”

But Mojo last week held a Halloween party and it was surprisingly fun.
Gerald totally pimped out his pub.

“It was viagra that killed me.” Heh, I don’t think so dude!

He even built a graveyard outside the pub. For dead pubbers.

Then there were nooses hanging from the ceiling.
The fun part about any good Halloween party is always the costumes. It is the only time in the year that guys can dressed like fools and girls can dressed like complete sluts and no one can say anything about it.

I was dressed as a member of the Taliban.
And yes, that’s a priest standing next to me. Check out what he was holding.

The New Sotheby’s WINE ENCYCLOPEDIA?! What the hell, right?

Moments later the ‘Priest’ was seen smoking a cigarette with one hand, holding a Carlsberg on the other, taking a photo with some babes. Bad priest!

I like this picture. Not because there were two hot chicks (well yeah). But how often do you take a photo, only to realise there was an open casket in the background on the right, and a dead person sipping on Coca-Cola on the left.

With Little Red Riding Hood and sexy Zorro.

Cynthia the coprse bride. Doesn’t look very “coprse-y” to me.

Annette the French courtesan.

With Jack Skellington and Chucky’s Bride.

The bartender from Hell.

And the vampy bartendress.

Ismail dunked a whole bucket of ICI Dulux on his face.

The last thing you expect seeing at the bar is a bride arguing with a bloodied butcher, and a ghost stepping in to try to stop a fight.

Some time during the night, I went and visited a nurse changed my face mask to become a sex-changed Taliban prostitute.
There were a few among the crowd who dressed up really well during the night.

There was this Irish girl that came dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.

Bryan Nicholas had the full count dracula costume on. Fake teeth, cape and all. He won the prize as the best dressed of the night.
After seeing Bryan, I kinda regret not coming as a vampire.

You get to suck on chicks’ necks.
The best part is, they couldn’t say anything because it’s all part of an act. 😉

This is Gerald, walking around the pub with his 24-inch schlong hanging out, like he owns the place.

Luckily, a nurse was available on site. An emergency was called and the nurse arrivd immediately to administer an injection on Gerald’s freak sausage.
Too bad it was a weekday and I had to leave Mojo early to get to work the next morning. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that this year, at least one place in Kuching seemed to have all the ingredients of a great Halloween party.
There were scary decorations, free drinks for those who dressed up, and the Kuching folks were sporting enough to come in their best costumes. How I just wish there’s a place where we can hire or purchase ready-made costumes.

Happy (belated) Halloween everybody!

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