This phrase is probably on every bloggers lips. Good readership can open doors to more possibilities - blog ads, better business, so on and so forth - but surely, there must be some basic ingredients to attain good readership. Here are some ideas the Kings thought of -

Matt: Blogs must feature hot chicks








CHECK!






Anymore ideas, guys?

Labels: ComeBackKings_Caleidoscope_and_Column

Hi', said the man with his right arm extended. I greeted it with a firm shake as my eyebrows crumpled together as I looked at him from an angle. A natural technique deployed to remember things.

Oh no', I thought, 'not one of those awkward occasions when a person actually knows you and your usually dependable memory failed on your complacent-lazily-dependant self!'

'You came for the launch, right... in Bangsar Village?', said the man while pointing at me with his less busy hand, as I haven't allowed him to have his other hand back.

'Celebrity Fitness launch in Bangsar Village?', he added.

'Oooh,' I said in my head, 'one of those people who've watched our performance. Good. F@#* my memory, one can depend on the memory of others! HAH!'

Now, if only I can remember the gentlement's name and his designation for Celebrity Fitness, he went on about the CBKs.

Well, actually, it was mostly about me. =)

‘You guys are the best man. Especially you! I remember you coz’ you were in the middle. You were the funniest. You were so funny.’

While he went on, I thought, ‘Say, this is point when Ronnie will rub his slightly-protruding chest and say, ‘Oh welllllll…’ with an artificially wide smile on his face.’

‘So,’ I continued thinking, ‘this is how it feels like to be Ronnie. In the spotlight. In the limelight. In the middle … of the Old Intro Dance. HAH!’

(Sorry Ronnie. By the way, I told this to Nigesh and we both had a good laugh about it. Tee hee.)

Coming back to the subject, The Celebrity Fitness launch in Bangsar Villagewas quite a success. It was the first time we did a gig in a gym!

It also marks the debut of my sweety-sweet Mun Mun as our sound-cum-photographer girl! Besides us, it was a great performance from her as well – no mistakes, all cues on time, pictures and video taken during our performance! Girls ARE made for multi-tasking! HEAVEN SENT!

Initially, the Kings were supposed to represent The Actors Studio but somewhere along the way, the Celebrity Fitness people opted for us as The ComeBackKings only, under no particular banner.

The Kings clearly enjoyed themselves that night; mingled with the hot and the muscular, caught glimpses of Amber Chia and questioned how ‘bones’ can be ‘fit’, had unlimited beer from the tap, counted the amount of people with cleanly shaved armpits, fooled around with the gym hair blowers, etc. Also, the venue and all meant that our Nigesh never felt more at home!

Labels: FlashBack

Its funny how the government abandons you when you start moving away from the political & economical nexus of the Klang Valley. Coming to the end of Jalan Tun Razak is like coming to the end of where the government stop spending OUR money for communal development.

THERE ARE NO ROAD SIGNS! One wrong turn and before you know it, you're travelling down nameless jalans and lorongs, make oblivious turns into simpangans, forced to stop in the middle of nowhere because our trusty polis trafik has the power to alter two-way roads into one-way to ease periodic traffic congestions... slowly and slowly drifting deeper into the slums of Ampang. Hey, we can always stop and ask for directions. But no help there either; the residence there haven't the vocubulary or the knowledge of roads (of course lah, no road signs mah!) to point you in the right direction and, not to mention, their unwillingness to help.

But in the end, when you've finally found your way, it was all worth while. Tamarind Springs is an eden for those who wants to pop the question. It is styled and designed to capture the ambience to that of a romantic Thai restaurant where you and your loved one can 'YAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMM SENG!'. Yes, no one shatters the fabric of harmony and solitude any better than a drunk Chinese car parts supplier; especially when you have a few dozen of them converged for the Volvo's Suppliers Appreciation Night. GULP!

Cronic 'Yam Seng'-ers and potential hecklers are aplenty when The Professor took to the stage. Chants of 'Yam Seng' still blearing as The Professor was left clawing for attention.

And, to put a cherry on the cake, there was a noise curfew (another good samaritan gesture to impress our Datuks and Tan Sris that happen to live within the proximity. God knows whether their own snores could've drowned the echoes of 'Yam Seng' and whether or not they even knew about this apparent noise curfew imposed to their honour or even thought of appreciating such a gesture, or worse, even shed thought on whether such a gesture would somehow tarnish the reputation of this rather namely tourism spot especially this (supposed) Visit Malaysia Year 2007)

... Yes, a noise curfew. And constant meddling witht the volume of our music tracks forced both our opening dances to skip a beat. To add some icing on the cherry, the audience wasn't that bright. We were warned, though, of an audience that wouldn't know how to appreciate 'smart humour' so Dance 101 got the nod from The Kings. But after that night, it seems that Saiful Apek will get the nod the next time around.

However, the audience was put into place (the zoo) by The Professor and his little rhyme.

Honestly, I pity the audience though; they were out to have fun. At least, as entertainers, we should be professional enough to give them that ... although we have the last words, they have the last laugh - don't expect another generously-paying-Volvo-gig getting penned into our schedule again.

Labels: event_performances_show

11 Sept 2004 - It was day-2 of the staging of Hip-Hopera, a play production by the Society of Performing Arts of Taylor's College Subang Jaya. The first half of the play just ended. The ComeBackKings were still backstage, huddled and hunched together in a circle for a supposed prep. talk. Back then, The ComeBackKings, a figure of speech they had borrowed from their teacher advisor, Ms. Vijaya, after her remarks of their return to their 'old' college, was very much just a temporary stage name for their brief appearance.

"So whose contact lens are we looking for again?" cracked Matt Ho, sending a ripple of laughter among the other three original Kings, Chi Ho, Nigesh and Rishaad.

Each of them scanned each others' face. The lines of confidence clearly beaming. They pursed their lips and nodded to each other. "This is it", they thought. They stood up, lifted their arms from each others shoulders and waited near the link-entrance between Lecture Theatre 2 and Lecture Theatre 1 . Ronnie was already on stage, announcing the special half-time show.

First up was Chi Ho, the 'butler'. Firmly gripping a broom, he walked up the stage to greet the applause of a crowd eager to be entertained. And in the end, entertained was more than what they, and the Kings, got.

Only a day ago, the 4 original Kings was having a chat, reminiscing their college days together when Ms. Vijaya came over to them and asked whether they could pull off a half-time show for the second day of the play. Chi Ho and Rishaad quickly turned to each other, both having the same thoughts about their previous assignment - The Magic Show. Matt and Nigesh were somewhat expecting Ms. Vij to say something like that (Nigesh was supposed to perform with Durga from the Save the Last Dance production for the half-time slot). So from there, their conversation was solely about the half-time show, or rather, just a 'small' skit.

Chi Ho brought up something that he had seen on telly, about a how the late James Wong, a Hong Kong composer, demonstrated how Tango can be learnt by mopping the floor and how the Twist came out of how we dry our backs with a towel. And that was enough to get Rishaad's creative juices flowing.

His eyes brightened as he pushed himself up standing. "Yea", he boomed enthusiastically, "that's an idea!" From that moment, the rest of the Kings left Rishaad on his own as he stared into an empty space, silently working out in his head, the sequences, dances and sounds that would turn out to be the ComeBackKings' biggest hit - Dance 101, or to many, The Cockroach Dance.

When Rishaad returned to the Lecture Theatre the next day, with his enthusiasm very much like the day before, layed out to the other Kings about the his drop of genius. The group was impressed. Already they could imagine the crowd roaring and laughing to a standing ovation. Practice was brief as the phrase 'to have fun' was still embedded in the back of their heads.

And when the time came, the ComeBackKings struted what they have planned and little do they know, they have opened a door for greater things to come.

What they've previously imagined about the crowd became a reality.

What they thought was merely just "to have fun" became a career.

What they thought was just a 'small' skit became one of those 'small' things that many will regret not witnessing.

And so, The ComeBackKings was formed.

Labels: ComeBackKings_Caleidoscope_and_Column

What better way to start a new blog than with a major event like the World Press Freedom Day 2007!

On 5 May 2007, all The Kings rose (miraculously) on this Saturday morning, packed their bags and costumes and made their way for a 10am soundcheck at Pasar Seni, where The Kings were to open the event. Funny enough, at 10 past 10, the stage was sparkling empty. Not a speaker or mic stand in sight so some breakfast as well as a slow day ahead was on the cards.

Already, the prospects of performing in front of next to no one were in our breakfast banter. A venue where cars outnumber people shouldn't be a problem for us as we all remember that dingy club called Pampas. Despite that, we know our friends will be there for support (thanx Adel, Mike, Regina, Adam, Madana (our volunteer cameraman!), etc!), just like in Pampas.

After soundcheck, we paced in and out of complexes, retreating from the sun and feeding our skin with air-conditioning.

We loitered at the Annexe (the complex behind Pasar Seni) and killed time wasting precious SD Card bytes.

Chi Ho was hoping to quench the heat with some iced-coffee at the Bau Bau Café but nothing doing.

Its also where the children’s painting gallery was and there, we met some friends and took pictures to ease our memory.

Believe it or not, we never really started making our way to the main stage area for our 12 noon opener until it was 11.45am(!) and still, no one knew that the event was about to start!... so we took more pictures,

with friends,

with ourselves,

and with our wacky sides.

Soon, Sonia Randhawa, one of the organisers, summoned everyone involved on stage and chucked the mic at our faces demanding for words of wisdom when we really should be changing into our costumes. The backstage was funky though, the first dressing room - ala – gym shower we've ever been in! There were more toilet seats than there were mirrors!

And Dance 101 came and went as usual. No moshing crowds and teenage girls screaming out names this time, only chuckles and ‘tepuk kebajikans’ from the handful that were there and echoes we made stomping on a stage made of stone (Yes, stone! Explains a lot about the builders!) Well, that’s all from this time.

More materials migrating from our Friendster blog later…

Labels: event_performances_show