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.
