Thursday, April 28, 2005
Bozo
Have any of you ever been to Genting Highlands (this is directed to Singaporeans)? The place where your cash-loaded relatives go to spend their money at the casino up there (certainly not for the theme park because it sucks monkey balls)? Here's a few facts about Genting Highlands for you to ponder over/waste your time:1- It's pronounced GEN-ting, not JEN-ting. Genting means ravine/valley in Malay. For goodness sake, get it right.
2- A substantial amount of Singaporeans make up the visitor population there. Now that casinos are going to be built in Singapore, Uncle Lim (Goh Tong) will be losing quite a bit of business. Then again, the fact that the Singaporean casinos will have a S$100 admission fee might entice gamblers to cross the causeway instead. It costs a little less than that for a two-way bus trip to KL and then up the hill, you know. The cold atmosphere is a bonus, too.
3- I used to work there as a clown.
whAt WhaT wat? Let's take a look at that line again.
3- I used to work there as a clown.
"OMFGWTFBBQLOL!!11!!1!1!"
Drama aside, yeah, that's a fact. Some people were somewhat amused when I told them that. Others weren't quite as surprised, though; apparently it was kinda my personality to make a fool of myself to entertain others. Before I go on, I must inform you that that's only half-true, since going a little crazy all the time takes too much energy and it gets old eventually.
But I digress. Back to clowning. My sister's best friend's father works as one, and he has a small entertainment provision company; he sets up parties, amuses people, blows and swallows fire, twist balloons, etc. for a living. What happened was, in November 2002, when my brother and I were wasting away during the holidays, he approached us to see if we could work for him in Genting Highlands. After some encouragement (really) from our mom, we accepted the offer. Besides, we could use some extra cash, in the range of RM20 per hour (though we're told that we're only working four hours per day, and that food and lodging are provided). We later went to his house for a crash course on baloon-twisting, and were set to head for the hill the same weekend.
I must tell you, it wasn't easy being a clown.
Although work starts officially at 10.00am, we had to get up two hours earlier to prep for the job. Morning showers were essential but dreaded, not least because they're friggin cold! Then to put makeup on. We do that in the following steps:
1- Apply a layer of clown white (it's a sort of face paint) on face.
2- Remove portions around the lips and nose to reveal some skin there.
3- Apply some red makeup on the lips to form the clown's mouth.
4- Draw some eyebrows and some markings to add variety to the pale, creepy face.
5- Be sure not to mess up step 4 because your markings may look like battlescars if not done correctly (I know this from personal experience). Then you'd have to wipe of that portion and relayer with clown white.
6- Smother face with lots of talcum powder to conceal stickiness of clown white.
7- Douse face with a little bit of water to remove excess powder.
8- Tap face with tissues. If makeup does not come off, then you're set.
9- Use cellophane tape to attach red coloured clown nose of sponge to the area of skin on the nose (your nose) that's exposed.
And to complete the image, we got to wear funky hats and wigs. Clothing, on the other hand, was usually a set of pyjama-like clothes adorned with freakishly horrendous patterns, ranging from simple spots and stripes to parrots and trees. We were free to choose our own footwear, though (we had gigantic clown shoes, but most of us didn't want to opt for that because they were usually mold-infested on the inside). What we ended up with were very shabby looking costumes (I've seen much, much better), but it gets the job done. Once preparations were complete, we had to make a half-kilometre uphill hike from our apartment to First World Plaza, where our 'HQ' was the backstage area. Tiring shit, this. And you get a lot of people honking as they drive pass, too...
...To be continued when I feel like it.
Now, to look for some of the pics I have as a clown so I can show them to you guys...
