Come on down to Laugh Die You 3 – The Karaoke and you might just walk away with a new television... or so says Gurmit Singh, or should we say Hero Singh, the new alter-ego of Gurmit.
Laugh Die You is Malaysia’s best-selling comedy hit, and yes, it’s coming to Singapore. Apart from Gurmit, the show also features Malaysia’s only female stand-up comedian, Joanne Kam, Singapore’s very own Kumar and Malaysian band Hydra.
The show, which is not kid-friendly by the way, will feature jabs about Singapore’s “current affairs, weather and the recent MRT breakdowns,” says Kumar, who is known for his jabs and biting observations about politics and life in Singapore.
At the press conference, Gurmit gave the media a peek into what will happen at the show – lots and lots of audience interaction. The 51-year-old burst out on stage dressed as his new character, Hero Singh, in a red turban and a monochrome security guard uniform, and proceeded to pick three ‘victims’ to go up onstage.
The funnyman had promised television sets to be given away at the show itself, but for now, there were only hotel toiletries to be won, or as Hero said, extremely valuable toiletries worth $200 each, as “you can’t get them without a night’s stay in the hotel.”
Next up on stage was Joanne, who proceeded to jokingly chide Hero for swiping the toiletries he had given out earlier from her own hotel room.
“Who got the shampoo?” she asked, before ragging on Hero for causing her to forgo washing her hair last night.
Joanne’s stories of her attempts to lose weight and her self-deprecating remarks about her own size brought much joy to the audience, as she unabashedly poked fun at herself.
The three comedians also revealed more of their undeniable chemistry and camaraderie in an interview with Toggle afterwards.
When asked which comedian they’d like to work with, Joanne answered, “I’d love to work with Wanda Sykes, Margaret Cho, oh and Whitney Cummings! I can do the Kam and Cummings show!” with Gurmit chiming in, “Kam, Come, Cummings, Gone.”
Joanne also shared more about the differences between performing in Malaysia and Singapore, saying that in Malaysia, there are “certain words we use in Malay that everyone gets,” but in Singapore she has to remember to translate these words into English.
The trio, who used to work together “way back when Haw Par Villa was still a theme park”, spoke about the differences between Singaporean and Malaysian audiences as well. They agreed that Singaporean audiences took longer to warm up – “they’ll be in the taxi on the way home before they start laughing!”, and that they were more afraid to laugh, especially when jokes about local policies are cracked.
When quizzed about the origins of Hero Singh, quick-witted Gurmit quipped immediately, “I was born from my mother’s womb, like everybody,” before sharing that Hero came about when Gurmit realised that he had never done a Punjabi character, which was especially ironic, considering that he was Punjabi himself. “I was just sitting there, talking about what to do and then, ‘Eh! Why don’t we do this?’ [I have] no idea why [I was suddenly inspired].”
Later, when asked to poke fun at each other, what started out as a simple answer by Kumar, “The Gurmit that you see on stage is definitely different from the Gurmit you see at home,” evolved into a discussion about why it is against the law to walk around undressed in your own home, with Kumar and Gurmit explaining to Joanne and even inserting a few jibes about each other’s attractiveness while at it.
Laugh Die You 3 - The Karaoke will take place at the Resorts World Theatre in Resort World Sentosa, on 9 and 10 July 2016. Tickets are available on sistic.com.sg from May 6 onwards.