(ENGLISH) THE CAMBODIAN GIG

During our 5 days show in Malaysia, Mosidik and I met this open mic-er from Malaysia, Sam Thomas. We shared the stages together there in One Mic Stand and Crack House. Sam did very well for his first time in Malaysia, especially in One Mic Stand, and fortunately when he saw our crafts, he liked it and recommended us for his friends back in Cambodia.

Not long after, Mo and I got contacted by Dan Riley, the guy who managed Comedy Club Cambodia, and he offered us to come by for a show in Phnom Penh and in Siem Reap. I was totally awestricken. I was grateful enough to be invited to Malaysia for that 5 days show, but now something further and exotic as Cambodia? Aw, hell yes.

Dan said that the Stand Up scene in Cambodia is not a good as other ASEAN countries like Malaysia and Singapore, the room is not that large and the entrance fee is only U$ 3. He said, he might not be able to cover our travelling expenses fully, but they had sponsors for the accommodation. I was like, meh, I don’t quite care about that, it’s the joy of trying out a new place and being recognized in a new place that matters. I was in a financial crisis myself, but I didn’t quite care, Ill borrow some money if necessary but there’s no way I’m gonna refuse this offer outta financial issues. Mo also expressed his concerns about the chance of losing money for this gig, but I know he mentioned that only informatively, there’s no way we gonna refuse this offer.

The one considerable challenge was not the fees to go there, but the audience that we gonna face. Dan said that the audience will be mostly expats, with little to no chance of local Cambodians. This already sounds like a tough room, sounds to me just like the scenes in Comedy Club Jakarta with tough and stuffy expats audience. But hey, tough audience will only be tough if there’s not enough interaction to melt the ice. So I figure, I have to prepare a lot of interaction and riffing strategies to deal with this kinda crowd. I looked at my materials bank, and my previous Stand Up scripts, and found that I have some interactions for Austaralians, Kiwis, Dutch, Russians, Americans, and Asians in general. That should be able to warm ‘em up before I get to my main materials, if those won’t do, I don’t know what will.

So off we go Cambodia.

AUGUST 19-21

There was no direct flight from Jakarta to Cambodia, so Mo and I had to stop by Singapore before taking another flight to Cambodia. Mo said that it would be nice to try out the open mic nights in Singapore before the real deal in Cambodia, so I booked some slots in Talk Cock Open Mic Night. Im a bit uneasy with Talk Cock, since I think it’s the hardest room in Singapore, but since it’s the only available room before Cambodia, so we decide to give it a go.

Mo and I had a little argument about the direction to Talk Cock in Blue Jazz Café somewhere in Bugis. I relied on my memory, since I had been there before, whereas Mo relied on his GPS. In the end, I got the MRT route right but Mo’s GPS got us to the right place after we exit the MRT station. My memory almost landed us in a church instead.

It was quite a busy night that night in Talk Cock. We met with Heazry, the proprietor for Talk Cock and we confirmed our slots. I also met again with some Singaporean comics that I have seen before, Wei Jie, Collin, Jinx and Riishi. It was good to meet again with those guys and did some catching up. There were 12 comics that night trying out the open mic, distributed into two sessions. Mo was closing the first session and I was closing the second session. I know it was an open mic night, but to be trusted to close the sessions were awesome.

There were a lot of weird comics that night. The first comic in the first session did this lazy, dragging and nagging delivery with almost no eye contact added with a little singing in the middle. Another comic did this character from North Asia with weird broken English Russian accent, and he told us that he had a blowjob from his sister. A girl with big boobs said that her boobs were too big and she wanted to cut them off. WTF. When I got to my turn, the audience was already tired with the circus, though I still got some sporadic laughs here and there.

But it was a good mental preparation and warming up before Cambodia. The audience in Talk Cock was mostly expatriates and they were hell to crack. In the end, the catching up with the Singaporeans was probably better than the Open Mic.

Next stop: Phnom Penh Cambodia

AUGUST 22

Our plane had to cancel the first attempt for a landing and fly again, and I could feel the sudden change of pressure in the cabin.

“Ladies and gentlemen, there was another plane landing so we have to re-attempt landing for safety purposes. So we are going to circle back to the airport and this will delay our landing for 7-8 minutes. Thank you for your patience and our apology for this inconvenience.”

Another plane landing?? What kinda nincompoop do they have working in the towers?? They think it’s a good idea to have two planes to land simultaneously? What is this? NASCAR Airport??

I looked at Mo, and I could see his face was losing blood.

“I hate flying.” He said.

Dan Riley picked us up when Mo and I were just exchanging our money. He’s a super friendly skinny white guy with light beard that looked like he has spent way too long in this country. A seasoned survivor. He took us to a tuk-tuk that waited outside, and took us to our hotel.

Phnom Penh looked like undeveloped Jakarta, with less traffic congestion. The motorbike drivers didn’t seem to care about their cranial safety; there were road side water puddles as the result from rain and bad drainage system. Good, more problems meaning more ingredients for comedy.

Dan took us to our hotel, the “Monument Hotel” cuz it’s nearby the Monument Park where they have the statue of Norodom Sihanouk there. Funny thing is, the hotel interior has handprints from the guests all over their lobby’s wall. Upon closer inspection, there were handprints from Singaporean comics Riishi, Fuzz and Jinx. There was even a print from Emo Phillips. This Monument Hotel Cambodia apparently is where all the visiting comics stayed during their gigs here.

The show took place in Equinox, a pub in a groovy part of Phnom Penh, on the second floor. We arrived at 7 PM, the bar on the second floor had just opened, and there were already a couple of expats waiting for the show, which was for another hour. 8 PM and good amount of people were already in the room, all the seats were taken, and some people were standing in the back. 8.30 PM Dan said to Scotty Muldoon, the host for that night to begin the show. I took good look around, and I saw all expats audience. Just for listening at them talk, with all the different accents, I knew anough that they were diverse expats. White people, black people, brown people, asians, and I’m just one kid from Indonesia. My nerves got the better of me, I think I looked pretty bad before the show, like an unsettled rookie. I was preparing crowd work in my mind, I knew I had to interact with most of them to gain respect, and I was playing each of those bits in my head just to make sure that I won’t miss them. But regardless of my plan, one thing was for sure: I’ve had this kind of crowd before in Jakarta. A full expat audience, and I did not do well. In fact, with the exception of Comedy Masala, I have never done well in a crowd of full expats, but I was in Comedy Masala for an open mic for 7 minutes, here I had to do 20 at least. Big difference.

Sam was up before Mo, and I heard the crowd said, “Oh, hes that American guy?” So, he’s that popular here, frequent enough to perform that the audience recognized him. I tried to scale how that would affect their expectation of him, and it seemed like recognition alone kinda made the audience quite receptive of Sam. That’s a good deal, I thought, at least the crowd was quite friendly, at least to a guy that they have seen before.

Mo was up next after Sam, and I eventhough I was so busy with myself, I knew that Mo was nervous as hell as well. It’s a new place, with a new crowd, and he’s up first. So up he went, and he nailed it like a boss. Mo did an excellent job, the best fat jokes and superb storytelling. One thing that he did as well, is that he did the crowd so well, I felt like I could do better. If Mo can do it, then I can do it too, thats the perk of having a fellow comedians doing a good job before you. Plus, after Mo, the crowd is pretty much fluid. All the ice gone. Even the barmen could see that Mo was doing well, a short break after his performance, and all the booze were pretty much gone from the counter. People were enjoying the show, they were sitting back and drinking. Whats good for them is good for us is good for the business.

After the break, I got up next. It was heavenly. There were lotsa of people from different nationalities and I got most ‘em worked. But what’s more priceless is the look on the audience’s faces, it’s a mix between enjoyment and astonishment, like they have never seen what’s being given in front of them. Yeah, when else can you see a couple of English-speaking Indonesian comedians in Cambodia doing comedy in a full-expat room? I closed my set with a joke about Hun Sen, which made the audience did an “Ooohh..!!”, then I bid them farewell.

Mo and I hugged. “We did Cambodia, brooo!!!” It was a good night.

But I was still perplexed, how come these expats are different from those in Jakarta? I mean, I know I have grown better since Jakarta, but these guys just got a whole different feel into them. Quick conversation with Dan, and I realized that these expats mostly work in Cambodia as teachers and NGO workers. No wonder. Those are works with conscience, these guys are the good guys and they know how to appreciate people, especially from different backgrounds. Meanwhile, those in Jakarta were corporate expats, a.k.a snot nosed rich bastards. At least now if I meet them again, I will be more prepared.

AUGUST 23

Its a free day, so Mo and I decided to visit what Phnom Penh got to offer in daytime: the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and Choeung Ek Genocidal Center. I knew thats it’s gonna be both bad and interesting, with scenes of the Indonesian Communist Party/ PKI in my mind, but boy was I wrong. First of all, they put this rule that visitors are not allowed to smile or laugh. I was not planning to, but these guys seemed dead serious about it, and after walking for a while there, there was absolutely no reason to be joyful.

Tuol Sleng was used to be a school, until it was turned into torture center by the Khmer Rogue. Classroms became torture chambers and they even put pictures on those rooms about who got tortured there and how. The worst part for me is walking through the cells. The rows of black wooden doors were bleak, the inside of those cells were inhumanely small, and nobody was there. Tuol Sleng, no matter how depressing, drew a lot of tourists. But these cells were probably not a part of the tour, and discovering myself alone in that part of the school was just effing scary.

Mo and I couldnt the a guide since all the guides were taken. Most of the guides were people who lost their relatives here. An old survivor was even there to tell stories to visitors about how he was tortured, and how his wife was killed. I saw his daughter sitting next to him playing with her Ipad. No strength for even a smirk, though.

Next stop: Choeung Ek Genocidal Center. It’s a trip 20-30 minutes from Phnom Penh by tuk-tuk. This is where they carry people from Tuol Sleng to be killed. Thats right. People that survived the torture in Tuol Sleng were brought there to be killed. Since bullets are expensive, the Khmer resulted to use basic tools to kill people, like hammer, hoe, electric cords, even a tree. It is said that, there were so many people being killed and buried there, that the burial grounds were swolen with gas. During rain time, the ground would shift and sometimes remains from the victims, like cloths, bones and teeth, surfaced, even until now.

So glad that we took these tours AFTER the gigs.

In the evening after that trip, Mo and I had to do something festive and fun just to cover all that misery. We went to a shabu-shabu place and stuffed ourselves. We even took our tuk-tuk driver, Dee, to come with us and enjoy the dinner. He said he was so happy ‘cuz he never ate in a place like that before. Were delighted by that comment. But every once and a while Mo and I looked around the packed restaurant and saw these families eating there. We realized that every people beyond the age of 40 were practically survivors of Khmer’s regime, which means most parents with children in that place. They may seemed like having a good time there, smiling and everything, but they have seen awful things. Then Dee returned with a plate of black bean and vanilla ice cream, and we closed that night with laughs.

The bus leaving to Siem Reap that Dan ordered, apparently was a sleeper bus. I have never been in a sleeper bus before, so I was quite excited to see one. From the outside it looks like a normal bus, but inside is like a barrack, with bunk beds. A set of 4 beds, 2 below and 2 on top, on each side. Mo and I got the one in the back, so we dont have a set of beds under us, which is good, cuz I always like the top bunk. The bus even have wifi inside, which was super sweet. Even before we leave, I saw an Asian couple in front of me smooching. Yeah, top of bunk bed in a dark bus in an exotic place. Who wouldnt?

The Mo and I realized the beds were a trap. The road was horrible. Like, the Cambodian government has never heard of smooth asphalt before. So it’s kinda useless having a soft bed, when youre sleeping inside a what feels like a blender.

AUGUST 24

Siem Reap. 6 AM in the bus terminal. Our Siem Reap promotor, Steven Halcrow picked us up and took us for breakfast. Fantastic Vietnamese noodle. Mo ordered two bowls of those.

The hotel, which was one of the sponsor for the show, was fantastic. It has a humongous pool that I know I might never had the time to try. Were always out during daytime, and evening time is the gig. So might as well as just enjoy it aesthetically.

The gig that evening took place at The Warehouse in the Old Market part of Siem Reap. Like in Phnom Penh, it’s the hip part of Siem Reap, with rows and rows of decent food stalls, cultural shows, and other touristy attractions. The Warehouse is smaller compared to the room in Phnom Penh, and Steven told us many times that the crowd there might be different than the ones in Phnom Penh. They were suspected to be more difficult, since the room is smaller, and smaller crowd are always harder to break. He also said not to worry, since the audience will show appreciation, even if they dont laugh they will keep listening and not heckling. Sometimes, a bit too much effort to comfort is what makes me worried more.

And yes, the room turned out to be difficult. Steven and Scotty were struggling on that stage, and the audience that laughed were mostly their friends. There was also this Korean karaoke thing blaring from the bar nextdoor that disturbed the show.

Then came Mo.

Mo did excellent. Better than Phom Penh, since it’s a challening audience. In the middle of his bits, the Korean karaoke blared again, but with his stage genious, Mo just somehow blended that disturbance into his set. He actually adjusted his bits on the spot with that audio disturbance, now that was craft.

Then my turn.

I did fine the first part, with my crowd work and everything. I got the Russian, the American, the French and the Asian. Riffing the Asian guy, did most of the work for me. Then the accident happened. Two motorcycles collided outside and that distracted everyone for some time. After that it’s a bit down the hill for me, I was dragging. I closed by set with the Hun Sen joke, and that pretty much saved it. At least I closed nicely, but I was far from satisfied.

Steven said, “Hey, at least you done your set. Thats all we ask for.”

Man, Siem Reap is that tough.

AUGUST 25

This day in travelling day! Unlike Phnom Penh, Siem Reap is known for its compound of temples, Internationally well known as Angkor Wat. I love sight seeing, so this totally in my agenda, especially since we got the whole day free before going back to Phnom Penh to catch our flight home later on this same day. Apparently Angkor Wat is just one of the temple, there are hundreds of other temples in the Angkor compund. The place is so big, its has a seven day pass! Borobudur is nothing if compared to the size. Since the place is so big, we decided to rent a tuk-tuk to explore the temples, though navigating inside the temples would require actual footwork, something that Mo's not to keen to look forward to. It was astonishing. It really is one of the man-made wonder of the world, from quality and quantity.

Angkor Wat was amazingly breathtaking, but that was just the first temple and already we spent some hours there. For the second temple we had to go by tuk-tuk again, since it's quite a distance. The second temple is called "Bayon", and boy it was such a treat. A temple with statues of smiling faces. Cambodia sure got some Golden Age in the past with all the people looking very happy.

It was so beautiful, I was so amped up. I wanna see more and more and more! But I didnt realize its getting late, and Mo had quite a hard time walking. At some point he had to just rest in the tuk-tuk and skipped the tour inside the temple. Poor guy.

So we took off before the sun set and left some part of the compound unseen. Thats okay,its not gonna go anywhere. I will surely return next time.

Before our schedule for the sleeper bus, we still got some time for dinner, so Steven took us to a place that serves Bug in Siem Reap. I knew that Cambodia got some insect culinary. and I have been wanting to try it for myself for adventure sake, but Steven took us to quite a different place that serves bugs. The place is called "Bug's Cafe" and it serves 5 star insect culinary. So basically fine dining bugs. That made it all the more interesting. What a day, what a meal to close the night.

AUGUST 24

Our sleeper bus arrived back in Phnom Penh just in time for sunrise. We still got some time before the flight home, so I took one last picture in front of the river just when the sun was going up.

It had been a spectacular trip. Cambodia, the clubs, the audience, the hotel, the attractions, hell even the killing fields were awesome. Really cant wait to go back.

#StandUpComedy #ReggyHasibuan #Cambodia #PhnomPenh #SiemReap #Angkor #MoSidik