Laugh off Asia

Last Saturday I got to go to Laugh Off Asia, a stand-up comedy show. As the name might suggest, the comedians were all Asian... 3 Singaporeans and 3 Filipinos.

The show was held in the old parliament building, which gave the whole show an interesting feel, and was the object of many jokes. "You can bet I'm the first one to ever say THAT in the Parliament house!"... and other similar things.

The show was formatted as a sort of "competition" between the Singaporeans and the Filipinos, but they didn't really compete at all. The first Singaporean and Filipino each did 10 minutes, the next two did 15 and the last two did 20 minutes.

The actual comedians weren't the only ones getting a laugh, however, because the MC was totally hilarious. He was from Pakistan, something he immediately put to good use laugh-wise.

One of the things I was unsure about before going, was whether or not I would even understand the jokes. My fears were completely unneeded, however, because I, and the three friends who also went (Kevin, Heather and Jim...all American), had no trouble understanding any of it (well, except when they would say something that was obviously funny in whatever their local tongue was).

Most of the people there were Asian, mostly Singaporeans, but with a fair number of Filipinos present as well. There were also others, however. The "white people." Two French guys, a couple Germans, a few British, one Australian and a Swiss Guy, and a few more Americans. While the majority of jokes were centered around the different cultures you can find all around Singapore and the Philippines, there were also a fair number of "White people" jokes... some for each of us, I guess :)  I have to say, it was sort of odd being the object of their jokes. I mean, nothing they said was out of the ordinary jokes range... Americans know zero Geography, beware the Germans in case they get drunk and then decide to occupy us, don't ask the Swiss anything important because they'll remain neutral... but it was still funny hearing it from an Asian's point of view.

The show was extremely funny. Afterwords, we happened to meet a few of the comedians, and they were excited to know we enjoyed the show despite our "White-person-ness" haha

One of the interesting things about the old parliament house is that the names of all the important people that used to meet there have their nameplates on their chairs.
I took a picture of Lee Kuan Yew's chair... so did everyone else. He was their first Prime Minister.

The parliament house had a  very "old-timey" feeling, in a lot of ways. This is especially true considering what their current parliament house looks like.

It is not the tall building, but the flattish round one.What does it look like to you?... you can go ahead a say it... UFO. That's right, Singapore is ruled by aliens. Comforting, right?

Haha... anyway, I had a lot of fun. Afterwords, the four of us went strolling down Boat Quay (pronounced Key, for all you Americans) and then ended up heading over to Clarke Quay with Kevin where we met up with our friend Dexter. We ended up dancing at a club called Highlanders (no cover and a live band...why not?), eating ice cream at BK and then heading home around 4 am. Excellent Night.

Living it Up

Last night I spent some time at Clarke Quay at the clubs! Awesome time!!... let me start from a little earlier, though.

So I met  up with a few people around 7. The plan?... to go up in the Marina Bay Tower thing... the building that looks like a boat. (<----- THAT one on the left!) Unfortunately, the weather was kind of yucky yesterday, so we decided not to pay the $20 required to go up it.  Instead we headed out to eat...at a Hawker Center of course (yay cheap food!!!) then over to Clarke Quay. At first, we just sort of hung around and relaxed/people-watched (an unbelievably amusing activity in Singapore) on a bridge area, but after a while, and by then our number had increased to 7 total, we headed over to the bar/club area.

First stop: Yellow Jello. One of the guys in our group, a local, insisted on buying this drink...The Graveyard, it is called, for everyone. I declined, not being much into alcohol, and also not liking carbonation. This drink has 6 things combined together, but the primary drink is Guinness. Well... let me say that first of all, the drink was black when it arrived, and they had this straw in all the glasses that were black crosses. I tasted one... it tasted like licorice. Aka nastiness. Ewww...so glad I did not get my own! Now Yellow Jello had this band playing...they had the most amazing playlist ever... Michael Jackson, Coldplay, Van Halen, Ke$ha, the Killers...to be honest, I don't really remember all the music we heard, but they had some good stuff, I promise you!
What next you ask? Well it was on to the Rupee Room for us!
Soooo much fun! It was $20 to get in, but that was the only downer!...and that did get you one free drink, so that was nice :) Anyway, bollywood-styled awesomeness ensued. You could hardly even tell when one song ended and the next started. One minute, they were blasting T-Pain, the next it somehow merged into a Indian pop-song or something. The people there were awesome. There weren't just Indians, or anything, but they would show us their awesome dance moves and we would all join in. So much fun, really!

So around 2, we all headed out to queue up for a taxi home (the MRTs stop running much earlier). I think it took me about 30 minutes when I got home, maybe less, to change, brush my teeth and fall into bed! This morning I woke up (and yes, it was still morning! Though not for long) and my entire family was gone :(  Haha, but that is okay, I know they went over to Sentosa, this magical island full of wonders, for an outrigger  race that my brother is doing to day.
In other news... today is the opening of the Orange MRT line!!! Holla!!!! You have no idea how awesome that is!!! Now I have to walk 2 minutes to get to an MRT instead of 10!!! Here, that is huge!