Hello! You there! Welcome to our premiere episode of A Spoonful of Theatre!
I'm TJ, theatre practitioner, director and performer.
And I'm Sam Sam, a teacher of language, literature and self-proclaimed show business, Luvvy.
Now this is our podcast where we spill the tea on all things Singapore theatre.
It's tea time! And this is our special preview episode to give you a little sip of what's to come on this podcast.
Absolutely. So pop the kettle on, grab a biccy and let's add a spoonful of theatre to sweeten up your day.
Sam.
TJ.
We're here.
We're in a podcast studio.
We have microphones in front of us.
We do, and we are making our very own podcast.
It's happening.
It's happening. My God. It's been a few months, hasn't it?
It has. It's been a few months in the planning. Now we might be talking to ourselves, this
no-body's listening, but if you are listening to us right now, thank you so much. There
might just be two of you. It might be our mothers. But if anybody else is listening,
we thank you for listening to this podcast.
Oh dear, it won't be my mother. She barely knows how to use Facebook. But no, so to your
mother and to TJ's mum, thank you for listening.
Absolutely. But this is so exciting.
It really is. It really is exciting because we thought about this a few months ago. We've
talked about nothing else since.
And we're now in a studio with microphones, with equipment, which I have no bloody clue
what does. I just press a button and it goes red and apparently I talk into this thing.
But yes, we are here.
We are here and we hope that you will be here with us on this journey of podcasting. We're
podders now.
Yes, we are.
OK, so, but who are we? Who are we? I ask myself that all the time.
I bet you do.
Now I had an idea for this. I had an idea for this. Now it'd be very easy for us to
roll out our CVs of who we are and what we do.
But then our two listeners will be switched off within about 10 seconds.
Well, especially if they have to listen to your CVs. It's a lot longer than mine. I tell
you now, don't be rude. Now, no, let's do it differently. Let's describe each other.
Let's identify who that's because we're best friends. We've known each other for 10 years.
Yes.
Let's see what adjectives we'll use for each other.
Absolutely. Who's going first?
You, because I came up with the idea.
OK, sure. So as you said, we're best friends. We've been best friends for 10 years and we're
both from the UK. And obviously we've both lived in Singapore for 10 years and we both
love Singapore theatre. We both love Singapore theatre. But Sam Sam, you are a, as you say,
a theatre lovey. OK, so you do love the theatre and you love going to the theatre, but you're
not necessarily from a theatre background. You're very much English and French major.
However, you did go on the cruise ships. Yes, you did, ladies and gentlemen, in our episodes.
If you hear this noise, Sam has mentioned that he was once a performer on the cruise
ship.
Yes, yes, I was. I was a host and emcee, deputy cruise director, DJ, pantomime day.
Lovely. OK, that's enough. So, yes, he was on the cruise ships and he was a performer.
And you also still do perform every now and again at the musical theatre Open Mic Night,
which is where we've been hosting for a long while. And I'm sure if anyone is listening,
probably knows us from there the most, I imagine. So, yes, so you are a performer and host.
And I think you bring to this podcast a you bring the the regular person's perspective,
the every man, the every man. You are the every man. But no, you are a theatre fan's
perspective, I think you're a theatre fan's perspective that brings brings the inquisitive
nature. You're not you're not embroiled in all of the dramas of theatre and all of the
nuances. You're just asking what everybody, hopefully, who's listening at home wants to
ask, which I think brings a lovely perspective to theatre podcasting. It's a fun place to
be in. I you know what I'm jealous. Genuinely, I would love to go back to there. But I think
once you've trained and once you've been in theatre, your world is you can't unthink it.
So I can't go to watch a show now without knowing all of the things and having some
sort of opinions. But anyways, yes, that's some some. Now then, TJ, I can I can do this
very easily because I've said it before and I still mean it now. Maestro. Oh, I mean that
with every definition of the word, because I have had the wonderful privilege of seeing
your career grow in Singapore, we both started off as enrichment teachers and you then went
on to Universal Studios. You went on to evolve. You went on to sing theatre to eventually
become associate artistic director. And in all that time, you were performing, you were
dancing, you were singing, you were vocal coaching, you were directing, you were producing.
In one show, you were doing all that in one go. Little Shop of Horrors. And you really,
you truly are a master of your craft. And I am not the only person to say so. There
is an army of young, talented people out there who I know will be listening and will feel
exactly the same because you have nurtured so much talent in this country. And it's wonderful
to have watched that grow. So yes, I can sum it up in one word, the maestro. Oh, well,
thank you, Sam Sam. And yeah, I bring that theatre perspective to this podcast. You know,
I'll be I'll be I'll be coming at things with theatre knowledge and quite quizzing, quizzing,
quizzing things from that perspective, which I think is interesting. So we come from two
different sides. Yes, there was a reason to that, isn't there? Because as TJ said, we've
seen a lot of performances together, local and mass produced, international, international,
I'm sorry. And we've gone and seen seen these performances. And we always see things from
a different perspective. Usually I'll be coming, I'll be dancing out of the auditorium doors
because I've had such a marvelous show. And then she'll be walking behind me with a face
like a smack the ass because somebody's done the wrong vocal technique. But that's exactly
how we've we've always done it. And we always discuss shows afterwards of what we liked
what we didn't like, where where things could have been better. And we often jump over each
other's fence, don't we? We do. Yes. It's not it's not a very big fence. No. No, because
I think we do we do often have very similar opinions. But I think we come at it from a
different perspective. So I think that made made this kind of podcast. That's kind of
the essence of why we're doing this. Because we're bringing together two different sides,
hopefully the audience side and the performer side. So you get a peek behind the curtain
with the performer, but you also get to ask those questions that you would maybe as an
audience member. So what we wanted to do is for me, as you said, you know, I've worked
with some of the amazing performers that we have here in Singapore for the last few years.
And everything I've ever done is about bringing people up and creating a community. And I
wanted to showcase that community even more so, because both of us now are over in full
time education. Yes, we are. So this is honestly my way of just keeping my hand in, keep it
keeping, keeping, keeping, keeping in the theatre circle, but also lifting it up as
well. I think, you know, we want to celebrate celebrate and shout from the rooftops on this
wonderful medium that is podcasting, which has come up over the last few years. And there
isn't a regular theatre podcast for Singapore theatre. And we wanted to change that. We
do. It's our turn. So we'll give it to you straight. And how are we going to do that,
TJ? How are we going to do that? We are going to do that through two episodes, which would
be our tea time main episodes. And that one is where we get interesting people from across
the Singapore theatre space. So that might be an actor, it might be a director, might
be a producer, but not only that, it's also going to be the people that you maybe are
not expecting. So the stage managers or the costume assistants or the design assistants,
maybe even the front of house, you know, finding out what every single job in Singapore theatre
is and really kind of getting beneath the skin and finding out about all these people.
So those are our main episodes, hopefully coming about once a month. Yes, that's the
aim. That's the aim. And then what else are we doing, Sam? Sam? Well, we put it out to
the to the universe. What would you like in a Singapore theatre podcast? And the one of
the biggest, the most common answers was unhinged reviews. We talked about this and we thought,
right, well, we do this anyway. So let's just put it on a podcast medium. Let's spill the
tea with the performances that we watch and and talk about straight in straight out of
the out of the foyer. What we thought of some of the performances that we're going to see.
And I can't wait for that. Absolutely. So those episodes are going to be on location
literally straight after we walk out the theatre, we pop the microphones on and have the same
conversation that all of you guys when you go to the theatre will have with your friends.
And it's just going to be us chatting about what we thought of the show. So it's really
outside the theatre and we'll give you that kind of perspective, hopefully just after
a show open. So then you can kind of go find out from the different sides, whether it's
something you want to go watch, which just go watch everything in Singapore, folks, honestly,
support our local theatre because it really is absolutely amazing. So that's our two things
we're going to be doing. We've got our main episodes and I'll spill the tea episodes.
And it's going to be myself and Sam taking you through on hopefully a very fun journey.
And you're welcome to join us on that journey with all of these amazing things we're going
to be doing. But of course, there is something that you need to do, dear listeners. And that
is, of course, follow us on our social media. So we do have our Instagram, which is a spoonful
of theatre. And then we have our ex Twitter, which is at a salt a s o t just to mix things
up a little bit. We do have Facebook is also out there as well. You can follow us on Facebook.
We will eventually have a talk tick tick tock eventually once this old queen can figure
it out. But no, but please follow us on the socials. Get in touch, comment, like, share,
subscribe. That's what they all in influences. Absolutely. Yes, we're now. And of course,
you must stay tuned for our first exciting guest, but we will announce that on our social
media. So followers over there. And also very importantly, as well, whichever podcast platform
you're listening on followers on there as well and click the notification bell, because
then you will find out when our new episodes are released. So definitely will be on Spotify,
Apple Music and whatever podcast platform you can find. And you will get all these beautiful
episodes coming up. Right. Now, my tea's gone cold love. So should we leave it there? I
think we should. But I hope that that has whet your appetite for our for our podcast.
And we hope to welcome you. So please share tell the world. We want to make sure that
this is an exciting platform to uplift our amazing Singapore theatre artists. So stay
tuned and you'll find out our exciting guest soon. Fabulous. Yes, we can't wait to be giving
you all these reviews, all these interviews and really finding out about the nuts and
bolts. Exactly. Marvelous industry in this marvelous country. Now, Sam, Sam, this has
been wonderful. We've worked out this podcast studio. And if you've listened to this, we've
worked out how to get it online as well. Amazing. So that is all for our preview episode. And
all that's left to say is thanks for listening. Thanks to all our friends who made this happen.
But cheerio will be back soon and ta-ra for now. And to all those involved in Singapore
theatre for this month. Break a leg.