Guangzhou here we come!!!

This is NOT going to be a trip to GZ, at least the city is not the main point. We are FINALLY going to see Wong Tze Wah's (黃子華) "Stand-Up" comedy show in GZ on 26 Dec. These are VIP tickets at RMB480 per ticket but we still ended up getting seats at the 11th row. But it was after much trepidation, coordination and blind trust (of the Chinese website) that I finally got hold of the tickets today. Made more than 10 phone calls to this piaowutong.com website that sells online tickets throughout China ONLY, which means I had to get friends living in China to help pay for and receive the tickets. Of course I wasn't about to just book at some iffy website and parade my credit card details, so had to do the old bank transfer way which means I needed a China bank account.

So tremendous gratitude to the lady operators at piaowutong.com who ensured I got the right tickets in a timely fashion (before the everything-shuts-down national hols, for the tickets had to be delivered from GZ to Shanghai where my friends are), especially kind Kammy who helped to make the bank transfers not once but twice when I found out later VIP tickets could be bought and paid more for them, and Nori for receiving and bringing them safely to Singapore into my hands. So much effort just to make it to the show that I am very tempted to make huge placards (and I will) announcing our presence ("We come from SINGAPORE!!!") and wave them in front of him!

He is the best stand-up comedian ever in the Cantonese (and possibly Mandarin) arena. He introduced it to HK in the 1990s, so he is also recognized as the pioneer within the industry in HK. He is good because he is not just funny, but really smart funny, intellectual funny, sometimes bordering on the philosophical. The man has got 12 sell-out performances in the last 15years. His shows (14 in a row) in HK earlier in September were sold out in half an hour, which prompted him to add another 6 shows that were also snapped up. 20 consecutive shows in HK SOLD OUT. Ditto for the 3 shows in GZ from 25-27 Dec (more were added later too). HK has only 6 million people and this has nothing to do with pyroclastic fireworks, nifty dance moves, or 3-D laser displays ala superstar concert. Just a mike and Da Man, talking non-stop for 2 hours. I can't wait.