Jack is nimble, Jack is quick

By Adeline Loh · Urbanwire
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Jack Neo raises eyebrows with his ever growing English vocabulary, and not only during his hosting stint of new food travelogue series Wow, Wow World. Adeline Loh catches him in Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) where he was a recent guest, and senses that Singapore’s premier funnyman has become a truly Singaporean icon.

Jack Neo laughs, not at others, but at himself. For years, the actor of now defunct comic variety TV series Comedy Night turned host of his first crossover series Wow Wow World has made it his mission to offer Singaporeans the best medicine, and he is in many ways his own.

Giving an entirely English speech at the graduation ceremony of the School of Film & Media Studies, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, the movie director impressed the audience with his almost immaculate pronunciation, but burst out in spontaneous self-mockery after he uttered a mouthful of multi- syllabic words, which he called "very bombastic".

This willingness to be the first to laugh at himself for his occasional lapses in speaking English belies the ease with which he now converses, but he has, after all, harboured dreams of doing an English programme for a long time.

Jack reveals, "All the while I wanted to do an English programme. Since 10 years ago, after [Comedy Night] was a big success, I told my boss to arrange for us " myself, Moses [Lim] and Mark [Lee] " to move to an English channel.”

At that time, Jack’s ambition was hampered by a regulation stating that there could be no crossovers between Channel 5 and Channel 8 artistes, even though they are fairly common these days, what with Pierre Png and Jamie Yeo being cast in Holland Village and Vincent Ng starring in Heartlanders.

But the wait has paid off, and with Wow Wow World showing Thursday nights at 8 pm, Jack has cemented his place not just as a Channel 8 icon, but a truly Singaporean artiste. His popularity now expands beyond the boundaries of the Chinese community, with people from other races clamouring for his autographs.

"I felt very good. This is a good change. Since we’re in Singapore, a multi-racial country, when you talk about [a] really popular artiste, he must be popular among all races. Everybody knows you, then [will you] be considered really popular," Jack confesses in apparent delight.

Jacky Wu, a popular Taiwanese host whose variety programme Zhou Ri Ba Dian Dang is immensely popular here with Chinese audiences, gave the concept of the show to him. Jacky encouraged Jack to do an English version of his programme because Jacky himself couldn’t do one, and there was simply no market for it in Taiwan.

Jack loved the idea and is more than happy about the experience, enthusing in Mandarin, "You know what is the best thing in life? The best thing is that you don’t have to work, you eat, you travel and beautiful girls accompany you all day."

Travelling and eating are probably a well-deserved consolation for the disappointment Jack faced when Home Run, his latest movie planned to be completed last December, was unable to participate in 2 prestigious film festivals- the Singapore International Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival, as bad weather interfered with production schedules.

"I felt very, very sad that I couldn’t take part in the competitions. All the while, I thought I should take part, but due to unforeseen circumstances, I got no choice," Jack laments.

However, he adds, "Never mind, I will come back again, probably next year. I see what I can rush [out next] time. In time, [I’ll] make sure!"

Home Run, a local remake of the internationally-acclaimed film Children of Heaven, is due to be released on Aug 7. If it becomes a success, it will become Jack’s 4th movie hit, following Money No Enough, I Not Stupid, and The Eye. I Not Stupid grossed $3.8 million locally while The Eye, according to Raintree Productions, became 2002’s highest grossing horror movie in Singapore.

Local audiences can expect greater things from this drag actor comedian turned director as his ambitions include making TV programmes in both Mandarin and English and films that will turn heads in foreign lands.

"I hope that I can do Hollywood movies or Hong Kong movies. I hope that my movies are able to travel," Jack said.

These are big dreams for someone who never had any formal education in the art of filmmaking. It took Jack more than 20 years to become a recognised director, and he has always taken criticism with a pinch of salt.

Jack recounts 1 of his filming experiments in the 1980s, " I did a music video. When I showed it to my friend, my friend laughed. He said, ‘So orbit!’" His friend had remarked using Singlish that Jack’s film was old-fashioned.

He adds, "He said that [the video] looked like those 1970s Taiwanese love story. So I just changed and practiced again. I remember I sent it in to 1 competition and I got first. Can you see [how] the standard [was] so low?"

For now, it appears such a mammoth task for Jack to juggle directing, hosting, and acting that it would be accurate to say, as Ngee Ann Principal Chia Mia Chiang did, that it’s easier to catch Jack on screen than to catch him in person. However, Jack says that he manages his schedule by taking things "1 at a time" and that he has the support of experienced teams who look after his various projects.

As the anticipation builds till the opening of Home Run, and as Jack enjoys newfound affection among the larger Singaporean population, the criteria for Jack’s films is something that hasn’t changed. He still wants to make films that "make people happy, make people laugh, and make people remember [him] in a good way". And with that yardstick, it looks like Jack will always have the last laugh-to the bank.