Just got back from a hearty dose of hosting at Daiko 2007, an annual drum performance put by the S’pore Polytechnic Japanese Drum Team. Thanks to this hosting engagement, I had the chance to witness the grace and power of Daiko drummers. Trust me, it takes skill, strength and a sense of rythmn to drum up a decent tune. And as usual, I had a lot of fun hosting this event with Charissa whom I met at Irene’s hosting class.

Our role as hosts was straightforward: To narrate the two hours story interwined with the Daiko drum performance. We had an unsaid role as well: To ensure that there is no awkard silence while they set up the stage for their next drum piece. Now that’s the tough part coz’ you never know when you will be hit by dead silence and you don’t really have a pre-written script to help you out. Ironically, it is in such times of unpredicaability that humor presents itself.

L-R: Wakame & Momoko (stage lovers), Charissa (my co-host), moi, Weisi, Jennifer and Jessica (my friends!) And in the front row, we have Misa and Kenichi (stage baddies).

Such as a particular scene when the two main characters had to journey through the unventured mountains to find the lengendary hero. As planned, the lights were supposed to be on them (Wakame and Momoko) yet they were no where in sight. And the stage manager took the liberty of shining the spotlight on us instead, which means “SAY SOMETHING!!!” So here’s what happen. Charissa looked at me and started asking me what I think the legendary hero will look like. As you and I know, this was not on our script. Without thinking, I said something along the line of “well… most legendary heroes are bald… and since this is some kind of drum performance in the old japanese days, he will look like a drum…” And that got the audience bawling over. We took the cue and started making more fun of the so called legendary hero.

And then there was another scene when Wakame was suppose to be courting Momoko with “Can you feel the love tonight?” playing the background. First of all, only Momoko was on stage. And we (as hosts) have no idea where Wakame was. On script, he was suppose to be with her. That was when we played along and started shouting for him. And we even cooked up a story of how Wakame was always late. And then when he finally came down much to our relief, we instinctively tease him again, which elicited quite a bit of laughs. Next, was the “flower” that he got for Momoko which was wayyyy too small… in fact if I recall correctly, it wasn’t even a flower. It was some kind of weed. And then I continued teasing him by calling him a “yaya-papaya” when he was smirking at the audience. This interaction between the storytellers and characters was unplanned yet added freshness and fun to the performance.

Of course there was the final scene. It took extremely long to set up which was understandable since this was the finale, and the drums were really heavy. Hence in the name of fun, we decided to do an audience poll. Just a side note. When you have a spot light shining directly on you, you see absolutely nothing except a circle of white light. Still, we pretend to be looking at them and asked, “SO WHAT ENDING WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE?”. To our surprise, a lot shouted SAD!!! Talk about a morbid bunch of people we have as audience (grins) And so we played along. By the time the schmoozing with the audience was done, the drummers were prepared for a final showdown.

So if you ask me, I say that as a host, you got to master the art of “thinking on the feet” coz’ you never know what is going to happen. And it is in times like this where a host truly shines. Of course, it really helps to have a co-host to banter with, since this effectively means that you only have to memorize half the script. And if you forget your lines, you always have your co-host to back you up. So Charissa, if you are reading this, many thanks! More to come yeah!

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