I purposely made my way to Ipoh Parade last evening earlier than I normally would because I understood that someone by the name of “Master Lee” would be holding an acrobatic performance at 8pm. Turns out that the show was postponed to 8.30pm.

I have not heard of Master Lee (hence I did not get his full name) prior to his show in Ipoh Parade last evening in conjunction with Chap Goh Meh, the last day of Chinese New Year, let alone seen him on TV before, though the emcee did not fail to mention a few times that Master Lee is a homegrown talent (Made in Malaysia) and that his live performance is more interesting than on TV and that he has represented Malaysia in international events on numerous occasions.

It was quite an entertaining performance even though it’s not “acrobatic” in the true sense of the word. However, I felt that Master Lee’s fumbling with his porcelain jar could be minimized if he had made it his first act before he sweats so much which made the jar slippery and he failed to balance it on his forehead even after a couple of attempts.

Quite a few people were skeptical with his block playing act saying that they are magnetic but after calling an audience from the floor to try his hand “playing” with the blocks in a similar way, the crowd was won over.

All in all, I felt that his overall performance could be improved if he had a younger and more appealing female assistant to help him on stage instead of getting someone older in off stage clothes and a guy to boot! I don’t mean any harm but just felt that it would enhance his overall performance.

When I was in exile the better part of last year, I told everyone that I wouldn’t even know if Ipoh collapsed! Surprisingly, after almost eight months, nothing much changed. I go to malls and see the same faces. The same items are being sold too. The only obvious change in Ipoh that I could see was the erection of a new building adjacent to Courts called De Garden.

I have no idea when this oddly-shaped building was built but it was something new to me. Someone told me that he has a new business at “The Garden” and I was like, “Where is that?” He was surprised that I had no idea. “I thought you are from around here?” I had to lie and told him that I just returned from overseas. Yeah, right.

Anyway, during Chinese New Year, I had the chance to shoot some photos of De Garden. The place looked empty except for the two eateries (T.O.S. and PappaRich) that were fully packed. I tell you, this isn’t the place to go during the day. The sun just shines through because of its open concept. Man, in this heat wave, I would rather hide myself indoors somewhere, preferably with air-cond!

Even at the best of times, this place still isn’t fully tenanted yet. When I was there last month for a few hours, I saw quite a lot of curious shoppers walking listlessly. How long will the stream of human traffic last when there is no huge attraction as far as I could tell?

I’ve watched mask changing performance by this artist only once previously, perhaps about two years ago and since that time, which I failed to capture on video because I didn’t take it along, I didn’t have the opportunity anymore. This Chinese New Year, Kinta City invited him again and from the programme schedule, he was supposed to perform three times. The first time, he did not turn up, the second time, I had to work, this evening, was his third time, and also his final appearance here in conjunction with Chinese New Year. I was pretty apprehensive that I wouldn’t be able to make it again, or perhaps he would not turn up again, but luckily he did.

Funnily, there was something wrong with my camera and when I powered it on, I was shown an error message and I had the option to either shut it off or to format the memory card. I shut it off hoping that it would be all right when I powered it on again but I was shown the same error message! So this time, I chose to format the card, but it says that the card could not be recognized. I was like, “Oh shit, why am I so jinxed? This is the last show already and I couldn’t get it on video again?”

Somehow, when I turned it on again, it worked! As you can see, I got the better half of the mask changing performance on video. It’s not the best video in the world because the guy had this again on the camera most of the time but what the heck, better than no video at all, right?

So, enjoy the video!