Monday 28 December 2009

Breaking the Foothold: JImmy Choo

Are the Jimmy Choos you own a product of Jimmy Choo, the man himself? More likely than not, they’re not. The convoluted history of the brand is such that the designer who created this eponymous brand is far removed from the billion dollar business. The “Malaysian cobbler” and the “English socialite” – as the players in the game have been labeled by the media – are now at peace after an embittered battle for ownership. P.Ramakrishnan looks at the precarious past and the promising future of the man and the distinct brand, albeit of the same name. 

Scarcely could the crowd believe that there he was, Dato Jimmy Choo OBE, 57, the man himself. Seated two feet away form a sea of recorders and numerous cameras trying to get him to a centripetal point, he is renowned for being media shy and generally inaccessible to the teeming masses. 

Attending BODW (Business of Design Week, 2006), the media en masse descended to capture him while they could, in small window of opportunity to shoot the most famous shoe designer in the world (with all due respect to Mr Blahnik!) as he finally stepped out of the workshop that he was participating in. 

Choo looks a good decade younger than he is and his legend is much larger than him; the small frame of a man in an impeccable suit, more sophisticated than stylish, had black leather loafers on, of an indistinguishable brand. But naturally, we had to ask and find out which label the namesake of a shoe empire wears. 

“These shoes? I made them for myself,” he says, with his ever persistent smile. “I don’t make men’s shoes much, but for myself, in my size, I do. It’s very simple, I use soft, high quality leather because comfort is very important, and I wear them out because I wear the same shoes all the time. They last about ten months, then I make another pair.” 

It would be hard to list the lengthy number of people who would love to own a new pair of Jimmy Choos at such regular intervals. With a sly grin, he continues, “Let me tell you secret, I am much taller at night than I am in the day. You know, I’m just a small Chinaman so when I go to parties, and events with all these big Western people, I wear shoes with pumps to make me look taller. I wear my regular shoes and, in the car, just before I step out, I make a quick change. When women come to see me in my shop in the day, they are suddenly surprised that I’ve shrunk overnight!” 

In the early '90s, Jimmy Choo was known to an extremely select and very elite group of serious fashionistas in London, for making incredibly beautiful shoes that were a heady concoction of comfort and supreme style. Princess Diana was a regular client and friend. 




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“She was a wonderful lady. Always kind to me and a great friend. I made shoes for her all the time. I’m not sure but at a certain point I think only I made her shoes, no one else. You know, when she was married to Prince Charles, I would make low heels or flat shoes because she would be so much taller than him otherwise. After they separated, I made high heels for her and I was actually making a pair of gold strappy sandals with a four-inch heel for her when... when she died. I met her just two days before the accident, when she came to see me. I keep the golden pair in my house, as a reminder. She was such a wonderful lady.” 

Choo’s shoes weren’t just for chic royals, they were also the best kept secret in the annals of British Vogue, where a woman by the name of Tamara Mellon was accessories editor. The glamourous daughter of a wealthy industrialist and former model mom, Mellon observed the virtual monopoly that Manolo Blahnik had in the high end market of high-heeled shoes. With money borrowed from her well-to-do father, she and Choo set up shop in 1996. Well, shops actually – four in the first year alone. 


Through sheer word of lip-glossed mouth and clever marketing, the quality shoes hit the social consciousness in a hitherto unseen stampede. There was no turning back and the immediacy of their success made for economics and business lore. A synonym associated with the fashion forward female, it all culminated with regular plugs by Carrie Bradshaw, the fictional lead character in Sex and the City the barometer of style and rend in the 1990s, a show that in the first season paid homage to his arch, professional rival. By season five, all four leading ladies from the show were well heeled in Jimmy Choos in a major coup de....shoe. 


Above: The cast of Sex and the City

However, somewhere along the way the straps came loose in the partnership. In April 2001, the company expanded with the announcement of a new collaboration with Equinox Luxury Holdings Ltd which acquired Choo’s share of the ready-to-wear business with Robert Bensoussan, Equinox’s Chief executive becoming CEO of the company. This was followed in 2004 by Lion Capital announcing the acquisition of a majority shareholding in Jimmy Choo, in a transaction valuing the company at 101 million pounds. Choo was left out of the billion dollar wheeling and dealing and Mellon was “liberated” she says from Choo between 2001 and 2002. 

In a profile of Tamara Melon in Vanity Fair (VF), “the Malaysian cobbler” (a phrase that crops up alarmingly often in print when referring to Choo) became “the other difficult man in her life.” 

For this article, we could not get a quote in time from Tamara Mellon or her representatives as we headed to print, but in the feature in the August 2005 edition of Vanity Fair, the industrious socialite said, “Some people see him as the underdog. ‘She came in and stole his name and did this and did that.’ He was very happy. He went away with a lot of money, and he was very happy. I made him wealthy.” 

Undeniably so. The Choo of today is on another postal code area from the garage that he once worked out of in London’s East End. Rumours refer to his 7-figure buyout and settlement. Currently, he has absolutely no take in Jimmy Choo. It bears repeating; Jimmy Choo has nothing to do with Jimmy Choo – the shoes! 

Therein lies a strange sense of questionable fair play. Choo gets no royalties, no credit, and no acknowledgement from the brand as we know it, and yet his name is walking down the red carpet at every celebrity-studded event. The sundered partnership has unequal beneficiaries, and when asked if he gets a cut from the billion plus brand, he deftly deflects the question, 

“You know, I don’t like to look at the past. I look at the future and my health, my happiness, and my family. I’m glad Tamara’s doing well and I’m glad that my name is still associated with a quality product. When they say ‘It’s a Jimmy Choo shoe’, they mean that it’s a good quality, fashion shoe. It has not become a cheap brand. They don’t sell rubbish.” 

Editor of Style magazine, Carmen Li, says, “Well, honestly, I wouldn’t paint Tamara as the bad person. In my opinion, I would not portray her as some evil capitalist either. She made the brand a marketing success and put in her money and made it grow. He was already making shoes, and she expanded the business with her entrepreneurial spirit and his know-how. We don’t really know of the exact details that occurred in negotiation but they’re both richer for it.” 

It is a hot topic to broach but as the press prodded Choo, he remained reticent. 

What do you think of Tamara Mellon? 
“She is a good friend. You know we don’t’ meet as much now because we’re both busy but when I was in London last week, we had dinner together.” 

In the debate, celebrity designer Charlie Lapson (who owns his namesake brand too), has his own take, having shared a similar litigation dotted history. ”I would hate it if my name was out and about and I had no control over the products and what they represent. I fought really hard to maintain my name with my former partners for the same reason. I’m not entirely familiar with their (Mellon – Choo) exact history but I’d fight for ownership of my name – and I did. It cost me millions of dollars, but I know I couldn’t lose control of how my name was used, and the brand that I had worked on for all my adult life.” 

Though he’s left the company, Choo has not left the business. “Now I concentrate on my couture shoes,” he says, speaking in an excited tone of his latest venture. “When a lady goes into my shop, I make a pair for her, a special pair, just for her, for a wedding or special event. She comes, I measure her feet, I make the shoes, ask her to wear them for a week and then come back to me to see if they’re perfect. I don’t even ask for money until she’s happy. I make only very special shoes.” 

As representatives of various financial papers and magazines broach the subject of facts and figures (“Did you walk away with 45 million pounds? “Did you hear of the 2.4 billion sale last year” ), Choo just smiles, “Really, all that is the past,” he says with an omniscient stance - with information he refuses to share with the media. 

Having played the game before in the British tabloids, a far more ruthless exercise than the press waiting for him in Hong Kong. “I have a good team, I have very good lawyers and I am happy. I take a walk everyday around the park near where I live and I am thankful for all that I have.” “So many people here… thank you for coming and talking to me,” he says, astonished at the media hullabaloo around him. 

In person, he’s all humble charm and self-effacing humility. “I’m just a simple man who does what he loves,” he concludes. “Now I want to pass information and my knowledge forward, that’s why I teach and I take apprentices to show them. In London and Malaysia, I work in schools to teach the next generation, but, you know the young of today, they don’t work as hard as they did in my day. My daughter and her friends, they all want to go out and have a good time and see movies and shop and… (laughs).” 

As he walks away in stride, the fashion rag editors follow his wake, hanging on every word. “But they are kids of today. I’m glad they enjoy life. I do too, with my work.”

Sex and the City;
Season 6, episode 9, A Woman's Right to Shoes. 

Monday 21 December 2009

almost famous: Charlot K

by P.Ramakrishnan



Chances are you don't recognise the person in the picture accompanying this article. Yes, there's a woman behind the Medusa headgear, sparkles and the real-live cobra slung across her neck. It's one of many guises of the 32-year-old Charlot K, the former so called "Door Bitch" at Dragon-i and all-round Hong Kong "personality".

Funnily enough, she's been here for only four years and worked as guardian to the celebrity nightclub for a mere five months or so. But she has been tagged as the sharp-tonged and tattooed grand diva for longer than she cares. "It does annoy me to think that people know me only as the 'Door Bitch', I do have a real job and I do work in the day, that was just something I did for a short while," she says.

I recall one particular snub from the Vienna-born, London-and Australia-raised designer/stylist, when she told me: "You're not on the list honey, and you don't look important."

"I DID NOT SAY THAT to you, you little bitch!" she exclaims, throwing her head back in laughter and revealing - yet another surprise and trademark - a wicked tongue-ring.

"I did not get a power trip from that job, believe me. I obviously had to let all the models and celebrities sail by - because Gilbert (Yeung, the owner) knew everyone personally and we just had to keep the paparazzi at bay. I just did it because I didn't have a stable income at the time. But it wasn't a challenge and I felt I wasn't being creative and eventually I did leave."

She didn't just leave the club, sh scooted out of Hong Kong for nearly six months, leaving behind speculative whispers about just why she had gone. So what is the real story behind the mysterious Miss K? Her surname for a start?

"It' Kryza, it's Polish, my father was a runner in the Polish Olympic team and ran away from his homeland when he was in his early 20s. Communism, the iron curtain and all that, he had to get away but because he did run way there is huge part of my family I've never met. But leaving did mean he met my mother, a dressmaker, in Europe later on."

The eclectic mix - Polish and Viennese - brought about a self-professed nomad who confesses to a rather conservative hobby as a girl. "From my mother I obviously picked up many things, and when I was young, around 12, I used to make these Victorian dresses, poring over old books, Queen Victoria's diaries, books on elaborate period costumes, and I made them. I just love to do it. I did design in school, graphic design. After a while, i just hated sitting in front of a computer all the time, so I left that."

How did Hong Kong figure in the scheme of things? "I didn't really plan to move here, I was just visiting a friend, stayed for a while, then I was in a relationship so I stayed on."

Gently, I broach the subject on why she left. "It is a myth that I am this major party girl who likes to go out very weekend. I worked in a nightclub, I work with fashion, work behind the scenes at parties but I'm not the 'party girl'. I'm very happy lying in bed watching DVDs so for a while I wasn't seen in all the right places. My jobs had dried up because of SARS and I wasn't being challenged in Hong Kong, so I left for Bangkok. I went around showing my book - tear sheets of the designs I've done - to all the photographers, magazine folks and creative heads of companies. I got a great response, in fact, people showed more interest in my work there but there weren't any paying jobs on offer. So I came back. there are more events now, things have picked up and it's great to be working."

Suitable Men








































Produced by: P.Ramakrishnan
Photography: Olaf Mueller
Stylist: Mariane Chan
Makeup: Karen Yiu
Models: Adyr and Rupert from Models International Ltd
Location: The Luxe Manor


BEHIND THE SCENES:

Four days before we had to go to print with the first issue of the magazine, head office sends word that they didn't like the original cover picture 'cause there wasn't a man in it. It wasn't projecting a 'gentleman's issue'. Ugh x 10.

Two months had gone by into production of the first issue and did we get any notes prior to the call? Nein. Did they say it was a men's mag? Nein. Did they give us any notes or direction. Hell nein.

Holy fkballs - I was in such a panic that I zen'd out. Instead of going into the tizzy I'm prone to, I sat down and made calls. Lots and lots of calls. In this god-forsaken bizz, you gotta know people! As usual Olaf, Adyr, Karen came to my rescue.

Had worked with model Adyr V several times in the past, Olaf's done all my 'first' covers and Karen does makeup and hair for 98% of my shoots. Iris/Do Lau/Mo Chan from MI did some serious texting over the weekend to fix the other model (the very quiet Rupert - I'm guessing hangover! Ha! But he was great, despite not looking anything like his comp card!).

Thanks to everyone above, we got together Friday afternoon to discuss shoot, shot on a Monday and the images were sent to the printer by Tuesday. It was the fastest rollover for a cover... ever.

We dyed Adyr's hair with gray streaks, slapped a pair of glasses on him to make him look older. Rupert had long, twirly hair (his comp card didn't), so was about to lose my shizz (didn't have time for casting prior to shoot) but lovely Karen tied his hair tight and Olaf's team photoshopped out the long tresses/ponytail. Worked with Marianne Chan for the first time and really liked working with her; she knew her mens brands and she was hyper efficient. It all worked out fine in the end but it was a nail-biting ride to the finish.

All's well that... ends.

Field of Dreams










































Cover shoot for Sentinel magazine.


Produced by P.Ramakrishnan
Photography and Art direction by Olaf Mueller
Styling by Jolene Lin
Makeup by Alvin Goh
Hair by Alex Chan at CG
Male model Sly from Model Geneses
Female model Rachel from Style Management



Behind The Scenes: All credit to Olaf for this one. We've worked on so many shoots over the years that I can trust him to manage everything. I got held up in one of those epic meetings with head office and I couldn't leave and check up on what's happening. But it all came through in the end.

Jolene Lin, one of my fav stylists EVER, did a bril job as always.

The Piano Man


Images: Courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon. Copyright Felix Broede / DG


Brushing the lacquered keys of a Steinway piano (from his namesake ‘Lang Lang Piano Series' no less), even when he’s playing around for a shoot, he’s tinkering perfection. Prodigy, genius, wunderkind and even enlisted as Asia’s most beautiful, there are so many accolades the young pianist has acquired that whatever the media writes about him is lost in the dizzying harmony of some sweet, sensational music. P.Ramakrishnan was glad to note that, as Ray Charles famously said, genius loves company.


Without exaggeration, for millions of Chinese children around the world Lang Lang, 26, is the very apex of a near-impossible dream, a model to be held as an example of, a spectrum of what can be achieved at a very young age with absolute dedication to the craft. Not just in playing the piano, but in gaining global fame through music.

When told he’s regarded as the most famous piano player in the known universe, Lang Lang simply says, “It’s great of course,” brushing aside the burden to be held up to that unreasonable expectation. “It’s a big encouragement, not burden, and I hope I deserve it.”

From his humble beginnings in Shenyang, China, to the sold-out Carnegie Hall debut with Yuri Temirkanov in 2001, he has already been profiled in TIME magazine, the BBC, and 60 Minutes with the haloed reverence one reserves for that special brand of genius. His bio reads like the subject of a movie script; where the understudy takes over the role of the leading man, only to shine like never before. Lang Lang’s big breakthrough came in 1999, when at age 17, he was a last-minute substitute for an indisposed André Watts at the Ravinia Festival's "Gala of the Century." He played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to an enraptured and utterly amazed audince. Praise showered down on the, then monosyllabic and shy, young “boy wunder’ from China.”

Currently, he travels the world over to sold-out concerts, premiers with the New York ballet as an accompanying pianist, he models for mega-brands like Rolex and Steinway. At the same time, Lang Lang is recognized for his efforts by the United Nations' Children's Fund (UNICEF) who appointed him their newest (and youngest) international Goodwill Ambassador.

The Chicago Tribune called him the greatest, most exciting keyboard talent encountered in many years and in the summer of 2002, he became the first recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, in recognition of his distinguished abilities.

Since last seen on his profile in a segment in 60 minutes, I point out that fame becomes him. He’s turned more stylish, the hair has a trendier frizz and there’s some distinguishable “bling” on, as the buttons of his silk shirt glimmer under the chandelier of the ‘Snow White Ballroom’, where we conduct the interview prior to a private performance for a gala dinner. He almost blushes, “No I haven’t changed that much. I just have longer hair, that’s it. Nothing’s changed,” he assures me. For a classical pianist that mulls over Bach and Beethoven, the personal styling has an unexpected zing and zest. “I was younger at that time [of the documentary on 60 minutes]. When you’re younger, you don’t really pay attention to fashion. Now I mean, I like it more… fashion is more enjoyable.”

Our one-on-one interview bordered on the slightly bizarre – the confluence of high art and pop culture; at Disney Land! The prince of the pianoforte preambles in a room that is decorated by bronze sculptures of two chipmunks from the ‘Chip & Dale’ cartoon.

His passion for music was ignited by a similar cartoon so perhaps its cosmic intervention that we meet there, under the aegis of Disney’s etchings. Lang Lang was two years old when he saw the animated antics of Tom & Jerry, where the mischievous cat played a tune he couldn’t get out of his head. What he didn’t know then was, the piece that Tom the cat played on screen was Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor, composed by Franz Liszt. According to Lang Lang, this first contact to Western music was what motivated him to learn the piano. He began lessons the following year, at the ripe old age of three with Professor Zhu Ya-Fen and in two years, he won the Shenyang Piano Competition and played his first public recital.

While others were still watching Tom & Jerry on cable, nine-year-old Lang Lang entered Beijing's Central Music Conservatory, studying under Professor Zhao Ping-Guo. By age eleven, he was awarded first prize for outstanding artistic performance at the Fourth International Young Pianists Competition in Germany. In 1995, age 13, he played the Op. 10 and Op. 25 Chopin Etudes, at Beijing Concert Hall and, in the same year, won first place at the Tchaikovsky International Young Musicians' Competition in Japan, playing Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. At 14, he was a featured soloist at the China National Symphony's inaugural concert, which was broadcast by CCTV and attended by President Jiang Zemin.

“I don’t see it as I became famous so quickly. I started very early don’t forget!” he says when asked if fame met him at too young an age. He counters, fame wasn’t overnight but took two decades. When asked whether he was able to cope with the irrefutable pressure of playing in front of thousands, with a 100-piece orchestra accompanying him, when he was but a child, he simply says, “I was ready.” Ready even when he needed an extra cushion to sit before a grand piano as the music chair was too low for his petite body at age 11. He says, “I didn’t feel the pressure, just pleasure. I was enjoying what I did most in life.”

He’s been working hard his entire life. He grins and says, “I learned the word vacation when I went to America. When I was 14!” his body quivers in a chuckle. “Someone asked me, have you ever had a ‘vacation’? I didn’t even know the word for it in Chinese! What is this word ‘vacation’ I asked the translator? He said time off with no work, it took me so long to understand that word!”

This was the year when he began studies with Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. “Obviously, I was brought up in China, where kids are practice freaks. Workaholics, they… well, we are a workaholic people! So I missed, the playtime, now I have lots of time to make up for it – so I travel around the globe, have fun with my friends. Swim, watch football, everything I missed out on.”



Though he doesn’t say as much, I wonder if he has any regrets of the opportunity foregone in his quest for musical greatness. In his newly acquired fluency in English, he says, “I was never depressed about the constant practice I did. Well, when I was nine-years-old, I was kicked out by a teacher for being naughty! I was sad then, but otherwise…”. He flicks his hair back and continues. “But then again, I knew of nothing else but the piano too. I mean I liked playing and watching football – I still do but I practiced the piano and didn’t think about it. I just played the piano. When you know no other life, you’re not missing out on anything right?”

Watching his head move in tandem to the music he plays, one wonders which solar system his mind travels to in the deep recess of a two hour-long concert. “I just go somewhere into the music, something to connect. I don’t need the sheet of music in front of me, once you’ve practiced as long as I have, then you just play with great enjoyment,” he tries to explain his trance like state that’ been often written about. “You really need to focus, you really focus and think of nothing else but the music, you feel it, so it’s been quite a challenging career from the beginning. It’s always challenging, never easy.”

He just makes it look easy.

Friday 18 December 2009

All That Glisters



Printed dress by Alerberto Ferra, ring, bracelet and necklace by Wellendorff






Sparkling blue cocktail dress by Versace, ring, bracelet and necklace by Wellendorff





Black and white leopard print dress by Arrogant Cat, shoes by Tod’s, bracelet, necklace, ring and earring by Wellendorff









Shoes and black cocktail dress by Gucci, necklace by Wellendorff









White shirt by Alerberto Ferra, gold silk pantaloons by DKNY, gold belt, choker, bracelet and ring by Wellendorff





Producer: P.Ramakrishnan
Photography & Art Direction: Dirk Seiden Schwan
Hair & Makeup: Sina Velke (http://www.vivienscreative.com.au)
Model: Dzenita Hasovic from IMG Models, New York



BEHIND THE SCENES:




















Wednesday 16 December 2009

Reflections on the Hindi Dream Factory


BOOK REVIEW

Bollywood Boy
by Justine Hardy
John Murray HK$235

Review by P.Ramakrishnan

TRUTH BE TOLD, we do judge a book by its cover and the assaulting pink backdrop and floral brocade of this novel ensures sore eyes on sight.

It is a travelogue of sorts that follows the author's quest in nabbing an interview with Hrithik Roshan, one of the biggest Indian actors working today. In turn, the author finds herself on seamy sets of B-grade Bollywood flicks or at home with besotted teenage girls, desperate for an autograph of the elusive star. It all adds up to a humourous glimpse at the ingredients and audiences that feed the Hindi film factory.

But the author fails miserably to provide any real insight into the multi-billion-rupee industry that entertains more than one billion Asians (subtitled Indian musicals reach Malaysian, Thai, Russian and Singaporean audiences).

Scratching the surface of Indian celluloid, the vacuous conclusion derived is that there is some inexplicable order in the chaotic sets of the "fantasy factory" - a phrase repeated throughout the book. We are informed it's a superficial dream world - hardly groundbreaking stuff. Whey some stars hit the big league with their first film (as the cover boy does), while others end up in poverty and prostitution is never fully examined and after touching on the premise, we cut to meeting an actor on a set.

When not describing and deifying the screen hunks she's seen outside a Mumbai club ("his shirt flew open for all to see. His chest rippled, his torso gleamed"), the book rolls along well. The pathos-filed ambitions of a an unknown and struggling actress, the supporting artists she meets on the set of Snip, an Anglo-Indian movie, and the residual fame that illuminates the author as she reveals to others her appointment with the star, are very funny.

Written primarily for a Western audience, she wheels out far too much local lingo (italicised, of course) to highlight how well she immersed herself in the kitschy culture of popular cinema. Without an English translation for the novices and using the simplest syntax in Hindi, I wondered who exactly she was trying to impress?

The book is peppered with pictures of various Indian stars with astute captions, such as "Hrithik's hair-do had been puzzling me", just about encapsulating how seriously one needs to consider this 262-page ode to a muscle-bound, all singing-all-dancing hero and the phoney land he rules.

There is much tongue-in-cheek humour that provides a good read and plenty of laughs, but I often wished she'd kept her tongue in check instead.

Tuesday 15 December 2009

Laughing matter


Tommy Tiernan is a favourite on the comedy circuit abroad. Now, locals have the chance to check him out, writes P.Ramakrishnan.

Stand-up comedy when bad, can be grotesque: think of stale punch lines from sitcoms, infantile innuendo, slapstick and simple caricatures. But throw into the mix a true raconteur, a keen wit and genuine observer of our times, and you get a gem like Tommy Tiernan, who single-handedly reinforces one’s faith in traditional stand-up comedy.

Already a familiar face to those who follow the British comedy Father Ted, Tiernan’s stage shows have received praise from the toughest audiences; the British media and the Irish public.

Winning the Perrier award for comedy (in 1998) and standing ovations at a host of comedy festivals, including the Montreal Comedy Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Tiernan’s reputation has landed in Hong Kong before he does.

He may be funny when he’s working, but, whatever you do, don’t sit next to him in a bar and ask him: “Say something funny – go on.” It has happened.

This is a question and answer conducted during Tiernan’s breaks from a film shoot in Britain:

Have you been to Hong Kong before? “Only in the movies.”

Have you performed in Asia before? “No.”

Is there a subject that you find universally travels well? “Just the barren landscape of my own head.”

In the same vein, does humour travel well? “I would certainly hope so.”

Your material derives from your own life experiences - observational humour. Is there any topic that’s taboo for your? “Other people’s life experiences.”

Do you enjoy your on camera gigs? “Ah, yeah.”

Do you have any say in the script – do you change any lines? Ad lib? Or are you locked into the material handed to you? “The material was fairly locked in, but I had a bit of say about the clothes and my own hair.”

Do you ever get nervous before stepping on stage? “A little.”

Any 'must do in Hong Kong' plans? “Find some trees.”

He’s obviously saving the humour for his series of Hong Kong shows.

“Most stand-up comedians are a bit like that off stage,” says John Moorhead, organiser of the Punchline shows. “But he’s one of the best on stage.

“I’ve seen a whole new world of stand-up recently and this year we have a lot of brilliant comedians coming to Hong Kong for the first time. Apart from Tommy Tiernan, we have (fellow Father Ted star) Aral O’Hanlon later in the year.”

During Tiernan’s live shows in Britain, his seemingly random steams of consciousness have been peppered wit four-letter words as he tackles well trampled subjects such as sex, religion, school days and history.

The New York Times was impressed. “He bring to life everything from a taxi driving duck to small children to a visually challenged schoolmate to an African priest to a woman in the wailing throes of an emotional meltdown," it wrote. “A bright original and refreshingly funny import.”

Moorhead says live comedy is no longer the niche attraction it used to be. “Well, we have former chief secretary Anson Chan (Fang On-sang) on our mailing list, so things are changing. It’s still a predominantly western art from in Hong Kong and will remain so, but we do get a small portion of local people coming now, which is great.”

Any final words from Tiernan? “I’m a clown in a collapsing car. I hope you find my distress as I drive by amusing.”

Of course we will.

Published in The South China Morning Post,
April 14, 2005

Kohl Mine: Indian designer clothes available in Hong Kong: Fine n Rhine:

Producer: P.Ramakrishnan 

Photography: Hyvis Tong 

Hair & Makeup: Karen Yiu 

Stylist: Adyr V 

Models: Nickey K & Shreya G 

ALL outfits and accessories: Fine'n'Rhine