Thursday 10 September 2009

Zhang Ti @ Genting


The Arena of Stars, Genting, is one of the most happening place that I know of. They hold more concert events per month than any other place that I know.

It was only a day before that hubby and I went to the Michael Learns To Rock concert in Genting, and the very next day, we went up again, this time bringing my mum along for the Zhang Ti concert.

My mum idolises Zhang Ti and she kept talking about Zhang Ti throughout the journey. According to her, Zhang Ti started coming to Penang to perform way back in the late 1960s, and she and her late sister-in-law (my Ah Kim) would go to his concerts.

Despite being in his 60s, age hasn't slowed him down one bit. His voice is rich & powerful, resonating across the fully-packed arena. I found myself asking my mum disbelievingly throughout the show if he was always this spontaneously hilarious. It's hard to believe someone could so spontaneously fit words into tunes. He's a singing stand-up comedian!!

Apparently he is lengendary for answering questions posed by the audience with songs or making up songs on topics selected by the audience on the spot with his unique brand of risque humour. And his rapport with the audience is amazing.

There was good-natured ribbing all round, with some really outrageous topics/questions selected by the cheeky audience, such as:

1) Zhang Ti, please sing a hairy song (this is one of the funniest & probably naughtiest)
2) Zhang Ti, one minus one equals two
3) Zhang Ti, how many fathers do you have
4) Zhang Ti, please sing a mute song (another extremely hilarious performance)
5) Zhang Ti, please sing a Japanese song

Except for a couple, the requests were accompanied with money, mostly RM50 to RM100, although one man gave him as much as RM500, and another gave him a RM5 Genting's casino coin. The latter has probably lost all his money at the casino, and that's all he had left. :)

And....Genting might not be over the moon to hear this, but the RM5 casino token was worthless....Zhang Ti sang two sentences, broke off abruptly, and said, to the roars of approval from the crowd, "I've earned my money. That's all you're getting for a RM5 casino coin." :D

Below is a video of the Japanese song request. My apologies for the shakes in the camera....I was laughing so hard that I couldn't keep my camera steady. Pay attention to the "Japanese" in the words....

Enjoy...........