Thoughts While Watching Gelak Gempak Pilot

There's currently a reality competition show for Malaysia's next top standup comic (?) called Gelak Gempak. As someone who enjoys standup on occasion and have seen the American versions of this ilk (Last Comic Standing, Bring the Funny), consider me all in. I only knew of the show because some of the local comics I follow on soc med have been plugging it.

The first episode is up on YouTube, which was how I saw it. 

The first part of reality competition shows is the private audition stage, where both the local comedy club owners (Harith Iskander of The Joke Factory [TJF] and Crackhouse's Rizal van Geyzel) put forth their "tributes" (haha)/candidates for the show. 

So okay, on with the running commentary! 

• The opening - where they try to squeeze in the format, competitors and cash prize in under 5 minutes? RM25,000 is not too shabby, especially in this pandemic, but yeah.
• A LOL Asia production? Kinda credible. 
• Hmm... so judges are Sherry Alhadad, Nabil and Dato' Afdlin Shauki. 
• Heh - the pre-show disclaimer is so CYA, but sadly necessary because (I'm guessing) some people have no chill and will be butthurt by the content going forward. 
• "Private auditions" does sound a little skeezy. 
• Why did Harith only recommended two people? Was there a cap? 
• Love the jab at Harith about his weight loss and "bini lawa"; Dato' is one to talk la, he also married up.
• Of course there's gotta be a tour of the place. LOL sick burn at Dato's (now closed) clubs.
• Makes sense for Nabil to be at the Crackhouse for his side of the "private auditions" with guest judge Douglas Lim. 
• If you were wondering who's still doing the Wakanda Forever gesture in 2021, these guys (Nabil, Douglas and Rizal). These guys did that. 
• Did Rizal and Harith got different memos or something ah - how come one put forth 2 people, the other person, three people? At least Rizal put forth Malay guys la cos it's Astro Warna.. 
• Have to admire Nabil's frankness about getting paid to laugh and judge others? 
• Can't get past Harith putting his mask on his elbow... 😬
• Come on lah, there's no way the judges didn't already know who the club owners were gonna recommend... 
• Harith's candidates: Phoon Chi Ho and Mad Sabah. "Diorang ni berpengelaman, cuma tak femes je" "Bukan tak femes, ini langsung TAK femes" - LOL 
• First guy at the Crackhouse audition: has a day job. Parents dunno neh mind, but wife must be okay with it. But I dunno about going on TV just for the judges feedback....? Ah, self-deprecating material. No idea if Douglas is laughing cos it's actually funny, or just cringing out loud.
• Mad Sabah's set was pretty funny. The line about his wife being from Negeri Sembilan and learning ilmu hitam went over my head, but it's probably me.
• Back to the Crackhouse and Sofwan is up. Oklah his set. 
• Chi Ho is trying his luck doing standup in Malay back at TJF is admirable. The only non-Malay in this episode so far. 
• I'm not familiar with JD, but ok. His set about learning French so he doesn't get made fun of for butchering French brand names is ok, but dunno about the mass appeal. Which Nabil and Douglas had mentioned as much in their deliberation. 
• There's no way Nabil and Douglas didn't already know that Rizal was gonna be auditioning for this show... really meh?! But they had a video package ready to go for Rizal, so cannot be la. Maybe the producers kept it from the judges, which is more likely. 
• Douglas ranting about how Rizal can join but not himself until he realised that he would have to be judged by Nabil... LOL 
• If I was them, I'd put Rizal's (really cute) baby on national TV too... just saying. 
• Rizal might be directly translating his usual intro material into Malay (cos he's mostly known as an English-speaking comic), but still not bad lah. 
• Two people still need to cut meh? To be fair I was totally expecting someone to get cut when I saw this the first time. 
• Yay, both Chi Ho and Mad Sabah are on to the next round...!
• Haha, Nabil throwing Douglas under the bus about the cuts. 
• Wait, if they cut that one guy at this audition... I thought I saw him in the sizzle reel earlier? What happened ah?
• Rizal, after putting ALL his cards on the table, made it to the next round after all, LOL

I think the show is on Astro Warna, which is a channel I don't think I have at home (have to pay extra). Also, don't get me started on the other options like Astro On Demand or Astro Go. So I don't know how to keep watching going forward. But an interesting pilot episode.