Kamthology, PJ Performing Arts Centre (PJPAC)

It's been almost a couple of years since I last attended a live comedy show, AND the PJ Performing Arts Centre was finally open again for people to attend productions (because it had been a vaccination centre for the people working in the mall earlier in the year). If I was going to pop the proverbial PJPAC cherry, it better be for a good reason. Attendance (even for a Friday night) was pretty good.

Of course the show started at Malaysian 8.30 p.m. (aka closer to 8.45 p.m.), and it kicked off with a song and dance number with Joanne and BB Kay Poh miming along to the Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande duet Rain on Me, with everyone else being their erm, back up dancers. I get that the choreography was supposed to be kinda idiotproof, but watching Kavin Jay half ass the choreography in a somewhat ill-fitting gladiator outfit was already worth the price of admission. 

First half of the show was everyone doing their 10, 15 minutes (?): Terry welcomed everyone to the show and talked about being a Chinese-looking Serani person growing up in Penang; Steven Bones did a couple of parody songs (Mamak of Life, to the tune of Circle of Life, and a version of that one Beyond song everyone knows, but about the lack of internet connection) and also delved into not being taken seriously as a voice artist because of his looks (?); BB did raunchy crowd work and was hitting up men she could see from the stage. Zak and Kavin did their best-of bits: Zak had his Cicak Man bit and Kavin closed his set with the man-farted-in-his-wife's-face-cos-she-asked-him-to-buy-gas court case bit, which you can find some version of on YouTube (seriously). Of course Joanne closed the first half of the show, there was a lot of seafood talk, but not actual seafood, if you get the drift. 

Apparently, according the MKN ruling, they technically are not allowed to have intermission, so we all got a 10-minute toilet break. By then, even the in-house cafe was already closed for the day, which was kind of disappointing, I'm not gonna lie. 

Second half of the show started with basically a in person version of the Facebook Live show they've been doing on Joanne's FB page during the lockdown, the Chap Fan Show, where they get together and talk about the day's headlines. For this, everyone except Terry was dressed up as different "international guest": BB was the killer doll from Squid Game, Steven Bones came as a character named Gloria Adobo, Joanne was "City Kassim", Zak was a Zamunda-n princess, and Kavin was Aunty Vaxx by way of Brickfields. They did 3 stories, one of them was about the KLCC Dior Karen. What went down was pretty funny in person, but the whole time Terry was telling everyone "NO VIDEOS PLEASE" in case the remarks get taken out of context LOL 

As with any Joanne Kam show, there's always an interactive portion with the audience: both Joanne and BB each picked a guy from the audience, one of them a strapping young man from the front row and another erm, toned young man that caught BB's eye from the stage (haha). They both had to do a catwalk-off wearing a bra with balloon tits. Their families were busy filming what went on onstage with their sons/brothers. 

Because of the pandemic, apparently people also need to leave the venue in rows. Because of where I was seated, I ended up being one of the last people to leave, which was annoying (as someone who's usually able to fly out the door when a show ends). I only got home after 11 p.m.. 

Interesting lighting fixtures in the ladies. 
If nothing else, there was plenty of toilet stalls in the ladies washroom 

NB. 

• I still have no idea where's the best/direct-ish place to park so that I don't have to walk across the mall parking lot all by myself after a show because the walk to PJPAC from the mall was not exactly that near (and I thought walking to the Korean grocer in that new wing was far). And I was practically hoofing it straight from the mall parking lot cos I was cutting it kind of close.
• Pretty place, I have to admit. Saw the line at the in-house cafe, which made me glad that I brought my own water... In my defense, I was ready to spend money on at least a drink, until I was told that can't have food and drink inside, which I'm not sure if it's house policy or MKN ruling. Then I was cursing myself for not getting a Coke at least to stay somehow awake. 
• My policy when it comes to shows like this is... no cheap seats (well okay lah, I paid RM94 but that was after the promo code I got as a mall member. Dang the RM4 processing fee). I was seated kinda far back that the view was unobstructed. The seats were new, but could be better (can't have poor posture in those seats, let's just put it that way). Air cond was pretty nice; so nice that I could fall asleep if the seats were conducive for that. 
• Hadn't realised that Siti Kassim was in the audience (didn't recognise her when she was trying to get to her seat and was near where I was seated by mistake).