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Honey, I won't be home tonight
May 17, 2001
Why is 'Mr Kiasu' prowling the streets in
the middle of the night?
By Hazel
Tan
Story by TODAY
(Click on pictures
for larger image)
At least twice a week, Chew Chor Meng stays out till the wee
hours of the morning.
Instead of spending time at home with his wife at night, he is all
over Singapore.
One night, he is at a discotheque in the heart
of Singapore. Another night, he is with a female taxi driver who
works the graveyard shift.
No, don't mistake Chor Meng, 33, for a party
animal. On nights when he is not working, he is in bed by 10 pm.
"I sleep early. I don't like to hang out
at night," he said. Chor Meng said he used to wake up as early
as 6 am - to swim.
His doctor had advised him to swim after he
hurt his waist during a filming session some time back.
He has been swimming regularly since August
last year.
"See how tanned I have become?" he
said. "I swim three to four days a week. I used to wake up
at 6 am to swim. Then I got lazy. I asked myself why am I so stupid,
why wake up so early to swim? So now, I wake up at 9 am and swim
at 10 am instead."
This is despite having to work till as late
as 4 am when he is working on Tonite With Chor Meng.
The 30minute variety programme, which airs every
Friday, showcases interesting finds and the things that people do
at night.
Such as a man who wakes up in the middle of
the night to feed stray cats, Singaporeans who fish in the dark,
or others who camp out in tents at night instead of snuggling in
bed at home.
Expect more from the programme, which airs every
Friday (debut last Friday) at 7.30 pm, on MediaCorp TV Channel 8.
Said the excited MediaCorp actor-turned-compere:
"We want to tell a story. We ask questions.
"This programme is not about where to hang
out at night, or where one can find the most number of pubs. There
is no point in featuring things that Singaporeans already know.
"We take a certain amount of risk filming
in the nights.
"And we try our best not to use 'mosaic'
over the faces of our interviewees. We try to show you the real
faces behind these stories," he said.
Like the man who keeps 9 huge cats.
Like professionals who let themselves loose
in discotheques.
"The question is why? Why do some people
do the things they do?
"We found many white collar workers who
are prim and proper in the day, but once night falls, they become
someone else. They do crazy things. They turn wild. They dance the
night away.
"Why? Because they want to relieve stress.
That's their way of doing it," said Chor Meng.
You worry his new project is affecting his married
life.
The homebody shook his head.
"I keep similar hours when I do overnight
filming for drama serials."
With his latest role, Mr Kiasu, which started filming two weeks
ago, Chor Meng now has even less time at home.
He is excited about his first English-speaking
role in the sitcom which will air on MediaCorp TV Channel 5 soon.
"It's a challenge. I am not forcing myself
to speak perfect English. Neither am I telling myself to deliberately
speak bad English. It would not be Singlish. I will speak just the
way Singaporeans speak English," Chor Meng said in English.
So, is he a kiasu Singaporean too?
"I believe everyone is kiasu. It's a matter
of degree. Of course I am kiasu. I want to make as much money as
I can when I am young and retire at 45 years old," he said.
How much money does he want?
"I can't say. Human beings will never be
satisfied. I want to have enough in my pocket for shelter, food
and drinks, and to see a doctor when I need to. In Singapore, you
must have deep pockets to survive," he added.
Not really so kiasu, is that?
Join the discussion on our message board
Chew
Chor Meng will make a good host. What do you think? ...
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