Tomorrow, I will land in Hong Kong for the first time. I'm touring with the kids ministry, OmniPro productions again. This time, the tour is much longer. It's Omni's first step outside Taiwan. And the Malaysian tour was mainly organised by my Dad. So more prancing around with a note on my head, and a fake keyboard on my arm. Benefits from this ministry experience? I get to practice stage performing and acting in Chinese. Haven't done too much of acting or memorizing lines in Chinese in my life, so this is good training. Observing, and performing with other people who are way more natural at hosting and acting than I am is also very good practice for my future stage skills.
To be honest, I love the stage, but conditionally. I love it when everything is in it's right place [like audience that is not bored or hostile or un-relatable], or I love it when I know what I'm doing up there. One of the more traumatic stage experiences I had was when I was 13, I was semi-forced/persuaded to sing for a teacher's retirement ceremony. The song was an oldie, and I knew the audience [of 13-year-old Chinese Malaysians] wouldn't know it or appreciate it [I think I do have a fairly good instinct about what different audiences might like]. Secondly, I had to sing it acapella, with no backing music. To me, this was atrocious, because I was not a strong singer [especially at that time], an inexperienced solo performer, and the audience would have no clue what the song sounded like. THAT was not an ideal situation to be on stage.
But, there have been times when being on stage playing, singing, dancing or acting has been the most liberating and energizing thing in the whole world for me.
Aside from all the rehearsals and administration related to the tour, I've come into contact with a young Taiwanese programmer lately who's studying in New York University. Producer has been asking me to look for a programmer to work it for since March. So, this young chap has come at a timely time. He's full of potential and creativity, though still very young in many ways. So the last few weeks have been a sudden flurry of back-and-forth-ing demos and ideas. We'll see how God leads with all of this.
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