Brace yourself for the first episode of my humorous new audio column, Sharp Pains, which launches on RTHK Radio 3‘s 123 Show Sept 29! The series will also feature actor Philippe Joly voicing the part of ‘Daddy’.
I’m also super-excited to be producing & presenting two new podcast series: Writer Unblocked & Hong Kong Marriage Stories. The former is now in production and the latter in pre-production for next year!
In a daze to learn my first (and only) poem, War of Voices, has won a place in the 2020 Proverse Poetry Prize and will be published in Proverse Publishing‘s 2021 anthology next April! Which place (last place?) will be announced at a reception in Hong Kong Nov 19!
My late grandfather, a poet, who also dabbled in banking, would be proud! I’d love to say he was an inspiration but since his legacy is all in Welsh (and it’s a sin to translate Welsh poetry into English) it’s impossible for me to tell if he’s been much of an influence or not.
Thank you, Proverse! You have made a wannabe poet with more issues than Vogue very happy.
Crazy is a cheeky little fiesta of madness and the last episode of the first series of Mental Ideas Podcasts so DON’T MISS IT!!! The Mental Ideas Podcast will be back in 2021! You can download all the episodes from this series on RTHK‘s Podcast One platform. Stay tuned for news of spin-off Mental Monologues and the first series’ launch on BBC Sounds!
You can catch me presenting my humorous new audio column on Noreen Mir’s fantabulous 123 Show on RTHK Radio 3 from September 29, 2020! I’m also cranking into production of two new podcasts, Hong Kong Marriage Stories and Writer Unblocked. If you’re interested in taking part as a guest, get in touch!!!
A HUGE thanks to all my mental guests: Mat Ricardo, Christina Yung, Larry Feign, Florence Wong, Ruben M, Josh Walters, Dan Davies, Kiki Wong, Jackie Chan, Philippe Joly, Eugenia Kim, Raffaello Degruttola, Ifat Hyndes, as well as to Nick Samuel for composing the mental music, Angie Mann – and especially to the legendary Noreen Mir for exec producing and all her endless encouragement, guidance and support!!!
Until then amigos, if you can’t stay sane, stay crazy!
I’m excited to be collaborating with the Hong Kong Writers Circle producing and presenting a brand new strand of podcasts exploring the timely theme of ‘Masking The City: Hong Kong in Allegory‘!
Writer Unblocked showcases original short stories, poetry and humor to unlock and unblock Hong Kong’s creative art and soul. While some lucky writers and artists have been feeling creatively inspired by the protests, lockdown and surreality of social distancing, others have been left feeling disoriented, emotionally locked and creatively blocked.
Join me, familiar and debut voices from the Hong Kong Writers Circle as we attempt to ease the ‘blockdown’. The series will be recorded Sept/Oct 2020 and tie in with the publication of the HKWC’s 2020 anthology in November! The first episode will be recorded Sept 14 and feature Chief Editor Nathan Lauer and HKWC Chair Chris Maden.
Following a relatively smooth (considering the backdrop!) debut stint as a podcaster on RTHK Radio 3‘s fantabulous 123 Show, I am excited to have been invited to produce & present a brand new strand for the show!
Hong Kong Marriage Stories takes a refreshing, insightful and entertaining look at the institution of marriage and the complicated, often hilarious dynamics between two people. It may not be a fairytale (unless it’s the one where you kill an ogre with an axe and get pots of gold?) But it’s Love, Factually.
Whether you’re still in the honeymoon period or have been married for decades, whether your marriage is magic or tragic, whether you’re smugged out, bugged out or drugged out, whether social distancing has brought you closer together (ha!) or driven you to the brink of homicide, RTHK’s Miss Adventure wants your engaging and entertaining marriage stories!
Interested in taking part? Get in touch!!! You and your spouse can disagree on everything – except being interviewed by me once separately and once together. Throughout the series, listeners will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite marriage story (probably on the grounds of entertainment value, rather than durability). The winning couple will receive a ‘Hong Kong Marriage Story of The Year‘ trophy, a certificate signed by the Pope (TBA) and a romantic date night of our choosing!!!
Episode 1 of my Mental Ideas Podcast, a new weekly strand on the fantabulous Noreen Mir‘s 123 Show, aired April 2, 2020 on RTHK Radio 3!
Depression. It’s no laughing matter. Or is it? Why are so many of our best loved comedians depressed? I trance in and out exploring this tragi-hilarious topic with award-winning cartoonist, depressed humorist and best-selling author, the irrepressible Larry Feign: creator of the iconic Lily Wong comic strip published in the South China Morning Post. Larry was the first cartoonist to have a full-page spread in Time Magazine, worked in animation for Walt Disney Studios and is the international best-selling author of 15 comic books and children’s book series The Fart Brothers, which he sensibly writes under the pen name M.D. Whalen because he doesn’t want to be too closely associated with flatulence.
https://www.rthk.hk/radio/radio3/programme/1_2_3_show/episode/675344
The Mental Ideas Podcast will be back on RTHK Thursday April 9 @ 2.30pm!
If you live in Hong Kong and want to see your new Birkin bag sprayed with graffiti, then freed into the stinky dead harbor to see if it can swim, you may want to invest in one of these…
#FREE MY BIRKIN BAG!
My parents may be getting on a bit, but that’s still no excuse for just how badly tonight’s phone conversation went…
Them: How are you feeling?
Me: Shit.
Them: About the protests?
Me: No, about Jeffrey Epstein’s cat. COURSE about the protests.
Them: What’s the worse that could happen?
Me: Are you serious??
Them: The PLA will march in and Hong Kong will become the New Shanghai!
Me: I think you’re missing the point.
Them: Lots of people love Shanghai!
Me: Yeah, Mainlanders.
Them: No, Hongkongers move there, too! They love it!
Me: Well, if Hong Kong’s the New Shanghai, there’d be no point moving to Old Shanghai, would there? Might as well stay put.
Them: You said 15 years ago that you’d like to live in Shang.
Me: No, I said I’d like to live in THE Shang, as in Shangri-La, as in hotel, as in harbor view, as in Hong Kong, as in not in Sai Kung.
Them: Wouldn’t the protests put you off?
Me: Look, I’ve gotta go. Dog…hair…house…pants on fire.
Them: Ok, have a lovely evening!
And they call themselves Liberals.
I’ve had a quick look at the weather forecast and it seems no amount of water cannoning by the Chinese army/ Hong Kong Police/ Chinese army dressed up as Hong Kong Police/ Hong Kong Police dressed up as Protesters/ Protesters dressed up as Foreign Journalists/ Foreign Journalists dressed up as Bruce Lee Tribute Acts can compete with what Mother Nature has in store for us this week…
Even more of a dampener, every 7-11 in Hong Kong has sold out of umbrellas.
There’s been very little to make light of in Hong Kong this week. Did I really write Planes, Trains & Climate Change only a week ago, boasting of how a peaceful sit in protest at the airport had not disrupted any flights? Had I really spent much of the past year writing a comedy kids’ book called Hong Kong Has Gone!? You couldn’t make it up! Well, unfortunately, I did. Another writing project consigned to my cluttered desktop folder of Accidentally Inappropriate Doomed Self-Fulfilling Prophecies. But my helper did achieve the impossible this morning, and raise a small smile, when I saw that she had moved this rather spartan, typhoon-ravaged pot plant around (unwittingly, I think, as a devout Christian) to face like this…
What do you see? Or is it just me?
