Jit & Jo in Leonardo's

Dear readers,

Have you ever been curious at how creativity works? How stand up comedians can say things in the most matter-of-fact shit but still you end up shitting from all your laughing?

Certainly creativity in Malaysia is a struggle sometimes, both in using it as a career & as a way to not get bored and commit suicide.

A lawyer named Edward Soo decided to change that with Leonardo's Dining Room & Wine Loft (http://leonardos.my/index.asp), a restaurant in Jalan Bangkung. They were in the news recently for 'going beyond good food', and having a few arts-related events, to promote a more knowledgeable, more vibrant arts-loving community.

I was called up by the Instant Cafe Theatre Company (http://www.instantcafetheatre.com/) to help out with front-of-house for the latest event in Leonardo's, 'CHAI's the Art Instinct Series 2011: Ep 1 Jit Murad and Jo Kukathas'. It happened on 25th Jan 2011 and it's a series about the arts & intellectuals talking about the art instinct & what it means to be creative.

You can read some books there, and yes, that adorable stuffed dog is smarter than you.

I brought along my good friend Joel Peh, who funny enough, approached me about this event before I did. BTW, he's a business student but he's always looking out for the next big arts event, so kudos to him.

This is Joel. Wait, shouldn't I be over there working?

If you're a longtime ICT fan, you'd probably know that they have regular events like this one in CHAI (Instant Cafe House of Arts & Ideas), their HQ & Jo's evil lair. I'd day it was a good idea that this collaboration happened as it allows CHAI to bring what it does to other places.

But have I mentioned the food? Now for a cover charge of RM10, every viewer that came in got a glass of punch & canapes, but what glorious surprises they were.

Here's a little list of the little delectable canapes: veggie pizza (delicious mushrooms), Hawaiian Chicken & Pineapple Kebab (the barbecue sauce brought everything together), etc.

I apologize for the poor image quality, but from left to right: the kebabs; Faberge Eggs; dumplings; glasses of punch

& my personal favorite, the Fabarge eggs. Get this: grapes coated with fruit cheese and toasted pistachios. It sounds bonkers, but it was my culinary surprise of the year, & yes, it's only January, but everything about it was melt-in-your-mouth.

So after me & Joel stuffed our faces (& worked the FOH) a bit, ICT's program coordinator, Rahel Joseph (sorry Rahel, forgot to snap a pic of you!), first introduced us to veteran playwright, actor & comedian, Jit Murad. I don't know him personally but he's written many Malaysian plays such as Visits & Goldrain & Hailstones. And he talked about the creative impulse, & how his life relates to it.

"Despite my humility, which is awesome, I'm intrigued by myself,"

& Mr. Jit does have an interesting life macam giler, the man studies Sociology & ended up a playwright, my goodness! He narrates a surprisingly large amount of his life and how it made him the man he is today. He told the audience how when he was a young boy, he made a lot of little children's books, and one of which was a tornado that he drew & a star he drew next in the tornado, as the tornado felt lonely. It's the little things that counts you know?

One of the quotes he said that I jotted down but didn't fully grasp at first was, "I like to know what I like to think about things," If my inferior brain can comprehend, he's stating that it's important to get your thoughts down, & understand how they are to you and your world, like actually writing that script instead of keeping it in locked doors.

Next up is the Jo Kukathas, artistic director of ICT, actress for many iconic roles such as the YB, Ribena Berry, which appeared in shows like 1Sex. 1Money 1Scandal. The Virus Returns & many other works of satire with equally long titles.

Sharon Nelson was Jo's ex-Eng. Literature student, and she intro-ed her up.

Like Jit, Jo had some stories of her own, & she opened with one about a baby and an electric socket. She states that you could tell a baby a thousand times, 'no, don't put your fingers into the socket holes even though it looks as if you can!', but they will still want to try, it's only when they try it then they can hold the power of decision-making in their little soft hands.

She elaborated further about how scientists and artist are like this curious baby, trying to make sense of things and making up stories, even saying that scientific reports are simply stories written in a scientific fashion.

"You may be a banker, but you may have a soul of a poet,"

Jo also expressed worry that creativity may be exploited in the wrong way, particularly in being too results-oriented. She had an analogy that students in these modern times are like cars; how much to the gallon for its mileage, some may ask?

She insists that being too results-orientated when it comes to the application of creativity stifles creativity. I myself see that it runs the risk of the employee kissing the ass of the employer just to please the hand that feeds. If that's creativity, that employee needs to rethink his life for awhile.

& probably the strangest story told tonight was about her father, the writer K. Das telling her about the story of Mehitabel the cat and Archy the cockroach, especially since Jo is scared of cockroaches. K. Das explains to a younger Jo that Archy's previous life was a poet, but him being reincarnated as a roach gave him so much more NEED to write.

Me and Joel passed to everyone a poem 'the life of mehitabel the cat' that Archy wrote, about how Mehitabel was once Cleopatra, and even though she's now a cat, she still has that spirit of a queen in her, 'toujours gai my kiddo toujours gai'. That spirit inspired Archy the NEED to write.

As a final hurrah, everyone got a copy of John Tusa's two quotes on creativity, as a way to close the talk.

This blog is dedicated to Jit, Jo and Edward Soo.

But wait! There was a Q&A session! And that's when I noticed in the crowd of roughly 30 people was that me and Joel were surely the youngest kids in the lot. Everyone else seemed to already have a job & far off the recently graduated path. I did feel a little sad that people my age were not in on this, have I mentioned the food?


They also, in the Q&A, mentioned a tip about creativity that also appeared on the Facebook event page. If you find yourself stuck with ideas, open a book, randomly select a word, and formulate ideas incorporating this word.

Edward Soo everybody!

Epilogue: before the event started, me and Mr. Edward had a little chat. I told him I was a graduate from the Diploma in Performing Art from Sunway Uni (no-more-college-oh), and he enthusiastically told me that if there were any artistic ideas that I have, Leonardo's can be involved in it. Let's put this in perspective, there are so many other artistes with portfolios the size of Texas, and he asked ME about coming up with events? Young people, old and new, where are you?

Sincerely,

Lee Zhi-Li