LET’S face it. Raise your hand if you have seen Joanne Kam Poh Poh in Boom Boom Room Kuala Lumpur. If you are around my age (mid-50s), chances are you have definitely seen this undisputed Queen of Comedy back then.
Who could ever forget her signature joke about wearing a polka dot bikini that then turned into a striped bikini? A look at her plus-sized body, bubbly personality and larger-than-life persona is good enough to make me a huge fan of her.
Joanne Kam needs no introduction. She was the toast of Kuala Lumpur nightlife in her heyday. And I was lucky to finally get up close and personal recently with Kam for an hour of interview and best of all, saw the test run of her upcoming show – Kam My Way: A Journey Spanning 30 Years Of Comedy which also coincides with her 50th birthday celebration.
Kam My Way
“The show is very personal to me and marks a celebration of my 30 years of experience in comedy. I am blessed that I can still do this at 50,” Kam reminisced.
“To step back in time to share how I started doing comedy is simply beyond words – from doing stand-up comedy at the Boom Boom Room (BBR) with Singapore’s famed drag queen comedian, Kumar in 2021 and then I moved to Kuala Lumpur to open BBR in Kuala Lumpur and Babylon Boom Boom in Penang. And the rest is history,” she smiled.
What is even more exciting is that Kam My Way will feature all-new joke material.
She will share her private life, starting from being a 20-year-old girl kicking off her career in the world of cabaret, comedy and entertainment to being a single mother and overcoming financial strains from the COVID-19 pandemic by selling barbecued pork.
Kam’s soft side (Caution: Spoiler)
At the test run, I was lucky to get a glimpse into the upcoming Kam My Way show. I love the part when Kam walks the audience down memory lane such as her time as a co-host with Kumar and as a prop master, dressing up as the evil Ursula of The Little Mermaid.
While Kam’s jokes had me in stitches throughout the show, there was a momentary lull that had me in tears—the part when Kam spoke about her dying mother.
I had never seen Kam shed a tear, and that moment caught me by surprise. It goes to show that in spite of all the fun and laughter, Kam is after all, a human with a heart.
When asked how she feels about her upcoming show, Kam put it nicely, “At 20, you’re lost. At 30, you’re trying to find yourself. At 40, you’re just waiting for other people to find you. And at 50, you finally come home to yourself. And this is my story I want to share with my audience.”
The Kam My Way tour will kick off on Sept 8 and 9 in Petaling Jaya, followed by Sept 23 in Kuching and Oct 13 and 14 in Penang. – Aug 26, 2023
Francis Yip is a fashionista and an award-winning writer and HRDF (Human Resource Development Fund)-accredited trainer. He is also the CEO of Franciswriter Dot Com and guest lecturer at The One Academy.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
