‘It was an institution’: Kumar on why the Boom Boom Room was special
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'It was an establishment': Kumar on why the Blast Nail Room was special
"It was a brilliant platform for a lot of queens – younger ones, older ones – because it'south very hard to discover a job, particularly then," Kumar told CNA Lifestyle. " When you lot give them a platform, they feel very wanted and loved..."
Singapore's undisputed elevate queen Kumar is the headliner for Boom Boom Room Alive! at MBS. (Photo: MBS)
Pop Television set serial like RuPaul's Drag Race may have brought the art form of elevate performance into the mainstream around the globe. Simply in Singapore, the appreciation of drag cabaret will undoubtedly exist attributed to the legendary Blast Smash Room in Bugis Street.
Dreamt upwardly past local musician and composer Dick Lee in 1991, information technology was the place to see drag excellence – female person celebrity impersonators and drag queens all sashaying, lip-syncing and entertaining the crowds with their myriad of skills.
And right in the middle of information technology all was national-sensation-in-the-making Kumar, slaying audiences night after night with a raunchy comedy show, replete with self-written ri sque jokes and observations nearly daily life in Singapore (all of which he is at present famous for).
When Bugis Street underwent a makeover into the shopping enclave it is now, Boom Boom Room moved to Far East Square where its heyday continued until 2004 when the cabaret eventually shuttered its doors. Singapore'southward drag scene became decentralised and scattered across other ventures and shows.
Seventeen years afterwards, Boom Nail Room is making its long overdue comeback at the Marina Bay Sands convention middle. Now reimagined every bit a gimmicky cabare t, the show is headlined by, of grade, Kumar, now a Singapore icon, along with two of the original stars of the Boom Boom Room, Helda and Lysa.
They'll be joined past a new generation of drag queens, led by Vanda Miss Joaquim (a fan favourite and third runner-upward on Elevate Race Thailand Season Two ) and fellow performers Anna Stacia and Tiara Sorrel.
There seems no meliorate time than at present to bring back the iconic show, one of the first ones that audiences in Singapore can spotter in person after a prolonged absence of live performances.
And, as Kumar told CNA Lifestyle, it's too perhaps loftier time that a new generation learns about Boom Smash Room's history and just how pregnant it is to the Singapore live amusement scene.
"People demand to know well-nigh Nail Boom Room because we came then simply handphones came," quipped Kumar. "Social media came afterwards u.s.a.. Information technology was an institution. It was a home for a lot of the performers. It was a home for me too, because I spent more than time in Boom Smash than at abode."
He recalled: "We apposite every mean solar day. Hard work pays off. Nowadays, youngsters are all merely well-nigh the 'quick bucks' or influencers (on social media). Those days, it was really hard piece of work. Nosotros had to produce the whole product and give information technology to the audience. And it was very well received."
We besides remarked that the original Boom Blast Room also seemed to serve some other purpose, as a safe infinite for a lot of performers during the 90s.
"Yes, because instead of existence on the streets, we give them a place to perform, you know?" shared Kumar.
"Information technology was a bright platform for a lot of queens – younger ones, older ones – because it'south very difficult to detect a job, especially then. Now the drags can piece of work… but final time nobody employed them. And then that'southward why they end upwards in the streets, you know?
He connected: "So when you requite them a platform, they feel very wanted and loved because some of them (accept) parents who don't approve or whatever the family problem (is). Then, it was actually nice. It was a great feeling."
Indeed, bringing that "neat feeling" back to this new contemporary Boom Boom Room is key and OG queens like Helda is determined to evangelize this, while embracing all body shapes and sizes.
"I started out way dorsum in the 90s. Dorsum then, we were known as female impersonators, especially of big proper noun celebrities and singers. And we would 'trick' audiences into thinking nosotros're these beautiful women," said Helda, who went on to host Asia's Uncut on Star Globe after the original Boom Boom Room shut. "Today, elevate is evolving. It'southward louder, more over the superlative and in your face."
"And audiences tend to try and confine usa all in boxes, like comparing bigger queens to the skinnier queens," added Helda. "Just as I always tell my other plus-size sisters like Anna Stacia , being large just means nosotros can exercise a lot more. Just existence on phase, nosotros already control attention. We should exist proud of that and love our bodies.
"Which is why I choose to stand outside the box, on the box, and perform my heart out. And if the box breaks, and then I simply get a bigger, better box!"
For new queens similar Vanda Miss Joaquim, being able to share a live stage with the original Smash Smash Room queens, during a COVID-19 pandemic no less, is certainly memorable.
"When you have phase shows like this, it's like breathing again," said the performer. "And everyone is able to come together. With these OGs (queens), they actually carved a pathway for u.s.a.. And at present nosotros're covering a unlike pathway for the younger generation."
Other performers in the live show include local celebrity vocalizer Nat Ho and sorcerer Mentalist Marking, aslope international acts such as elevate male monarch Daddy Vacation, and circus artist David Matz, who volition be presenting the world'southward beginning holographic Cyr Bike in his act.
Indeed with this new lineup, Smash Nail Room Live! is a show that promises middle, humour and the render of some of Singapore's well-nigh iconic drag performers bringing their much-needed derisive charm.
And for those audiences who become easily triggered? Kumar'south advice is, well, simply "just don't come up". "Considering this is how it is," he said with a express joy.
"Become and lookout man social media, lah! It'south fifty-fifty worse!"
Boom Smash Room Live! is running until Dec 19 at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre Hall C, 10 Bayfront Artery, Singapore 018956. Rated R18. Tickets get-go at South$98 hither.
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