As "Smong", I achieved enough notoriety in a few short months to be featured in the 23-30 April 1994 issue of 8 Days magazine with Chew Chor Meng on the cover.
I'm listed on the Contents page under People as "the man everybody loves to hate" (page 20) with a picture of me appropriately sneering at the camera.
Yes, very different hair then.
On page 20, I was described thus:
He's the Abominable Showman - that surly movie critic, courtesy of Live On 5, whom everybody loves to hate.
("Shower without soap"? Isn't that called rinsing?)
I wasn't very happy with the way I was presented. I disliked the picture and several things the article said I said I didn't say at all. But I guess no harm done. I just learnt never to trust journalists again. Ha!
I agreed to the interview to help promote the show, but ironically, the week the article came out was the first week I stopped appearing on Live On 5, although I still worked behind the scenes as the show's research writer until June.
I wonder whatever happened to that Gurmit Singh fellow.
