Mini-preview of my Hallowe’en costume for drag party at professor’s mansion

October 31, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment 

I am dressed and ready to go to a drag party. More photos will follow.

VS

Filed under: Gaying
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Cashmere Mafia vs. Lipstick Jungle, a comparison of new shows

October 28, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment 

I am a super huge fan of Sex and the City, both the television series and the recent movie. In fact, I cried no less than three times during the movie this summer. With that in mind, I wanted a new fix and thus went to my local DVD shop and bought the DVD sets of Cashmere Mafia and Lipstick Jungle, the two spiritual successors to Sex and the City.

Lipstick Jungle comes from the author of the original Sex and the City novel the television show was based on, while Cashmere Mafia is headed by Darren Star, executive producer of the Sex and the City television show.
Read more . . .

Filed under: Watching
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I hope I never suffer through writer’s block, please please please

October 27, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment 

I’ve been fortunate enough to never suffer through writer’s block. I can probably attribute this to the fact that I generally only write when I feel inspired. It’s not that I sit down for long sessions while I’m inspired, but I instead write down little notes when an idea comes to my head, and when I do have time to write, I go back to my notes and get down to work.

I now have a huge backlog of great ideas that I have to organize before I can go ahead write new comedy sets. In total, the job of organizing should take me about 40 hours. For some reason, I can’t get passed this block. It’s not so much writer’s block as it is writer’s procrastination.

I took this past Friday and Monday off partially to work my way through the backlog, but I can unfortunately report that I haven’t actually done any work organizing. I know to be great at comedy, I have to put in the time doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes. It’s just that when I look at the mountain of organizing, I get a bit weary.

Oh well, I won’t beat myself up, as the days off are gone now. I’ll simply have to split up my workload and do a little each night before going to bed.

VS

Filed under: Performing
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Costume hunting to transform into Gossip Girls’ Blair Waldorf for Hallowe’en

October 27, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment 

Today was costume shopping day. Hallowe’en is right around the corner, and I’m excited to be dressing up for the first time in years. I’ve been invited to a drag party at some rich guy’s mansion. For those who don’t know, a drag party is a party in which all guests have to dress up as the opposite sex.

I just found out that the party is going to be mainly young Asian boys dressing up as girls, other than the party’s host of course. It sounds a little strange when I put it that way, but I am not going to pass up an opportunity to party with most of Toronto’s Asian hotties, whether they’re dressed as women or not.

With the help of Jason Ho, I was able to find the perfect brown-haired wig. Once the wig was found, I decided on my costume: Gossip Girl, specifically Blair “B” Waldorf (see photo below). Her signature look is preppy New Yorker accessorized with the back-in-style headband, which I still need to shop for.

I’ll be blogging straight from the party on Friday night with photos.

VS

Filed under: Gaying
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Waking up is so hard to do, luckily I have a night job

October 20, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment 

I am not a morning person in the least. I’m not sure what it is about mornings that so disagrees with me, but I can’t for the life of me kick my own ass out of bed before 9:00 a.m.

This morning I was supposed to try and start earlier at work but I barely made it on time. Luckily, my job doesn’t begin officially until 10:00 a.m.

It has gotten so bad that my friends are making fun of my morning grogginess. The photo below was taken as I lingered in bed at a friend’s house in Montreal.

I suppose my being a night owl is helpful as a comedian as shows often run late into the night.

Filed under: Living, Performing
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Mamma Mia! has made me a huge fan of ABBA

October 19, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment 

Believe it or not, I went into this movie knowing of only two ABBA songs: Dancing Queen and Take A Chance On Me. I had no idea of the breadth of ABBA’s hits. I left this movie a super fan. In fact, I went straight out and bought the movie soundtrack.

I’ve read several reviews, and I don’t think most reviewers have been ignoring the fantastic performance turned in by Amanda Seyfried as lead Sophie. Amanda has an amazing quivering soprano voice that cuts straight to the heart of the lyrics. I have been a big fan of Amanda’s since Mean Girls and Big Love, but I never knew she had such a great voice.
Read more . . .

Filed under: Watching
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iPhone 3G has changed my life, absolutely spectacular technology

October 19, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment 

I remember my first introduction to the original iPhone over a year ago. There were rumours swirling for months regarding Apple’s eventual unveiling of the iPhone. Even with all the hype, Apple’s unveiling blew all expectations out of the water. I downloaded the conference video and was astounded with all the features the phone would offer. Unfortunately for me, it would be well over a year before the iPhone would be introduced to Canada.

A few of my friends went the route of buying an American iPhone and unlocking it for use in Canada. I decided to wait. I almost waited too long, as the introductory 6GB data plan offer was over, and I had to argue my way to getting the introductory offer. All in all, I’m happy with the cost of the data plan and the options I received (6GB data, iPhone Wireless Essentials).

I’ve now had the phone for a full two weeks, and I must say in all honesty that the iPhone 3G has changed my life. The precipitating factor for my buying an iPhone 3G was actually this website. The iPhone 3G launched with Apple’s App Store 2.0 software, allowing the downloading and purchase of third-party applications. The biggest application for me was WordPress for iPhone. Now I’m able to blog on the go, like when I’m on the bus on my way to work. The App Store opens up a world of possibilities, and having the power of the internet in my hands at all times is extremely convenient.

My favourite features of the iPhone include the complete integration with my iMac desktop computer. All my e-mails and contacts are automatically synchronized. The Visual Voicemail makes receiving voice messages much less painful (I’ve never been much for receiving voicemail).

I’m one of the few fans of the touch keypad. I have never been a fan of the BlackBerry and still find them rather cumbersome to use, so I never got used to typing with my thumbs. There have been many complaints about Apple’s touch keypad, but I think they mainly stem from users trying to type with their thumbs. The keypad is simply not made for this, as thumbs are too large and block the screen. I use my three centre fingers, and I’m confident that within a year’s time, I’ll be able to out-type any BlackBerry typist in the world. Yes, I may be a bit over-confident, but I am the Winnipeg Typing Champion after all.

The phone itself has had some technical issues. In fact, I am already on my second iPhone 3G in as many weeks. My first iPhone 3G decided to no longer recognize my SIM card. My second iPhone 3G nearly stopped recognizing the existence of a battery. Now, I generally would deduct marks off for these technical issues except for one huge factor: Apple’s customer service.

The ease of reporting my phone’s failure and the quick replacement of my phone was rather impressive. The new 2.1 software update is also supposed to have corrected many of the software bugs.

Technical issues aside, the overwhelming way in which Apple has changed the world of mobile technology far outshines anything that could possibly be semi-annoying.

Review Score: ★★★★★ 

Filed under: Playing
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Finding balance between dayjob, comedy career and gay life

October 19, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment 

Striking the right balance between the different aspects of my life has always been difficult for me. I’m the type to concentrate solely on one project and sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture. For instance, it has been months since I have been on a comedy stage.

The four major aspects of my life are my dayjob, my comedy career, my gay life and my ghetto life (family and straight friends). At any one time, one of the four aspects of my life can fall off the radar. For instance, this summer I was concentrated so much on advancing my career at my dayjob that I kind of lost track of my friends. Most people wondered where I had disappeared to during the summer.

At different points in my life, I’ve tried to take a different approach and try to change the way I live my life, but it has never worked out too well. I work best when I just go with the flow of what interests me at the moment. This is how I work best creatively, and I only hope that my friends will get used to me disappearing at times while I concentrate on different aspects of my life.

Coming up shortly will be a much more prominent role for my comedy life, especially now that my website has launched. There is so much to do now for sure. The biggest project being my writing a one-hour show for next summer. I’ve basically got to sit down and devote the time necessary to getting it accomplished.

VS

Filed under: Gaying, Living, Performing
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Super flattered that someone started a fan club for me

October 16, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment 

I’ve been video blogging on YouTube for a while now, and a little while back I got a few comments from a couple of my fans who decided to start a fan club for me on FaceBook. I was so ridiculously flattered and completely speechless. You can find the group at the below address.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=29850870682

What’s more amazing is that the awesome fans who started the page are from all around the world.

So this entire post is to thank them all, especially Alfred Jook and Peter Choumvong, who are administrators on the group.

Filed under: Performing
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I like you, but . . . Just hate me all the way already

October 13, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment 

I visited one of my dearest friends while in Montreal this weekend. We were very close when we both lived in Calgary and were on many committees together.

It’s always great to hear your life reflected through the eyes of someone who knows you so well. Our conversation reminded me of just how far I have come in my short time in Toronto. In fact, I feel more accepted in a few months in Toronto than I ever did in Calgary in five years.

The bitterness and anger in my heart and in my comedy has been replaced with joy. It goes to show that sometimes you just have to follow your heart and take a chance.

VS

Filed under: Gaying
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