0209'12

Starstruck ♥

1st September 2012, a day to remember (': 

Ryan Higa (or nigahiga on Youtube) is a pretty mainstream guy - he's videos are so easily accessible, so many people around the world watch him, and his humour's based largely around nonsensical brainless everyday happenings. I usually pride myself as being someone who swerves away from mainstream artistes (for appropriate reasons, not because I want to be a hippie because I think that's cool) but why do I love Ryan Higa so much? 

Because no girl can ever resist a good looking guy, 

Because the videos he make are genuinely funny, 

Because he constantly improves himself, 

Among others. 

Most importantly, because he is where he is by his own merit and hard work (': 

Honestly, kudos to this guy who carved out his own career (probably by accident) single-handedly. 

My obsession with him started in sec one (or earlier) when Emily showed me the first ever Nigahiga video I'd watch and that was "The Snuggo". I remember being addicted to all his videos and I can safely say I've watched all of his videos including those removed from his channel at least thrice and countless times for the all time favourites.  I remember staying up extremely late with Matthew, Ian and Emily (who fell asleep) waiting for the release of his first short film, "Agents of Secret Stuff" because the time zone in US was different from that of Singapore. To be honest, I hardly have time to watch his videos very regularly now, but his videos will be the first one I click on my subscription box if any. He's my second favourite Youtuber, second to Watsky, but definitely first in humour. 

When I saw the first tweet that Ryan Higa mentioned of Singapore, simply asking whether he had any Singapore fans, I knew that if he really came, I would do anything to catch him live. Watching him on Youtube was a great experience but having to meet the person behind the screen all these years would be even more amazing. After intense following on his Twitter page, he finally released the details of his Q&A session and I asked Emily to go with me since she was the first one to introduce him to me and we needed a JUJU outing anyway (: So, the event happened yesterday, and boy was it an event to remember. 

Met Emily at Hougang for dinner before heading to Habourfront to take the Sentosa Express to Beach Station where Siloso beach was located. It was a not-so-pleasant surprise when we realized that it was Sentosa's 40th birthday that day and there was to be a birthday bash - because that'd mean lots of partygoers partying by the beach and that's not something we would want to get ourselves into, especially at night after Ryan's event was over. That aside, we headed to Wavehouse (where Ryan's event was to be held) immediately upon reaching Sentosa, not before taking a few photos. 

We reached Wavehouse at around 7.45pm when the Q&A segment was to start only at 9pm. It was good that the Meet & Greet was done on stage so yes, we could get to see him for a long while, as he met those people who bought Meet & Greet tickets! You could tell that he was so incredibly sweet with the way he handled situations and obliged when people threw him items from off-stage to sign even without them buying the additional ticket. 

When the Q&A segment finally started, Emily and I had secured a spot that was pretty close to the stage so the view we got was really good - it was free standing so it wasn't the most comfortable place to be in, but it was still enjoyable all the same. Really, the way he answered questions reflected his personality so much - genuine yet injected with a little bit of humour and you can tell that he wasn't putting on a show for us but rather a heart to heart talk. I initially thought the entire 1 hour would be Q&A but fortunately it wasn't - I mean, I'd love to hear him answer questions all night, but what came after was even better.

Our own Singaporean Youtubers, Noah Yap and another guy, came on and taught Ryan some Singlish. Basically they explained the meaning of four commonly used terms - chiobu ("pretty girl"), shiok (a sign of pleasure), sian (expression to describe boredom) & bojio ("why didn't you invite me?"). Afterwards, he had to role-play a certain scenario and use the four words he had just learnt into his dialogue. He was so cute and sporting about it, and having him say such words in such an awkward manner made me die a little inside every time. They also played Charades which was very entertaining. 

Afterwards, Ryan left to change into another outfit while his producer friend talked to the audience. He was going to film a section of his new video in Singapore and we would be the first ones to get an exclusive sneak peak of what it was all about which made me feel so special since Singapore's his first stop of his Southeast Asia Tour. Come to think about it, Singapore is the first stop of any tour he has ever had if I'm not wrong. I don't think he has toured within America or anywhere else before. I don't think they are going to film in Malaysia or Hong Kong because he mentioned that he chose Singapore because of our "high-energy level". They requested that none of us video-recorded the entire filming process because if it were to be released before the actual video was out on his channel, the effect wouldn't be as strong. For the sake of such a request, I shall not blog about the contents of what the video was about as well. To put it simply, it felt so surreal to be part of the entire exclusive process and I honestly can't wait for the video to be out. It's feels absolutely crazy coming to terms that I know the contents of a Nigahiga video before it is officially released. On Instagram and Facebook, he posted a photo as a sneak peak to the video and I feel so special seeing people guess what the video is about when it isn't about that. We were allowed to take photographs though, so here's to the curious souls out there:

Doesn't he look like a genuine pop star? (;

The night truly ended on a high and I left Wavehouse with a warm fuzzy feeling, knowing that Ryan Higa isn't someone with a badboy attitude as I initially thought but really a friendly fun guy-next-door, full of heart and passion for what he does. It felt so amazing and I don't regret spending all that time I did watching his videos because he truly deserves all the views he has garnered. 

Left Wavehouse a happy and safe kid! (x 

Soulmanna, the organizer of this event, actually chartered buses to bring Ryan Higa's fans to Habourfront directly to avoid all the crazy crowds, especially with the Sentosa birthday bash that night. It was such a nice act on their part, showering so much concern to his fans. 

And thank you, JUJU, for spending the amazing night with me! (':

Honestly, I can't describe how excited I am for the video to be out!