HYPEBy Eunice Ng
Mention the name Mark Lee to most teenagers today, and their reaction will most likely be a less-than-impressed shriek, as the image of a scrawny chatty man with a pockmarked face comes to mind.
Although the 40-year-old funny man may not have a fan club of the teenybopper variety, it has not stopped him from becoming Singapore’s most famous self-professed Ah Beng on local television.
Sitting atop a bar stool at the Drama Centre Theatre for his interview with hype, dressed in a grey T-shirt with a slogan screaming “I got it 4 cheap” and a pair of light brown skinny jeans, Lee looked out of place in the “high class” location of his latest stand-up comedy.
As he licks his Häagen-Dazs ice cream, the confident comedian explains that the inspiration behind Mark Lee Rally 2009 , his debut stand-up comedy staged at the Drama Centre Theatre from June 11 to 14, was to celebrate his 20th anniversary in showbiz.
“Variety shows, drama series, sitcoms, movies, albums, I’ve done all those before, so on my 20th anniversary, I wanted to do something I had never done before.”
The performance, sponsored by the National Council on Problem Gambling, explored issues from the perspective of “a hardcore Singaporean Ah Beng”, covering topics such as “the difference between a Singaporean Ah Beng and a gangster”, government policies, and gambling in Singapore.
“Gambling with our lives all the time”
It is hard to imagine the average-looking man carving out a career for himself in the superficial entertainment industry, much less remain a regular fixture on the small screen (and also, in recent years, on the big screen) for two decades running.
Speak to him though, and you realise that Lee, known for his crazy antics and ridiculous wisecracks on screen, is actually much more profound than he seems, and does not find it a joke when it concerns his own life, though his own foray into show business appears to be nothing more than a gamble, to say the least.
Signing up for an acting class back in 1987 at Jack Neo’s production company J Team Productions, Lee never knew that he would go on to play a talking rubbish bin – a role he initially hated – on the popular Mandarin variety show Comedy Night, which would be his claim to fame.
“If you had a choice, would you want to be born into a rich family or a poor family? We’ve got no choice, right? We are gambling with our lives all the time,” he says matter-of-factly.
“When I decided to follow Jack Neo, I didn’t know if I would become successful, because at that time, Jack Neo wasn’t considered successful either,” he reasons.
Never would he have thought that 11 years later, he would be acting as Ong, a main character in the groundbreaking movie Money No Enough in 1998, which remains Singapore’s highest-grossing film to date, alongside Jack Neo and fellow colleague Henry Thia.
Sighing resignedly, he says, “If I could have a choice now, I wouldn’t follow Jack Neo. Working with him is very mafan (which means ‘troublesome’ in Mandarin). It’s stressful, because he’s a perfectionist. He demands a lot from himself.”
“I have a limit”
Mention gambling and Lee gets all serious, because that is one of the things he remembers of his late father who passed away from cancer 10 years ago. His father, who used to own a barbershop, would bet on horses that eventually cost him his landed property in Bukit Timah.
“If not, I’d be a millionaire now, you know. Bukit Timah leh, not Bukit Batok. All the rich people stay there,” Lee laments.
After that brief moment, all the seriousness you thought you saw in this jokester suddenly vanishes, and he is back to his usual wisecracks.
Despite his supposed passion for gambling, Lee is quick to point out that he gambles, but “(has) a limit”.
“I bet on soccer and 4D,” he reveals, but the secret, he says, is never to increase your bets, not even when you lose.
Referring to betting on English Premier League (EPL) matches, he says, “If you bet $100 to $200 every week for nine months of EPL, but only on one team, you’ll find that you win every season, really.”
“You study mathematics, right? You must know how to calculate!”
Learning on the job
Looking at Mark Lee now, you can say that he has come a long way from who he was in the past – a lowly educated, playful Ah Beng. The O-levels holder, who admits he “went to McDonald’s more than to school”, makes up for his lack of education by learning all his skills on the job.
“Whatever people are doing, I watch and learn. When they are editing, I learn. When they are composing music, I learn. It’s not something you can get from reading a book,” says Lee, who wishes to direct his own movie in the future.
However, having come such a long way, he still feels the heat from people who “don’t accept (his) style”.
Recalling back in 2000 when he didn’t win anything at Star Awards, but was ironically the “most busy that year”, he says, “I don’t know why, but at that time, it seemed like everybody wanted to throw stones at me.”
Perhaps it is the fact that people do not take this funny man seriously.
Allowing a little self-pity to set in, the non-drinker laments, “When I tell people I don’t drink, I get scolded. They say, “Chao (which means ‘smelly’ in Hokkien) Ah Beng, you tell me you don’t drink? Don’t lie to me!”