ARTS

11
TUESDAY
20 March
2007

Oh, Jit!

Local thespian Jit Murad returns to the stage next

month in Full of Jit, his first one-man performance
in two years. NIKI CHEONG struggles to get the
playwright-actor-comedians jokes.

Question: First you name your shows Jit Hits

The Fan (2003) then Jit Happens (2005) and
now Full of Jit. What is this obsession with
Jit?
Jit: Because life is full of it. Were shaped by
which of it we choose to believe as truth.
Q: Youre an actor, playwright, comedian etc,
which label do you most relate to in general
and in the context of the upcoming show?
J: Im not so fond of the comedian label
because that presupposes my main agenda is
inducing laughter. I do stand-up shows infrequently between the last one, Jit Happens
and now, I collaborated on an opera, restaged
an old play I wrote, did some TV series. But
audiences love humour and stand-up is easy
to market. Yes, I get off on the laughter, but I
also set different challenges for myself.
Q: Whether during stand up, or writing your
own plays, youve always been a storyteller.
How do you come up with your stories?
J: Sometimes we only tell them to ourselves,
but were all storytellers. But my maternal
grandmother told really cool stories, full of
ghosts and blood and gore. She had my
brother, sister and I eating out of her hands,
just transfixed by her intonation and pacing.
I was introduced very early to the hypnosis
of oral storytelling, the use of voice and
expressions. Even her siaran ulangans
(repeats) were sheer pleasure to listen to

again and again. Of course, a paying audience would probably complain.

Also my parents were all about reading.
They didnt proscribe the books we read, so I
was reading the torrid novels of Jacqueline
Susann and Sydney Sheldon by 10, 11, not
always understanding what I was reading.
We knew all the Grimm and Perrault fairy
tales pretty early, but dad would bring home
big, beautiful books with Stories of the
Monkey King or folktales from Hungary or
Africa or Japan. The books were illustrated by
each countrys young, happening artists and
each one was something to behold, like a
childs coffee table book.
But unlike the fairy tales we all knew, these
stories didnt have the usual clichd stepmothers and stuff and were to us, stunningly
original, sometimes dark and scary. The vastness and variety of the global imagination
was inspiring.
Q: Are there any storytellers you look up to or
aspired to be like while growing up?
J: Briefly in my early teens, I wanted to be the
Malaysian Kurt Vonnegut. He was funny,
racy, transgressive and many adolescent boys
loved his work. But tastes enlarge with age
and now I have many exemplars. Thing is,
besides being inspirational, my storytelling
heroes overwhelm me with their gifts and
they humble me to inertia.

Q: Youll be talking about growing up during

your show. What was it like for you?
J: I am the least grown-up grown-up I know.
A kid takes his kid crises very, very seriously.
Losing a toy or being teased at school, or
worse, having your parents mad at you for
some infraction, these can make a child as
sad as his or her little heart can be.
Yeah, in hindsight there were those
moments of kid angst. But now that Im older
I see how stimulating, safe and happy my
growing up years were. I was lucky to be
born into an awesome family.
Q: Why is now the right time to talk about
your life growing up?
J: Because Ive got a month to live.
Q: Its also 50 years since Merdeka and
youre going to be talking about your life
growing up in different parts of Malaysia. Is
this selling out or getting nostalgic with age?
J: Everybody feels as if their past is another
country. I dont know why my coming of age
in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s should have
any interest to anybody, let alone to posterity, but its all I got. Selling out with nostalgia.
Q: If Jit Murad was a history book, what
would it be called?
J: Of course, its common to look back on
your life as transitive, but since Im obsessed
with my memory of how our society has

altered itself during my lifetime so far, I guess

I might call the book Years on the Cusp or
something self-important like that. Wont sell
though.
Q: What if you were a book of fiction?
J: Hot and the Hung.
Q: An autobiography?
J: A Blessed, Lazy Life.
Q: Can you identify five milestones in your
whole life that shapes you to be the person
you are today?
J: Of course. But theyre meant for the book.
Catch Jit Murad in Full of Jit at The Actors
Studio Bangsar, Bangsar Shopping Complex,
from April 4 to 15 at 8.30pm (no show on
Monday). Tickets are available at RM68 and
RM52 (students get 50% off with a valid
student ID).
Call 03-2094 0400 for more information or
ticket reservations. There is also a weekday
special where tickets from Tuesday to
Thursday are only RM52 and RM38 (students
discounts dont apply).
Special note: Readers of R.AGE who cant
afford those tickets can catch Jit in a special
preview of his show on April 3. Tickets for the
one-night-only show cost RM10. To get your
tickets, contact Wyn at 012-293 2951. Proof
of age, or a student ID is required.