...continued from page one "There is no way I can put on this weird accent for a year and a half. This is the way I talk. As for being flippant, that's a part of what I am." I can vouch for that. Throughout the interview he isn't anything else than what you hear on radio. He talks fast, he cracks a good joke now and then and he is completely at ease. He understands Malay but he can't speak it very quickly. "That's because I think in English," he explains. "When I speak Malay it sounds like a white guy trying to grapple with the language and some may think it's cute but I'm not trying to be cute. I'm actually trying to speak Malay." He has a working understanding of Japanese and French, which he studied in high school. He intends to pick up Chinese as well. The Fly Guy emcees at functions whenever time allows and he has done a fair bit of voice overs but he tries not to over expose his voice. "You make a lot of money now but you've got to be far sighted. If you oversell your voice it brings down your value. Ten years down the line people will say I don't want to hear his damn voice. So I have to be picky in voice over jobs." So far, the print media has been kind to him and I can't resist taking a jab at him threatening to publish some dirt for a change. "I couldn't care less," he responses good-naturedly. "Good or bad, it's still publicity for me." It takes a lot to get him rattled and alas, I fail to unravel anything that has a whisper of scandal to his name. He has no vices, probably hasn't the time to indulge in any. When he is on Gold Disc he finishes at midnight and by the time he winds down and gets to bed it's already the wee hours of the morning. He lives on his own and his odd hours leave him little time to spend with his family. Besides his parents he has two siblings here and another two in the States. He tells me his family has a peculiar kind of humour, a'la Fly Guy I presume. "Whenever I have the time all I do is sleep. The moment I wake up I turn around and sleep some more. I try to do as little possible." He socialises a bit with a couple of good friends and when he goes out he dresses very casually, mainly jeans and T-shirts. He can whip up some eggs and toasts for breakfast but he eats out a lot. He loves spicy food. He assures me that he is basically your average guy but when he is on the air that is something else altogether. "Even when I'm really sick I'm still the Fly Guy. That is the good thing about having a character. If I go in as Saufian Mokhtar and if he has a bad day he might sound that awful on air." He is all for the outdoors but he prefers watching everybody else getting sweaty. And he has a delightful girlfriend yet he can't resist issuing an invitation to all his female listeners. "Send your naked photos to me or better still, flock on over!" I hope he doesn't get clobbered for that. He likes alternative music but he puts in a good mix on the air. "In my segment I try to format a certain kind of music for a particular stretch of time. For instance, R & B from 8 to 10, pop and rock from 10 to 11 and alternative rock from 11-12. But you can't please everybody no matter how much you try." There are people who hate his guts and he has definitely enraged some of them. He doesn't take crap from many people, though. "If they call up I give them a piece of my mind too but I take negative comments with a grain of salt." He also feels it is not so great to have people really liking you. "There are a lot of weirdos out there and they go psycho on you. I've some people who think I'm sending messages to them by the songs I select. I know who they are because they write in or call but I don't really know them. I talk to them and I tell them to get a life." He doesn't believe in putting callers on air every two minutes or when they merely want to make dedications. It doesn't hinge on his moods too. "My show may seem very chaotic but it is odd chaos. It's actually very structured. I prepare my show way before hand but it's not fully scripted down to every single word I'm going to say. There is a point where I'll bring in a subject and talk about it. Then I'll encourage people to call in and if they have something interesting to say I'll put them on. But not if they just want to say 'Hi, how are you?" or if they want to dedicate a song to their pet rabbit or pet dog called 'chu-chu' or 'meemee'. Who the hell wants to listen to that? If they actually go on air there has to be a purpose and I have to work for it." Don't be discouraged if you want your five minutes of fame but has nothing inspiring to say. The Fly Guy has a brief segment specifically for bad comedy on his show on Tuesdays. He is more than willing then to put up with any lousy jokes that come your way. On the subject of local deejays, he listens to Patrick Teoh and his colleague, Kasandra. "Patrick has been able to change his personality mid-way and be controversial after having been in radio for so long. That's very difficult to do and it's fantastic." He also has fond memories of Yasmin Yusuf and himself on each other's show and he thinks it is a great idea to have more interaction between radio stations. As for plans in the pipeline he hopes to do some work on television, perhaps to lend his voice on a kid show, something that he is working on now. His main interest remains in production, whether it be on radio or TV. He wants to get into business somewhere down the line too. "I only plan to continue with what I'm doing for another four years at the most. How long can you go 'Hello everybody, I'm 50!' or whatever?" Then I'd like to do a weekly chart show, something like what Casey Cassum does. But then I might take over THR, make it the Fly Guy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and have a bunch of Fly Guy clones on air!" Tell me to take this guy seriously.
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