Banking consultants, Thai singers, and dancers

Corbett | July 27, 2004 3:51 PM

How's this for yuen fen [fate]...

My pal Doug calls me a few weeks ago and tells me he met this cute american girl at the Face Club in Shanghai. She turned out to be from Ohio, and a super pop star in Thailand. He had no idea. So I say, "Oh, so you met Tata Young?" And he's like, "Yeah...you know Tata??"
"Yeah, I played a big concert with her for the King's 70th birthday party for some TV show way back. She was like 15 then, and sold a million copies."
"No shit."

So last night Doug is in town and calls me again. "Hey, Tata just called me and says she's playing a concert at 10pm. Wanna go?"
"Sure. Meet you there."
Of course we were late and as I pulled up to Ziga Zaga, I get another call. "Dude, forget it, we just missed it. Who does a 45 minute concert? Let's get a drink anyways. Come on up to my room."
So I go up to his room open the Asian Wall Street Journal while he's on the phone.
"...well let's take your dancers to Tong Hua night market down the street...you remember Corbett right?....no not clarinet, it's a saxophone...yeah...ok...bye."
"Dude, we're going to the night market. Check this out, she's out with her dancers." Doug's eye's gleam at the thought of supple Thai hip hop dancers.
"Man, I'm telling you they will all be gay dancers. Girl singers aren't surrounded by women."
"Bummer. Anyway let's go....how do I look?"
"You look too old for her."
"Asshole."

We find them at the pet stores, and there's a few hugs and 'geez it's been a long time' and we are off to a teppanyaki place. We catch up on the past few years, and she mentions that her tour manager, Boi, will be coming. It can't be the same Boi I know, I'm thinking...."Is that the same Boi who used to work at Rock Records?" I ask. "Oh my gawd!" shrieks Tata. "You know Boi too! This is so cool"
"Boi was part of my promo team in Thailand. So you know what ever happened to a promoter named Sonida?"
"Oh my gawd! You know Sonida too! she's head of my department at Sony. This is sooooo cool."
"Yup, Sonida is an old friend. Super promoter."
A few minutes later Boi shows up, does a double take when he sees me, and tries to put it all together but can't."
I try to explain it to him in one sentence. "My good friend Doug, the bank guy, next to me here, met Tata in Shanghai..."
"We were at Face, and he just walked up to me with a bottle of wine and said, 'Hi. I'm Doug. Wanna glass?'" Tata adds.
"...and he calls to tell me he met a cute singer chick who it turned out was Tata. And today he's in town, and called me to see the show, and here we are, and she mentioned a guy named Boi, and I'm thinking how many guys named Boi work in the record biz in Thailand. And here you are!"
"That's too amazing, I have to call Sonida," says Boi.
Three minutes later I'm reunited with my old promo team in Thailand.
"So when you coming down to play some gigs?" asks Boi.
"I dunno, you tell me."
"Ok, next month. I'll set it up. It'll be a vacation for you and Irene."

And so it looks like I'm wandering back into the running around playing sax business. All because of Doug, who offered a cute girl a drink in a Shanghai bar.

Category: Mr. Asia

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