FOR a self-confessed needle-phobic man, it is fair to say Tomás Ford’s ideal Fringe World Festival preparation would not have involved getting rabies shots.
Unfortunately, the Yangebup performer was left with little choice after sustaining a dog bite at a friend’s house on the last day of a trip to Malaysia.
On the plus side, it did give him extra material for his show, Tomás Ford in Kuala Lumpur, which the man himself described as a musical cabaret travelogue of a gruelling family trip to Malaysia.
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READ NOWAfter initially setting out to write an Indiana Jones-style musical, the man behind the successful Crap Music Rave Party ended up creating a show equal parts silly and serious which focuses on his relationships with his wife and son.
“That trip itself ended up being weird because I took my son with me and we were having this really father-son heavy bonding time; he’s 14 and going through puberty,” Ford said.
“My wife came up, she’s got an auto-immune disease so she slept the whole time, which made it really intense and it ended up being this really good framing device to talk about all the crap that had been happening in my life.
“We had Preston for the start for some father-son bonding time, but then it builds up into the weirdness of my wife’s lupus and then there’s some reflection time at the end. It’s a really good basic arc for a nervous breakdown to slot into.”
Armed with just a ukulele (an instrument Ford admitted he hates but packed because it fit in his suitcase), he started crafting songs as a coping mechanism.
The songs ended up in the show, a departure from his normal work.
“The show does get quite dark, there’s a couple of songs I felt really weird about being in there, because you have a relationship with these people,” he said.
“I don’t normally write like this, it’s normally high concept, so it’s kind of terrifying to all of a sudden be writing these confessional songs. It’s a case of trying not to sit in the darkness for too long.”
Ford’s affinity for Malaysia resulted in him becoming “internet famous” a few years ago after linking with local pop star Ze Rebelle for a video which, out of the blue, ended up winning ‘Dance Song of the Year’ at the 2019 VIMA Awards, Asia’s first independent music award show.
Tomás Ford in Kuala Lumpur will be performed at The Library at Girls School from February 3-9. Tickets are available from the Fringe World Festival website.