My awkward moment: Benjamin Kheng
SINGAPORE – Starring in the MediaCorp TV Channel 5 show Do It Yourself, a mockumentary-cum-variety show about home furnishing, has given Benjamin Kheng the opportunity to “feel like a man” by way of drilling, riveting and spray-painting. And it’d be all good if not for, in his words, “my complete inability to make stuff”. Houston, we might have a teensy problem.
SINGAPORE – Starring in the MediaCorp TV Channel 5 show Do It Yourself, a mockumentary-cum-variety show about home furnishing, has given Benjamin Kheng the opportunity to “feel like a man” by way of drilling, riveting and spray-painting. And it’d be all good if not for, in his words, “my complete inability to make stuff”. Houston, we might have a teensy problem.
He’s so inept at making stuff that his friends have given that trait a term. “My friends call it ‘strange hands’ because I really have very strange hands,” he said. “I can’t make anything. I can’t even do Ikea stuff. I’m really bad at following instructions.”
The only exception, said the singer-guitarist of local indie band The Sam Willows, is when it comes to music. But otherwise, he’s that guy in the group whom everyone keeps the power tools away from. “‘Just let him talk and be the blabbermouth that he is, but no, don’t give him anything to do’,” Kheng quipped.
“I’d consider myself artistic, not clumsy,” he laughed, quickly adding: “That was me trying to make an excuse, but I am quite clumsy. I think it’s something I’ve always told myself as a kid; maybe it was a bit self-fulfilling. Maybe I convinced myself I was clumsy.”
As a result, “the show in itself is very awkward for me”, he said. “In some scenes, you’ll see me struggling with an electric tool, like a saw or a drill. And it’s real. Hashtag: The struggle was real.”
But it all worked out because “my character, fortunately, is also completely inept at stuff like that”. “So, whenever I slip up or do something stupid, it’s beautifully captured on camera, and that’s real, reality TV. I’ve very cleverly mastered the character,” he added.
And as he learnt on the job, the awkwardness did abate. “Midway through the show, you see me doing stuff and it’s beautiful,” he said. “I could feel my MCP level growing. ‘Yeah, let me do it. I’ll handle all the riveting, all the drilling, all the spray-painting.’ It makes you feel like a man, yes, a real man. Not that I wasn’t a man before!”
We never doubted you, Ben — but all the same, please keep those strange hands where we can see them, thanks.