Multilingual comedian Das DD says he framed up PM Lee's text to him about 'magic cup' video
PHOTO: Instagram/Das DD, Facebook/Night Owl Cinematics
PUBLISHED ONJanuary 27, 2022 3:10 PMByClaudia TanSince its unofficial 'debut' in 2020, our Prime Minister's 'magic cup' has certainly become a well-loved icon among many Singaporeans.
But perhaps the cup means much more to local multilingual comedian Das DD, who received a DM from the PM himself after his parody video of PM Lee Hsien Loong's circuit breaker announcement.
Released on Night Owl Cinematics' YouTube channel back in 2020, the clip saw Das, 31, speaking in English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil — one language more than PM Lee.
"Thanks for your video, I enjoyed watching it. Can I borrow your cup for my next broadcast because it's more powerful than mine? LHL," wrote PM Lee.
"It was very surreal and I have it framed up in my room," Das, whose real name is Dharmadasa D Dharamahsena, told 8Days in an interview. "I'm not joking at all."
The viral video also caught the attention of other politicians like Tan Chuan-Jin, Baey Yam Keng and S Iswaran, who either re-posted it on their Facebook pages or sent Das a DM to thank him.
Recognition from public figures aside, Das' extraordinary linguistic capabilities also caught the eye of local director Ong Kuo Sin, which paved the way for Das to audition in his new Chinese New Year comedy Reunion Dinner.
Das' talents impressed the team, who gave him the okay on the same day he auditioned. "Before I realised, I was already at the imaging session and subsequently started filming," he said.
He shared during the interview that the script was written entirely in Chinese. "They did give me an English-translated version, which I refused to refer to. Because I think sometimes, it's very difficult to translate comedy, and it was a lot of plays on words. So I wanted to try and digest it in Mandarin."
He also received some help from Kuo Sin himself, who met Das to go through the script.
Reunion Dinner is a heart-warming comedy about a soon-to-be married couple, Chaoyang (played by Lawrence Wong) and Zihong (Cya Liu) who are coerced to livestream their Chinese New Year reunion dinner, where their parents will meet for the first time.
Embarrassed that his mother Yanling (Xiang Yun) is a mama-san, he gets her boyfriend Wei (Mark Lee) and two small-time actors (Mimi Choo and Das) to act as his family instead.
Reunion Dinner is now showing in theatres, and will be available on streaming platform iQiyi.
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