The fun never ends: This carnival operator wants to evolve her family business for modern Singaporeans

Why I Do What I Do is an original AsiaOne series where we showcase people with uncommon professions and what it takes to get there.

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Taking over a family business can be a double-edged sword.

While it's exciting to finally put your own stamp on a successful business, there can also be a lot of pressure to follow your predecessor — most likely a close family member — who built an empire from scratch.

Hence, there is no doubt that Joyce Lee felt a tremendous amount of pressure when she returned 12 years ago to her family business — carnival operator Uncle Ringo. 

Speaking to AsiaOne, Joyce tells us despite the pressure, it was something that was on the cards all along.

“I think at the back of my head, I knew and I was planning for it,” Joyce says.

Started by her dad Lee Woon Chiang, Uncle Ringo was formed in 1984 — the same year that the 38-year-old show director was born — because he "felt that there were not enough entertainment for children".  

On paper, it appears that Joyce and Uncle Ringo's destiny were intertwined — what with her spending the majority of her childhood at the travelling carnival while her dad was hard at work.

However, it was not a straightforward path to don the show director top hat. 

Heeding her father's advice to "work outside" the business, Joyce made her bones as risk management consultant with top four accounting firm KPMG for six years after graduating from Nanyang Technological University.

Little did she know that her risk management skills would come in handy when 2010 came around, and her father approached her to join Uncle Ringo.

New regulatory controls had just been rolled out by the local authorities and the hands-on elderly Lee confessed that he didn't "think [he] can do it [himself]". 

Answering the call to return to the family business, Joyce felt that she was well-equipped with skills from her previous job, such as risk assessment, mitigation and setting controls to make a difference. 

“After all, I am proud of what my dad has built. And he has put in a lot of hard work,” Joyce elaborates.

Evolving the family business

Despite starting out in sales and marketing, Joyce had the benefit of experiencing all aspects of Uncle Ringo's business at her dad's insistence. 

She has tried her hands at everything from ticketing all the way to ride maintenance in a bid to get a bottom-up understanding of the family business. 

This comprehensive understanding of Uncle Ringo has become the foundation on which she draws on to level up the business.

In addition, with the Covid-19 pandemic disrupting their operations intermittently over the past three years, Joyce and her team has had the luxury of time to discuss and plan for new innovations.

Out of those discussions, a brand new arm of the business was born -—The Show Master.

Aiming to "bring maximum entertainment to the masses", Joyce tells us that The Show Master is the branch of Uncle Ringo focused on organising marquee events.

Just last Christmas, The Show Master was behind some of the biggest festive events such as The Great Bay Fiesta, Christmas In The City, Hello Christmas at Orchard and Changi Airport Games.

Another reason for the birth of The Show Master came down to Joyce's observation that as their key audience — the children — grow older, they demand "fresher" forms of entertainment other than carnival rides.

While she tells us "there's still a market for [nostalgic carnival rides]", Joyce says that The Show Master will be focusing on delivering "new experiences" as she and her team travel the world to "explore new entertainment options" for modern Singaporeans.

It is her belief that "there is something to learn from every country" and the crucial thing is to take "the elements that [she] believes will speak to Singaporeans".

Her Uncle Ringo legacy

Take for instance, the introduction of their first circus show back in 2019.

The inspiration behind that was because Joyce and her dad caught the biographical musical movie The Greatest Showman about acclaimed American showman PT Barnum and his pioneering Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Walking out of the movie, both Joyce and her dad were of the same mind to bring a circus show to Singapore, considering that it fits with Uncle Ringo's ethos of entertainment for the whole family.

"Thanks to all the contacts that [her dad] has gained in the past 38 years", Joyce and her team managed to get in touch with UK-based Gandys Circus and within six months, they managed to make their dream a reality.

“I’ve learnt that you always have to be quick in your thinking," she shares. 

And that quick thinking has led to a fruitful partnership with Gandys Circus — which has withstood the test of Covid-19 — as Joyce welcomed the English circus back for The Great Bay Fiesta event last year.

Besides new entertainment options like Gandys Circus, Joyce has also been busy on other fronts of the business.

One other improvement that bears her fingerprints is none other than the latest RFID card system that she implemented at their recent events. 

Noticing that most people are moving away from physical cash payments and tickets, she says that the new card system is an evolution to a contactless payment option as well as a digital record of an individual carnival fairgoer's game tickets that is "in line with the times".

On top of that, Joyce has also up the scale of the Uncle Ringo's events by collaborating with major international brands recently.

Collaborating with major travel brand Trip.com, the recent Great Bay Fiesta offers a peek into Joyce's vision of what Uncle Ringo 2.0 means for modern Singaporeans with bigger event grounds and even a full-scaled food festival filled with regional food favourites to boot.

The show must go on

With collaborations with renowned brands like Trip.com here to stay, does Joyce have her sights set on exporting the fun that Uncle Ringo brings to an international audience?

The mother of two replied that while "Uncle Ringo was born in Singapore and most Singaporeans know what we offer", it is definitely "[her] dream to take it overseas".

Exclaiming that they are now "ready to take the bigger step", Joyce shares that the wheels are indeed turning with "several overseas projects" already in the pipeline. 

Regardless, she states that the mission of Uncle Ringo will not change even in 10 years from now. 

Joyce sees that she and her team will still be "bringing in new experiences to people" — "whether it's something that [they] create on [their] own or something that [they] see overseas that Singaporeans might like".

So with the future in Joyce's safe hands, will she be looking to pass the torch on to her own two daughters?

Joyce casually replies that she is leaving it up to them with no expectations.

Though nothing is set in stone for the future, Joyce is quick to add that "if they (her kids) think this is something that they want to do and transform with the times", she will be "more than happy for them to do so".

And it seems like the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, with her eldest daughter spending much of her childhood at the carnival while Joyce is diligently at work. Her youngest daughter just turned one this year.

But while Joyce's favourite ride was the bumper cars in her childhood, her older daughter is her own person — preferring the carousel ride because of the animals.

Nonetheless, Joyce is sure that her children "enjoy their time" at the carnival.

Living up to the company slogan, it looks like the fun never ends for Joyce and her family. 

ALSO READ: 'I do almost everything': Uncle Ringo boss reveals what it takes to be a female showmaster 

timothywee@asiaone.com

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