PizzaRia's debut Showcase
When I woke up this morning, I was thinking, "Why didn't we put this on Roger's webpage? Why didn't we list it as one of his gigs?" Roger seldom performs a public concert here at home in Kota Kinabalu so I'm sure his fans would like to know when one comes along.

I've got a ton of excuses but I'm going to save them for some other times. Kicked myself in the a**, saved you the trouble.

Here's how this came about. PizzaRia is a local Italian restaurant. Amongst its many good features, it's also located just beneath Roger's studio here in Damai. Literally.

One day, PizzaRia boss, a music enthusiast, sits Roger down and talks about starting a showcase in his restaurant, featuring different artistes every fornight. Let's start off with weekday performances, boss say. Roger thinks, great idea. So he calls up his friends, ask if they are interested. Most say, hell yes! So begins the PizzaRia Showcase.

Last night was the debut showcase. Performing last night were Roger, Gina Panizales and Benson Tan. Starts at 8:30pm. Nice time because people here in Kota Kinabalu have their dinners from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. The show starts as they are enjoying a latte and a tiramisu.

First set: Gina and Roger. Gina is a dynamic singer, you may have heard her sing in Kuala Lumpur. She's the kind of singer that makes you stop whatever you're doing and listen to her. A lot of maturity, a lot of character in her singing. Together with Roger on acoustic guitar, the duo belt out classic favourites that had the crowd singing and clapping along to. At the end of the set, I'm thinking the next performer's going to have a tough time matching up.

Second set: Benson and iPod. Benson's a Sabahan who was Roger's secondary schoolmate. Then Benson moves to Brisbane, Australia where he's based in now. When they met each other for the first time after many years, Roger is pleasantly surprised to find that Benson has made singing his full-time career. One of our first few dates was spent watching Benson perform at a local singing contest which he won, doing a marvelous impersonation of Michael Jackson. Complete with all the moves. Roger got him to do vocals for an album he was producing then.

For the showcase, Benson does brilliant impersonations of Tom Jones, Prince (I lurvvvvvve Prince!) and Elvis with the iPod backing him up. The man's bouncing off walls, cracking the audience up with his jokes and his convincing one-man show. By the time Roger joins him at the end of his set, the Energizer Battery's finally slows down and they do some sentimental songs together.

Then Roger does the unthinkable. He sings! No, no, it's not like he's bad at it. As a matter of fact, Roger's got a great voice. But I've never heard him sing on stage before (except for funny tunes like Sushi Yucky, etc). Maybe it's just me but his voice makes me swoon..... He sings James Taylor's "You've Got a Friend". Benson backed him up.

Finale: Gina joins the boys onstage and they give a powerful end of the very nice evening. Everyone leaves with a big grin on their faces: audiences, performers, boss....

The next one's coming up next month ... on the .... uh.... I'll let you know.