Early attempts at comedy.

In my second year of secondary school (I would have 12 or 13 - ish), my school were planning a mini-variety show. Therein, I almost had my first break.

As luck would have it, the show was announced shortly after I saw a cartoon version of Romeo and Juliet on television. All I recall after watching the ending of fake deaths and suicides was thinking that "This makes no sense!"

That ending was the seed for my epic work. The basic idea was I'd start with the Romeo and Juliet ending, then other characters would come on and kill themselves in increasingly strange ways for increasingly strange reasons.

Instead of Italians, my play had all the chacters as Chinese. Half were called Ping who would introduce themselves with "Me Ping". The other half were all called Pong who would introduce themselves with "Me Pong". (I was young and political correctness hadn't been invented yet. Don't judge me.)

Perhaps it was the need for expensive pyrotechnics, or the scene requiring 50 rickshaws to pile up, or the fact my script wasn't really that funny. In the end, my production did not go ahead.

Instead, we had a performance from some of the older students revolving around the catchphrase "Flaming hell!" to which the others on stage would responding shouting "Block!"

That one didn't make a lot of sense either, but it was funny.