Emcee Academy by The Flying Dutchman : Where you learn from the best & the Fun Begins !!!

Learning right from the start is crucial and Emcee Academy by The Flying Dutchman & Chris Henson is naturally the choice for me. I am blessed to be sponsored by the best. Standing next to the “voice” that grew up with me just felt so amazing.

I first chanced upon Academy on facebook where I saw a couple of my friends attending the course. I had always marveled at how emcees possessed the ability of ensuring the success of an event.

Though I have an outgoing and dramatic personality when I am with my friends, it had always been a challenge to bring that part of me right up the stage. The stage fright starts to eat me up even before I walked up. But I know deep within, I wanna be up there. It might seemed a little late now but I guess to live and fulfill a dream that its better late than never doesn’t it. Life is short and to live with regrets is something I would not want to have. I had made a few major decisions in 2014 and more to come in 2015.

On the first day of class, I stepped into the room feeling jittery of what might be happening next. Scenes of me falling short of expectations and being dumbfounded in class kept flashing across my mind. I took a deep breathe and YES I am ready to start!

Its a cozy conducive setup where the classes were conducted. There are 8 of us in Batch 8 in this intake. Lucky number to start the first quarter of the year. There were a few person who were here to attend the preview of this course as well.

Meet my first friend in class, Deborah! She’s a talented lady and anyone could feel comfortable with her girl-next-door personality. Naturally for the next few lessons I was seated with this pretty little nonya.

There were ground rules set right before the lesson started. Both FD and Chris gave an introductory insights on what to expect for the next few lessons and to prep us exactly what it takes to be an emcee.

P.S. I was holding my breathe for the first half hour as I listened in awe.

It never occurred to me how much soul an emcee could bring to a show nor the amount of prep work needed along with a humble and diligent attitude to be successful. I certainly salute the success of what FD and Chris Henson had achieved.

Look at how FD and Chris immersed themselves in sharing with us his experience.

We had a good time laughing and learning throughout. You could easily tell from the smiles on our faces.

Here’s how crazy we got for this group photo. The expressions were priceless!

You know in the right class when you have wacky faces flashing at you!

Relax… Relax… See how Chris is sharing his tips on discovering ways of de-stressing by letting go of himself fully before the show starts with our ever fun-loving Bryan trying to support him and feeling how relax his body could go and making sure he does not fall off from the chair!

In class 4, we were trying to share different types of humour as our homework. I realised I am not a “humour” kind of person but nevertheless tried sharing one relatable joke with the rest of the class too. I bet you won’t want to hear what I said… Its crossdress theme and I was trying to look the part wearing a pair of nerdy glasses. Do I look nerdy enough? LOL…

June looking sauve in her Charlie Chaplin inpersonation.

We are the Charlie Angels! Where’s Charlie?

Its the 1960s trend in class 5 today! Wearing my black qipao with a ponytail wig plus a feathery shawl round my neck. I must say I am enjoyed dressing up with the rest of the classmates weekly. But my usual style but well, as an emcee being versatile and dressing to what the client theme is part of being professional as well.

Having my go with a tongue twister! I do look pretty serious in getting it right with FD right in front of me. Don’t play play…

Engaging audience with games is part and parcel of hosting. Here, FD and Chris was trying to demonstrate how this blindfold game could be carried out with more zest by added words like “come on baby!”, “give it to me baby” “baby come… come quick” to dictate the following action. Well, initially I was feeling awkward about it but after a while the whole class including myself were laughing over it with the flag hitting the gong as the game reached its climax ending.

We have the Ya Kun boss, kopi uncle, Chang-Er (moon fairy), PAP candidate, Lounge Singers in the making!

In class 6, we have a special appearance Jessica Marie Shepherdson who was sitting beside me in class! Being a new mummy to princess Angel who’s such a darling. I was happily carrying Angel for 20mins before the class starts. Her doll-like features resembles mummy truly! Its sporty theme and I wore my sport bra with a vest plus yoga pants to class. Can tell I am not much of an exercise freak right?

In this class, Chris shares his specialised voice segment. Here we are trying to feel our inner voice from our chest.

Olympics sports class of the night!

In the final class before our exams…

Chris demonstrating the essence of workout and stretching our vocal chords.

Let me try too… Reminiscing back the days when I had my choir practise in school. Doing all the warm up exercises before the real singing starts. I really should start to sing again. Missing it after all these years. It had been an endless lullaby medley ever since 2006 when Jayden was borned.

Learning to test a mic before a show and hearing how we sound is equally important. It should not be disturbing for the audience, loud enough for comfort and most of all to bring out the soul in our voice.

Some pre-exams vocal reading practise…

Do you still remember me sharing that I have got stage fright? Well, on this day I am still having the fright but I am glad that I got the courage to finally go up the stage with greater ease and having my very first mic work at last. Not as good as expected but I would strived to get even better! Jia you Celestia!

Camera video trial run for a better feel of what the real exams were gonna be like. We need to prepare a script for the first part of an event and present it minding our outlook, stage presence, confidence, delivery.

I was engrossed listening to Chris as he gave me some tips on how I fared during the trial and what I should look out for in the exams. Most of all, I need to be prepared!

I would be sharing next on how we all fared during our exams next week plus our upcoming graduation. Stay Tune!

In the meantime, you may refer below on more info in regards to the Academy and special promotion code right at the end of the thread.

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Emcee Academy by The Flying Dutchman & Chris Henson started its humble beginning in 2013 by . It is situated at 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent #07-19/20/21 Singapore 139951. To date, it has 8 batches comprising more than 50 students where 80% had embarked on hosting after graduation. It had been featured on newspapers (FD’s resignation from Mediacorp), feature article of FD and Bertha on SPGG’s Fisson magazine.

So how does Emcee Academy comes about:

Chris Henson had always been a strong advocate for high standards in the world of hosting. He holds strong to the belief that the role of the professional Emcee, is equally if not more important than other artistes who performs at any show. Himself an accomplished Emcee, performing & recording artiste, trained actor and singer, Chris believes that “The professional Emcee is first of all, a servant of any show! He is the glue that binds all that glitter together.”

Chris was determined to fulfil three objectives.

(1) He wanted to play a part in introducing new entrants into the local events and entertainment scene, providing the marketplace with newer, fresher and well-trained entertainers and in turn, provide a second career option to these new entrants.

(2) He also wanted to offer a continuous professional skills development programme for existing professionals who would wish to grow their current skills to the next level.

(3) Lastly, as close as brothers could be, is the relationship enjoyed for many years between The Flying Dutchman and himself, Chris felt passionately for his best buddy and help him seal the great reputation FD had already built throughout his career, into a long lasting legacy.

With these three objectives, the product of the Emcee Academy by The Flying Dutchman was born.

For those who are ready to jump into the course right away. The course dates are as below: