When your teacher's known as "The Torture Chamber", you'd better do your homework
Photos: Dream Academy
When I caught comedian Suhaimi Yusof before his daily routine, I wasn't expecting a morning kopi chat. Yet there I was, with the boisterous actor and some coffee, listening to his 'horror' stories about growing up as an introvert in an all-boys' school.
The trigger? Suhaimi - most known for portraying flamboyant reporter Jojo Joget on "The Noose" - has taken on his first musical role as a teacher. "Detention Katong" will show from 17 Feb to 5 Mar at the Esplanade Theatre.
Here are Suhaimi's takeaways from the school of life.
Did you have any interesting teachers?
I had an English teacher who would spend three-quarters of the class talking about his own life stories. We called him Mr Cannon because he seemed to blow things out of proportion. [Laughs]
There was another one, much earlier in school, who we called Mr Torture Chamber. Whenever we did something wrong, he’d threaten us with ‘torture’ methods, because in his time the punishments were much worse.
[For example,] The teachers took students’ hands and slammed them between the desk drawers. He said, “Maybe that method would work on you.” We were all so horrified! I think he was more interested in torturing us than teaching us!
Did you ever get into trouble with Mr Torture Chamber?
He did use some, well, milder ‘torture’ on us. Once, I was made to stand for an entire lesson. When my friends did something very wrong, he used a wooden ruler to hit – not the hand, you know – the fingernails. That was very… Wow.
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