Gurmit Singh On How He Nearly Died Last Year, His “Epic Reduction In Salary” When He Left Full-Time Work & His Return To The Airwaves

8 DAYS: We last talked to you in 2014 when you decided to leave Mediacorp as a full-time artiste to strike out on your own and have more time for your family. What have you been up to since then? Any regrets? And did you get the family time you wanted?
GURMIT SINGH: Wah, that’s a five hour answer! I have no regrets whatsoever. It was bliss. It was weird. I had all this time on my hands. But I’m so glad I made that move, because I really had the chance to catch up with, not just my family as a whole, but with each family member. Like, “What’s your favourite colour? What are you up to? What song are you listening to? Oh, I didn’t know you didn’t like this food, I thought you loved it the whole time!” All these revelations were really good lah — they grow up very fast and the next thing you know, I’m a grandfather and I have no chance to catch up with them. What was interesting was that I had so much time for my youngest one, who’s now 6. My eldest daughter, who’s 22, pointed out, “Do you know, dad, that the youngest one will never know you as a celebrity? She will know you as the guy who just stays at home and doesn’t go out.” (Laughs) The thing was that when I started sending her to playschool and kindergarten, I was still doing some stuff on Okto and the teachers and even the kids there would say, “Ahhh it’s Uncle Gurmit! We saw you on TV!” And she caught on and she was like, “My dad is on television?” And she put two and two together and she was like, “My dad is somewhat famous?” (Laughs)

So she never watched your stuff?
No lah, I didn’t feel she had to. Even my older two — I never said, “Hey guys, I want you to see my work, my projects, see how good I am.” In fact, they’ve watched maybe three or four episodes of PCK in their entire life? I just said, “This is what I do, but I’m speaking bad English, so don’t speak like that! Unless you’re talking to Uncle and Auntie at the market, then you talk like that, then they will understand you.” So they do that! When my eldest daughter goes to the hawker centre, she’s like, “Uncle ah, four packet char kway teow hor.” My son also, when he orders food. Normally they don’t talk like that. They have to turn it on. My son speaks very American-ish English, I guess it’s all the American sitcoms and TV — what to do. Anyway, I’m very happy I took the time off — I wish for every father or working parent out there to be able to take that time and just be with your family. It’s really rewarding.

In terms of work, what have you been up to? You did some TV and you still play Phua Chu Kang in private gigs?
I did a TV game show for Ch 5 called Don’t Forget To Remember. Which I kept forgetting about. (Laughs) A guy who does psychology and all that told me that the title of the show makes people forget about the show, ’cos of the way the words are structured. If your show was called “Remember This!”, people would remember. But ’cos it’s called Don’t Forget To Remember, people remember to forget. Nine of out 10 people would be like, “Ah, that show ah… What’s it called ah.”

Wasn’t there one called Don’t Forget the Lyrics?
Oh yah! My show got a lot of forget type ah, ’cos I’m forgetful lah. (Laughs) I also did some kids’ shows on Okto, and I did a movie, Young and Fabulous [in 2016]. But my mainstay was hosting events and D&Ds. I host as myself, but I still do performances as PCK in Malaysia. In the heyday, I was going up to Malaysia every weekend, but now it’s every four to five months. In fact, we are gearing up for a proper ticketed show in a proper theatre in KL in November. Hopefully that comes through. It’s a variety show. I don’t do straight standup comedy — I think it’s so scary. I like to mix it up a little bit, which is why I always say that I’m a Jack of all trades, master of none. (Laughs) So I will do a bit of comedy, a bit of games, ’cos that’s where the funnies come in. And whenever I can, I will sing as well. ’Cos I really love to sing. Whether I sing well is another thing. (Laughs)

Was money ever an issue in the last five years? Or was there more than enough?
It was an epic reduction in salary. When I was contracted and full-time, I was everywhere, my market awareness and profile were really high, and every other thing was like, “Let’s get him.” And when I left — and this is no one’s fault, ’cos it’s how the industry works — when you’re not high profile, people tend to forget. Some people thought I migrated. Last year, I co-hosted the NDP, and it was only ’cos a General said, how about getting Gurmit back? And the committee thought I had made a press release saying that I’m out of the industry. And the General said, try lah, the most he’ll say no. And when they told me I was like, “Noooo! I’m still in the industry! I’m still paying rent! I have three kids! They eat, you know, once in a while! They have to grow, a bit! And I cannot eat underwear all the time! I have to eat real food!" I was like, who is spreading these rumours! My competitors ah?!!? (Laughs)

So there were some worrying moments?
I now have a newfound respect for freelancers. I’ve never been a freelancer in my whole life — I’ve always been in a salaried job. And to be suddenly out there, I was like, “Eh this month got no job ah, okay guys, the grass over there… looks quite healthy, you wanna eat it?” (Laughs) So there were some scary moments lah, like, this is what freelancers do ah? You have to be very proactive and you have to go out there and hunt for jobs.

But you had a buffer lah — it was never so bad that you had to eat grass lah.
No lah, yeah I had a buffer — I’m just kidding lah, we didn’t have to eat grass, we were just eating soil. (Laughs) But I was aware, I knew this would happen. So I knew I couldn’t have my big house, and I couldn’t have my Lamborghini anymore. Till this day, I’m still missing my Lamborghini! I sold it immediately! I told my kids that when we travel, no more business class tickets — we fly Economy. When people see me in Economy, they’re like, “What are you doing here? Are you filming? Why are you here? Is there a secret camera, you filming ah?” When the Business Class crew see me walking past Business to Economy, they are disappointed, you know, they are like, “You must not be the real Gurmit lah.” (Laughs)

But it was all worth it?
This is real life. But I’m glad I did it, ’cos this industry can really build your ego, to the point you can forget. For 20 years, it was a constant battle, and the reason I won the battle was ’cos I had a family who didn’t care less who I was, expect that I was husband, father and just Gurmit. And not this superstar. These days, I go to the hawker centre and the market, and the auntie would be like, “Wah… you are that Ch 5 one ah? Wah you sibeh yandao (handsome) leh, mmmm…” The auntie is hitting on me, you know! I even had an auntie who told me, “Wah Gurmit, you not bad, you know, if I was 20 years younger, I will tackle you!” And this auntie is 70-ish years old and she said that while holding her walking stick! (Laughs)

Where is your family living now?
A shack! (Laughs) We moved to a small HUDC when I announced my move. When we moved, my youngest daughter was just a little baby in a cot. We forgot that kids grow! (Laughs) She used to live in our bedroom, and when that didn’t work out ’cos she grew, we moved to a bigger rental house and she has her own room. We are renting out the HUDC and renting a landed house in the West. Everyone has own room. Rent is low now, and for the price we’re paying, it’s very good lah. Being who I am, the landlord was like, “Wahhh, we must make this happen!” (Laughs) The ironic thing is that almost every other night, my daughter comes into our room and she’s like, “Daddy, mummy, I got a nightmare”. And she hasn’t even fallen asleep yet — she just left our room like five minutes ago. So she ends up sleeping between us and we just let her lah. There are times she would kick my eyeball or nose so now I play safe — after she falls asleep, I will move to go sleep in her bedroom with the pink bed and the pink blanket and pink bolster and pink pillow and pink wall with pink light. I’m amazed I’m still so manly after all that. (Laughs)

Let’s talk about your move to radio. How did that happen?
I’ve always loved music — when I’m driving or even when I’m riding my bike, I’m listening to music in my helmet. Yes, I can listen to radio, and I can still hear traffic; the volume is not on that high. When I was doing TV, people would ask during interviews what I want to do after TV. And I said that after TV done with me, I would love to go to radio. And when I did interviews in radio studios, I was always amazed. The DJs look like they have tentacles — they’re doing so many things and for four hours, they’re in a room full of music having enjoyable conversations with themselves or their fellow DJs or listeners. I said, “What a nice gig… I would like to do that one day.”

And that day has come.
Being away from [full-time] TV for five years now and having settled into a nice pattern with the family and all that, this is a good marriage between what I want to do for my family and real life and what I wanna do with my creative life. So what happened was I decided to call Mediacorp and I was like, “Any such openings?” And the funny thing was Erina [Cook, Assistant Lead for English Radio] told me, “Is my office bugged? ’Cos we were about to contact you to ask if you wanted to come on board!” I said, “Okay tomorrow I’m coming in.” (Laughs)

What do you think it’d be like bantering with Mike and Vernetta on the morning show on GOLD 905?
I’m excited but nervous at the same time. Which is a good thing. I still get nervous when I do TV and my hosting gigs, and for the longest time I thought I was so unprofessional, like, “Grow up! Can you be more mature?”, but then I read somewhere that it means I still care. I’m a newbie on radio. Mike and Vern have been on radio together for eight years now, so I’m a third wheel lah. I’ve worked with them separately but never together, so it’s gonna be interesting. We’ve sat down and had coffee and interacted, and even done a few test runs. I’m happy to report it’s good, we have that respect for each other and respect for our aural space — we don’t try to outshine one another or steal the spotlight. I’ve worked with people who always want to steal the spotlight.

So your oldest daughter is 22, your son is 18 and your youngest daughter is 6. How do they feel about you being home a lot more?
And I’m 5! (Laughs) They’re happy I’m home. We would go out and watch movies, go for lunch. The other day, with my daughter, who’s back home for summer — she’s in her second year of uni in the UK — I was like let’s meet for lunch. She was like, you’re free ah? (Laughs) Sometimes, I’m home alone by myself, and I’m like, “Eh guys, hello, I gave up my career for you guys ah, where are you?” Everyone is at school or at work. My wife is a part-time lecturer at Ngee Ann Poly, where she teaches Art in Education, basically teaching the teachers how to teach art. When she’s not teaching, she’s doing her Masters. Wah — my family is very clever actually, I’m the only one with A-levels only. My son is in his second year at Ngee Ann Poly and hopes to go to university overseas as well. My youngest wants to go to the same school as jie jie. So they all leave the house, and I’m like, fine, I’m going to do the dishes now. I volunteer to do dishes, ironing, and mopping. Those chores my family members don’t like turn out to be things I don’t mind. I can stand there and wash dishes and I’m very contemplative, you know? As my hand goes round the sauce pan and the soap suds, I’m thinking about life. Like, yesterday I did this, what does it mean?

Do you have a helper?
No, we never had one. Only when my dad was at home with cancer, we had one to look after him. She didn’t even do the chores, we did that ourselves, and she did not interact with my children at all. So my wife was the one who, for the past 20 years when I was in TV, was holding the fort, literally. Literally holding and cleaning the fort, and the fort was three stories high, and the fort had two cars, and at one point we had four cars. This fort holder, I can’t take off my hat to her ’cos it wouldn’t be enough, I have to take off my whole head off.

So, your motorbike. You just got your license. Why did you decide to get a bike?
When I was 12, my father gave me a few lessons on the street, near when he worked as a security guard in a bank, and I was like, this bike thing ah, I really can’t describe it lah. I’m not eloquent with words. Communicative and relatable, yes, but elegant, no. In the last few years, the memories came back, and although my wife was worried about the dangers of riding a bike, she knows that I’m a safe driver, though I drive fast. She also realised that I’m more mature and not so stupid and reckless. Also, as a rider, you don’t have to cut between cars. You should be in the middle of the lane. Just ’cos I pay less road tax doesn’t mean I only get half or one-third of the lane! Drivers I talked to thought it was illegal for riders to be in the middle of the lane, but actually, we are encouraged by the instructors to be in the middle of the lane so we don’t have these risky overtakes from the cars. People thought I would get horned at for being in the middle of the lane, but nobody has horned at me — they are happy ’cos they know my intentions. So this is my new toy lah, my Honda Phantom TA-200. It’s amazing lah. It’s so cool. I hope to eventually work up to a 2A license then a Class 2. You need to ride for year before you can apply for the next stage, so in three years, I can get my Class 2, then I’d be riding my Harley or my Indian. An Indian is like a Harley but it’s called Indian, and it’s like, I’m Indian, so this bike was made for me! (Laughs) It’s actually from America, and the trademark is this Indian chief with his feathers. So yeah, I don’t need the car now, my wife has the car. (Laughs)

So the bike is not a mid-life crisis right?
I had my mid-life crisis when I was 30 — I got it over and done with. So what is this? This is just enjoying life. A lot of people think that when you get older, you should cut down, but the opposite is true. You need to learn new things ’cos your brain needs the exercise. Simple things like using a different hand to brush your teeth creates new synapses in your brain. Like putting your pants on with a different leg first. And now I’m taking drum lessons. You have four limbs doing four different things… when I play, it’s like trying to get unpossessed, but it’s so good.

You’re looking good as well. Have you had more time to work out and look after yourself? Or is it just happiness?
Oh thanks! Workout? No… I think it’s happiness, you know? Like just seven or eight months after I left full-time work, I was in the studio to do a game show, and when people saw me, they said there was a different aura about me and I said, “I’m just happy. I’m waking up happy, I’m smiling. Last Father’s Day, I had a near-death experience, so I’m even happier to be alive and living.

What happened?
I was at the gym and my wife was at the spa next door, and I was supposed to go over but I didn’t turn up, so she called me and asked, where are you? I said I don’t know where I was. I said, I’m in a gym, I just see a lot of doors, and I was just asking the same question over and over again, like 10 times. She managed to get me out and she knew something was off so she took me to the hospital and we did some brain scans to check if something wrong. And just to be safe, we did tests with a cardiologist. One of these is called the Tilt Bed Test where they lie you down, strap you up and the bed goes up and you stare at the wall for 30 minutes — the most boring time of my life — and after that they give you a liquid substance which quickens your heartbeat, like if you had just started running. Five per cent of patients will pass out. And they tilt the bed back and you wake up. So they gave me the liquid and the doctor said I’m the fastest patient to pass out ever. When I woke up, I was lying down with the doctors and nurses over me, and I was like, “Wah, I really passed out huh” and the doctor was like, “Mr Singh, not only did you pass out, your heart stopped. So we had to revive you. We had to do chest presses and CPR, and tomorrow you will feel pain on your sternum. You gave us quite a shock, we did not expect this.”

Oh my goodness.
It was surreal, and for the next 48 hours of my life, I had no recollection of what I was saying. My sisters took videos of me asking questions and when they showed me, I was like, I don’t remember saying these things. I always knew life was very fragile, and now I have first-hand experience of how things can turn around so quickly, and before you know it you’re spiraling down. To be able to wake up in the morning and come for an interview and do a photo shoot and try to look like Ryan Reynolds on a bike, it’s a blessing to me. To be able to spend time with my kids and my wife, and just to breathe and see things around me. (Starts tearing up)

Did they ever find out what happened?
No, they never figured out what happened, it was just one of those things where your body was shutting down.

It’s weird that it happened when you had taken time off work and were more relaxed, rather than when you were so busy with work.
Well sometimes it’s like that. My late mother only ever fell sick when she was on her off day. She’d get headache, tummy ache. But once she went back to work, her body is in survival mode, and everything else is pushed aside. Even at the TV station, with such late nights with so little sleep, and going on air with a temperature, I’d be alright. I’d even go on air when I had shortness of breath, like when you’re gasping for air. I had to take a deep breath, and go on and be like (Gasp), “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Singapore Idol” and then off stage I would be gasping. So maybe when I took time off and the body realises like, “Oh hey guys, we are no more in survival mode — chill!” That’s when things start to surface lah.

It’s great that you’re now healthy and happy, but that was scary.
The only thing the cardiologist could offer me is that when I passed out, my heartbeat was 133, so I was told by the cardiologist to keep it below 100 and not push it. So for a few months after the episode, we worked it up slowly and within two months, I was going 178 and I was still alright. So that was one of those mysteries of life. I’ve always respected life. Even as a little boy, I never killed cockroaches or mosquitoes or snails. Even today, I tell my kids not to do that. Because it’s life you know… it’s life.

Tune in to find out. Catch Gurmit on LIVE! With Mike, Vernetta & Gurmit on GOLD 905 on weekdays from 6 to 10am.


Photos: Alvin Teo


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