After years of doing street and event performances, the 2-year ban on busking in 2020 resulted in The Annoying Brothers having to embark on solo works. With them focusing on their respective works, it begs the question if we will ever see the Annoying Brothers on the street again?
The Annoying Brothers performing their knife juggling act at the Singapore Art Museum, pre-covid times. PHOTO BY: Singapore Art Museum
The 2-year pandemic ban on busking in Singapore has hindered the passion of buskers islandwide to entertain crowds of passers-by which was common back in pre-covid times.
As Singapore returns to normal and busking resumes, National Arts Council launched an e-service platform on 29th March 2022 to allow buskers to have easier access to venues and slots. The platform was developed in response to feedback from buskers that desired greater access to locations, scheduling flexibility, and designated places to busk. Buskers can reserve up to six one-hour slots per day which ensures a wide variety of performers at each location.
Among the buskers is a circus-duo group that consists of Jonathan Goh, and Edwin Ong called the Annoying Brothers. This particular group specialised in circus acts and is usually seen performing around the Clark Quay and Orchard area.
The pair performs several circus arts. They engage in diabolo, acrobatics, and various juggling feats, including knife juggling. They have developed numerous innovative performances throughout the years and have appeared at a variety of national and international events.
HOW IT STARTED
The Annoying Brothers performed acrobatics enthusiastically at their go-to spot in Orchard, in the early days of busking. PHOTO BY: JONATHAN GOH
The Annoying Brothers group officially debuted in 2014 and started busking as a duo. Though, the first time Jonathan met Edwin was around 3 to 4 years ago at community clubs and corporate shows. “These are some shows we do but we didn't called the Annoying Brothers. He will be doing his solo show and I'll be doing my solo thing and then, we became friends from there,” he explained.
They grew closer over similar interests, and one day went to watch the Sentosa Buskers Fest together. Jonathan was in awe throughout the performance, feeling amazed at the way the buskers perform animatedly despite not receiving as many spectators. He adds on: “And the way they perform is, there's this certain sort of like intimacy they create with the audiences that you don't see when you're watching a stage performance”.
Jonathan felt that the unpredictability of street performances was what makes the stage entertaining and many more dimensions could be done on the street. He added that in the past, there were not many Singaporeans doing circus street performances and mostly, it was either seniors or buskers from overseas. That was when they decided to try busking together.
Immediately after the show, they started conversations on how they were going to perform together. Jonathan said that, initially it was just both of them taking solo licence and sharing a spot to busk. “But then, as we discuss, it got to a point where we like, why not we just join forces, work together and create a show and call ourselves something?”, he further shared.
He remarked that they came up with their name after following the trend of many street groups that used the word ‘brother’. Knowing that ‘brother’ will be included, they wanted another word that describes a common nuance between them. He said that they did not get the word ‘annoying’ at first instead, they were referred to as irritating thanks to their conduct during rehearsals.
They would goof off during warm-ups, for instance, he mentioned that usually people would count warm-ups at a normal speed but they would purposely count slower. Their colleagues would call them irritating. "And we were like, okay, irritating is the word”, Jonathan shared. But at the same time, he felt that ‘Irritating Brothers' was not it and went to google a more suited word, which was how they came up with ‘Annoying Brothers’.
STRUGGLES FACED
Jonathan and Edwin’s first appearance as The Annoying Brothers. PHOTO BY: JONATHAN GOH
Their first time busking together was not a breeze. Jonathan recalled doing their first gig around 5 pm outside Takashimaya, Orchard area. At first, there were a few interested audience watching but, five minutes into their show people slowly walked away.
He remembered feeling super lost and dejected by the lack of crowd, “But we continue it, (but) slowly, we just disappear, and then we just stopped our music”, Jonathan confessed. As they packed up, they were trying to figure out what went wrong.
He revealed that it started to rain heavily afterwards, which greatly dampened their spirits. “It was like a Korean drama when you failed. Like you are a bad performer kind of”, he vehemently expressed.
They did not give up, in fact, they attempted again and performed a 5-minute act after a brief break. Although he described that they only earned less than $7 which was all in $1 coins, this gave them the confidence to press on.
From then on, they would regularly perform on Fridays and weekends every week. As they got better, they extended their performance from 5 minutes to half an hour. More props were added into their show as they experimented with different acts.
They started to flourish as circus performers and became more active as a duo-group, performing at various local and global festivals. The Annoying Brothers were gaining recognition and appreciation internationally.
However, when Covid-19 struck hard, causing a major impact on several businesses including busking, they were driven to halt their activities, which resulted in the break of ‘The Annoying Brothers’.
GOING SOLO
The Brothers thrived on solo performances more than performing as a duo instead. Jonathan shared that it has been going on for awhile before lockdown. As restrictions tightened, he admitted that it became harder to get together. “So the solo shows were more amplified”, he explained.
Jonathan performing his solo gig in South Korea, Gwanju Fringe Festival in 2019. PHOTO BY: JONATHAN GOH
Furthermore, due to the Covid-19 restrictions, Jonathan found it challenging as they had to adhere to strict social distancing regulations. “You can't share prop, share mic, all these things. It was hell!” he exclaimed. He added that there were times when venue providers would refuse requests due to the safe management measures (SMM), which ultimately pushed them to continue to work separately.
In an article by The Homeground.Asia dated 26 March 2021, weeks leading to the lockdown, Jonathan went alone to the Clark Quay area to perform and notice the lack of audience. He stated that nobody was interested as he usually would be able to gather 30 to 40 people. That was when he feared on what was coming and found out that Singapore entered lockdown a week after.
Due to the ban on busking, his performances were cancelled and juggling classes were halted which left him jobless. Though, as he mentioned in the article, he was lucky to have back-up job as a Grab delivery driver, to support his income.
During the prolong lockdown, Jonathan co-founded an organisation, The Buskers Association of Singapore, a platform to provide assistance for performance locations and earn income.
He revealed that the idea started back in 2019 when there were discussions about launching the project as a whole. Numerous meetings were held, and registration preparations were nearly finalized just before the lockdown in 2020.
Due to the lockdown, he and his team were caught in a frenzy as activities stopped, pressuring them to seek alternative sources of support. As a result, they had to put the project on hold until things were back on track. “So I think that was when we registered the association, that was in November. And there was a lot of changes that we had to do throughout the whole period”, Jonathan stated.
As the lockdown steadily eased and small events resumed, Jonathan and his team proceeded to apply for grants for their program, Busker's Lab, which is supported by the National Arts Council. His main objective for the organisation is firstly, to support the buskers and secondly, provide more opportunities for them. He further added, “the whole vision of the association is really - How can we make busking one of the major street cultures in Singapore?”.
While establishing The Buskers Association, he also started a separate Facebook page to disseminate information about grants to help buskers and keep the busking community connected.
Meanwhile, Edwin went on with his ongoing commitments as a professional entertainer at the City of Entertainers, which is an entertainment company providing services and workshops. He participated in online workshops, such as the 3 Balls Juggling workshop, where he interacted with other circus performers.
Edwin was involved with solo works at various events, namely the Outdoor Esplanade Theater, where he collaborated with the Bonfire Circus team. To stay sharp, he went back to basics, practicing juggling and acrobatics, which he posts on social media.
FUTURE OF THE ANNOYING BROTHERS
Currently, both ‘brothers’ are focusing on their own activities. Edwin is currently doing his full-time job as a teacher. He is taking a media break to teach circus art workshops in schools both locally and internationally. Furthermore, Jonathan commented that Edwin aspires to integrate circus into his line of work by striving to create a circus co-curricular activity (CCA) in school and mentoring students in the artform.
Jonathan Goh being interviewed live from his London apartment via Zoom. He is currently studying there at the National Circus Arts to further his studies on his profession. PHOTO BY: NUR AMIRA
Jonathan still remains as a solo performer. He is currently attending National Circus Arts, known for producing worldwide talents, to further his studies and get himself to the next level. He mentioned that traveling abroad will broaden his knowledge of circus arts and allow him to discover how other countries ideate and execute stage shows.
“So from there, I have all these skills. First things first, of course, as an artist, I want to create works that people could identify as Singaporean”, he professed. He intends to create an aesthetic and a distinct identity that exclusively signifies a Singaporean show.
In terms of The Annoying Brothers' reputation, Jonathan states that despite the lack of duo performances does not mean the end of the group. “I don't think we will ever dissolve because if we have the opportunity, we will take it”, he declared.
He added that they mostly performed for bigger events that invites them and no longer busk in the streets as the Annoying brothers. They recently performed at two major events, Our Tampines Hub mall, for Buskers Lab and Esplanade Flipside.
Although the duo are not doing performances every week, they still keep in contact and hang out, “It's not just a work relationship where we are calling ourselves the Annoying Brothers because for show only. We are really like this "brother-ship" kind of thing”, expressed Jonathan.
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