Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the best emcee of them all?

Last week, I was fortunate to go to an emcee course conducted by Ms Sharifah Shawati from Adamaya Consultant Sdn Bhd. For those of you who remembers her, she was one of TV3's newscaster, still active as a host for the reality show: Wanita Melayu, and now a certified image consultant, an entrepreneur and mother of two, Adam and Maya.

My first impression of her: she is much, much beautiful in person, is always immaculately dressed, with fine coiffured hair, very articulate and have a pleasing personality. In short, she is the most humble and easily approachable personality I've ever met. She's earnest with her advise, and not pretentious like most.

I must confess that I can be very awkward around celebrity, sometimes I don't know how to react: should we gush with admiration, or play it cool or be distant? It all depends on the celebrity, if they are open and friendly, then you can approach them easily. With Ms Shawati, it is quite effortless, maybe because she was our consultant and trainer and she approached us with that warm smile of hers.

Ms Shawati and yours truly

Left to right: Am, Teena & Marleen
2nd day session we were in sports gear for vocal projection session.

Penyampaian sijil and Ms Shawati was kind enough to give us each a copy of her book:
Imej Diri Anda Aset Anda

Emcee extraordinaire, I hope;)
I was told by Ms Shawati that my voice got the "X-factor" that would be good for commercials and voiceovers.
Wah! Kembang mak!
Lepas ni aku pulak yang famous kalau dapat buat VOs *berangan*

Mr Zaini, the vocal projection coach who made us realized that almost everybody can be taught the technique to use their vocal effectively, and ultimately be an emcee or even sing!
But I still sucked at karaoke heh:p

Azah before the makeover

Azah after the makeover, done by Eddie the makeup artiste.

He used Crayoline (?) foundation, made her eyes smoky, super thick eyelashes, chopped and curled Azah's hair.
The result: Azah looked like a million bucks! Macam newscaster pulak!!

Our syllabus during the courses consists of image consultation with Ms Shawati, vocal projection with Mr Zaini, mock emcee for an event, script writing (buat sendiri with guidance from Ms Shawati) and finally makeover. It was fun and educational, and we learn what kind of an emcee we can be, is it just an announcer, or a witty emcee, a serious emcee, etc.

An emcee needs to think on her feet in case something unscripted happens. Ms Shawati used real life examples to test us during the mock emcee session, such as power trip so the emcee has to project her voice to the audience, or how to calm the crowd if its too noisy, changes in programme - how does the emcee adapts to it. It's not easy being an emcee, but it comes with experience and after years of doing it. Most important the emcee must arrive early to check her venue, expected crowd, test mike, and she will keep the ball rolling as the master of ceremony.

Gosh, it's not easy to reach the level of poise that Ms Shawati has exude together with her abundant charm. I aspire to be like her someday. Chaiyo! :)