The not so secret parts of the secretive thing

As the interview started in Lemon and Koko's virtual home, i was intrigued. Right off the bat, without any visual clues as to how Koko (or Lemon if you'd prefer) looked like, I somehow imagined him to be a shy man with small eyes and a neat haircut.

As humans, it's imperative for us to have the security of being in the know. So even without knowing how Koko looked like, I somehow had to create an imaginary mental image of him. And while that may be the case, as he shared about how Secretive Thing was formed for them to create secret life experiences, mental oooohs danced around my head. I would like to buy a ticket actually!

(Image 1: Prof with Koko/ Lemon in their virtual Home)

The Secretive Thing 01 was founded in December 2017, as a Christmas show. Throughout the interview, Lemon had brought up that the team wanted to see if it was possible to sell a ticket to somebody if they didn't know where the venue is. By now if you are wondering what this is, it is an experience I have personally not gone through before, and by human reflex, I can only piece it through imagination just as I did for Lemon's face. It seems that it is part immersive, part theatre and part game. And lurking around the website, I can only conclude that it is a very intimate experience. The Secretive Thing labels themselves as a collective loosely, since they don't have a core team. (and yes, everybody calls each other lemon and koko because it is a secretive thing. LOL.)

(Image 2: Responses from audiences of the Secretive Thing)

Well, with such secrets, you might be wondering - how big is the team, how do they fund their resources? Who do they even market to?

Koko shares about certain constraints that they face, such as a low budget of usually less than $2000. With that, their team usually adopts the principle of 'make do'. From his sharing, it seems that they operate quite independently, and have no reference to major companies or dependency on government institutions for funding. And since it is a secret thing, they don't do much publicity but rather rely on word-of-mouth. They also list event listings on Timeout and Arts Equator, so that's about it.

And where might these experiences be held at you wonder?

Each venue is different from the last. If the venue is costly, money has to go there at the end of the day and it is a big limitation. While they have done things in public spaces which may be low cost, they have also rented places out of the way. He shared that while industrial places are 'more rough and tumble', the cost is lower. But if you sign up for such an experience in the first place, I guess nobody minds the edginess. Surprisingly, I thought such an underground experience wouldn't follow regulations but they do still apply the standard permits such as IMDA. For public spaces, they go through the relevant authorities as well.

Secrecy is just a fun thing we wanted to play with. Usually, the personality of something sells the work and that there is an expectation of what the work is if you have prior knowledge. For the Secretive Thing, it didn't matter. Would you still come and pay for it?

Like I said earlier, most of us are configured to operate only with certainty. Who likes being unsure? Gamblers maybe, but there is certainty in the thrill of winning. For the Secretive Thing however, you're not so sure. I read Lee Shu Yu's review on the Secretive Thing 215, and it does sound like an experience I might end up peeing my pants in.

The collective works very cohesively. For the ideation of each show, everybody involved in the project will craft their own experience surrounding the premise and pitch to each other. Lemon shared an experience for 215 where they walked out of Starbucks at Orchard Central to look for items. He says that somehow, these experiences end up merging into one major one and they try to work on this skeletal model they have. When asked about how the collective had to settle disputes, it did seem like the team understood each other's patterns and cooperated well because they each had a chance to present their ideas. Their egalitarian way of working has allowed members to contribute to the final product in parts and pieces.

What intrigued me the most about how they worked as a collective, was that the overall process was very exploratory. With each show's preparation spanning for only about 3-4 months and 4-5 preview, they refine their experience through audience receptivity and feedback. With preview audiences from all walks of life, they are given many perceptions. While doing the best they can, they are not fully sure of how the end result will be and have to stay adaptable. I think it is inspiring to hear about the spontaneity of their process and it does make me wonder about a different perspective of how I can build a work progressively instead of planning for it at one go.

(Image 3: Yanling with the second Lemon)

One thing you might find creepy- it seems that they know their audiences very well. It won't come to you as surprising once you find out that their audiences range from 1-4 people per show. 1-4!!! (4 being of rather a large size to them already) There is some form of audience observation going on during the show, as they will grade and track their audiences. (even observing their behaviours) Very great attentiveness, they also pay attention to the relationships between frequent guests. Talk about secretive and privacy!

Now with my interest piqued, how much is one ticket going to cost? The answer is 5.23 or 11.62. Now folks, if you signed up for an immersive experience over at ANDSOFORTH, you're paying about 80 dollars. 5.23 is definitely a BANG FOR YOUR BUCK. Our second Koko even says that she feels bad at times for wanting to share these stories with the audiences!

These experiences are just a way of sharing our research, interrogation about society.

The Secretive Thing receives a rather diversified audience in terms of gender, ethnicity and arts/non-arts audience. They would also like to reach out to the disability and to make their experiences more accessible to everybody. While COVID-19 has posed a rather challenging period for them, I am really looking forward to participating in one of these experiences and to invite my friends.

Funfact I've learnt: M1 Fringe Festival does a typical commission model where while all expenses related to venue and others etc. will be covered by them, they will take in all ticket revenue.