The point I’m trying to make is that ultimately we’re all the same. We’re all human beings. You don’t have to split people up into groups. Sometimes people in Taiwan say Aboriginal people are lazy. Or when Asian people travel abroad, sometimes they feel threatened when they see black people. People like slapping labels on one another. But the point is that we have more in common than not. Just because we have differences doesn’t mean that we can’t communicate — and just because we have things in common doesn’t mean we’ll get along.
TT: You’ve done more performances for younger audiences recently. How do kids react to Mr Eyeball? Are some of them freaked out?
CP: No, actually, and that’s partly because the eyeball mask has changed. At first it was designed to look like a real eyeball, with blood vessels, so it was a lot scarier. Now it’s like a cartoon, it even has rosy cheeks. Mr Eyeball’s movements have also changed. At first when I wore the Mr Eyeball mask, I wasn’t really into accompanying it with cute movements. I wore things like business suits to go along with it. But last year we were at a comic convention, and there I wore a suit made out of children’s fabric, with cartoon characters all over it. So we’ve definitely changed and we’ve started to reach out to kids and teenagers.
Also, it has to do with a change in my own interests. At first I wanted Mr Eyeball to be a cool character, but when you work with children and you leap into a room and say, “hi kids, how are you?” you instantly feel younger, too. I wanted to be different and cool, but now because of this change in direction I think it’s easier for a general audience to accept Mr Eyeball and also for kids not to be scared. Maybe they think, “you look weird, but you can still play with us and make us laugh.”
A few years ago I went to England to perform at an event and a little boy asked to take his photo with me. Afterward, his mom told me that this was probably only the third time he’d ever asked to take a photo with someone, because he’s very shy, so she was very surprised. And I thought, I have no idea what’s going on in that kid’s head, but I can see that taking a photo with me is something he wants to do. There’s a Chinese saying that your outer appearance is an extension of how you feel on the inside. It wasn’t my intention at first, but now that we work with kids more, I’ve started to do things that I think they will find interesting and fun, so even if they don’t know who Mr Eyeball is, they’ll still think he’s cute. I’ve never met a child who is scared of Mr Eyeball.
On the Net: www.eyeball.com.tw
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