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The new Joanne takes a bit of getting used to.
This outspoken diva comedienne has thrown her weight around unashamedly, verbally and literally during her Boom Boom Room days.
One could safely say that she was larger than life with her exaggeration of off-colour but also slightly true punch lines.
Today, Joanne’s pared down image seems to have pushed her famous persona of the big, brash-mouthed diva to the background, or so it seems.
“It doesn’t mean that if I lose weight, I lose my ability to entertain. My jokes are still funny,” insists this 34-year-old.
So is her new image the result of reinvention? Madonna and David Bowie are famous examples of entertainers who change their stage personas like chameleons. Is Joanne trying to pull the same stunt?
As it is, her new image has prompted Mamat Talib, the director of Kala Bulan Megambang (a comedy thriller due for release by the end of this year) to comment that she is ‘too pretty’ for the role in which she plays a masseuse who ends up outraging the modesty of the character played by actor Rosyam Nor.
“I’ve always been a big girl. When I took the weight loss programme with Unisense after giving birth, I was also planning for a lifestyle change.
“You know how every fat girl imagines herself to be smaller. I was curious to see if I could do it,” explains Joanne of her shrinking act.
The weight loss, she explains, is not the result of crash diet but a gradual process, which took two years with thrice-a-week visits of one-and-a-half-hour sessions to Unisense.
“I lost an average of one and a half kilo every two months which is a healthy rate,” says Joanne, who is under the Yummy Mummy package which also addresses the problem of water retention and stretch marks.
The process has also involved a change in her lifestyle and Joanne now stays away from rice and noodles. Nevertheless, she still keeps a wide berth where gym sessions are concerned using time constraints as an excuse.
“I know I’ll get faster results if I threw in a gym session or two, but tired lah,” she sighs.
Still, with someone of Joanne’s talent, it would seem that the issue of weight should not be something she should worry over but clearly she has a personal agenda.
“I’ve come to a point in life where I don’t just want to attract any guy. My friends have told me that in all aspects I would make the perfect wife or girlfriend but this is still Asia.
“First impressions count and losing weight has allowed me to experience the pleasure of wearing the right dresses, people telling me that I look hot and guys coming up to chat me up.
“I also feel that people are treating me more differently as in they are more cheeky – until they find out who I am, that is.”
But as for which side Joanne would take in the issue of fat versus thin, she would choose to address the misconception of fat people as lazy.
“Take, for example, a computer programmer who is at the top in her field but she is fat because she spends most of her time behind a desk. Do we just then say that a person is lazy because she is inactive? What about the mind? In the end, we must look at what a person has achieved.
“If she is at a high level, then she is not lazy,” opines Joanne, who started her career at age 19 in Haw Par Villa, Singapore, and is now boss of her own event management company.
And talking of change, one thing for certain is that this hot-looking momma is no longer the carefree bachelorette for she is now a single mother to Jade, her two-year-old daughter.
“My decisions now have to revolve around what’s good for us (Jade and her), not only what’s good for me. It’s not easy but I make it work as best as I can,” says Joanne.
One of the challenges is allocating quality time because she is constantly on the go.
“I don’t have a choice because of my line of work. Taking a break is not a good idea because in the entertainment line, it’s hard to get back into the scene if you have been away for too long.
“So, I find a balance. In the past, I would finish the night at 3am, then go to a friend’s house and not get home till 2pm in the afternoon.
“Now I make sure I get in so that Jade can see me when she wakes up. It’s a schedule I have established where she knows I will go but I will also be back,” says Joanne, who has a reliable maid to thank.
As for throwing her weight around with in her new slim form, Joanne says that 66kg will not be the end all.
“I plan to lose another 6kg in the next six to eight months,” she confirms. And aren’t we all waiting to see the results?
Published in The Star, Sunday Metro, Sept 2, 2007
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