Singapore’s longest-running topical comedy is back, and it is a show so current it isn’t finished yet. Fat Kids Are Harder To Kidnap returns for its 18th year, running for two weekends from 16 October at the Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre at Wild Rice @ Funan, with a script being written right up to opening night to squeeze in the week’s hottest headlines.
31 plays in an hour, and you decide the order
Here is how it works, and why you cannot just sit quietly. On stage, the numbers 1 to 31 hang like laundry on a line. Every audience member gets a list of 31 plays in their programme. When one play ends, the actors shout “Next!” and the room shouts back the number of the play it wants to watch. A countdown clock runs the whole hour. Beat the clock and you get to watch everything; run out of time and the unplayed sketches are lost forever. Shouting, in other words, is required.
Ripped straight from the headlines
Because the material is written to the minute, expect the sharpest, most current hour of comedy in town. The sketches take aim at everything Singapore has been talking about, from the Roxy Square wanton mee drama and the World Cup’s biggest moments to the long-awaited BTS comeback and the national push to raise the fertility rate, plus a few viral monkeys and racoons for good measure, all written by Jay and Melissa Sim and devised by the cast.
The cast holding it all together
Holding an hour of live, audience-directed comedy together against a countdown clock leaves nowhere to hide, so the format demands seasoned performers. The ensemble includes Ross Nasir, Jo Tan, Teh Jun Vinh and Fahim Murshed, joined by newcomer Yeo Zhiyi, whose timing and improvisational nerve help keep the show afloat night after night. With the order decided live, no two nights are ever the same.
How to catch it
Fat Kids Are Harder To Kidnap runs for two weekends from 16 October at the Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre, Wild Rice @ Funan. Tickets are on sale now via BookMyShow.
Planning the rest of your calendar? See our picks of things to do this weekend in Singapore, the Dan Costa piano recital, and the Kampong Gelam Festival 2026.
