Oscar Parties: Who Is Max Loong?

Oscar presenter James Franco will host his after Oscar party at the Supperclub in the converted Vogue Theatre just 100 yards from the Kodak Theatre. The owners of the Supperclub on the Hollywood Walk of Fame are Jerry Garcia, Abdi Manavi, and Max Loong.

Max Loong, presenter

Oscar Parties usually are held at the most prestigious clubs in Los Angeles. Oscar presenter James Franco has chosen the new Supperclub as the venue for his after Oscars party. The Supperclub opened only in November 2010 but is already on the way to becoming one of the top venues to go to. This may have to do with its concept of entertainment, or it may be down to its location just 100 yards from the Kodak Theatre.

Owners Jerry Garcia, Abdi Manavi, and Max Loong certainly did their homework to make a success of their venture. While Jerry Garcia and Abdi Manavi are of local vintage, the question is: Who is Max Loong?

Max Loong’s father is Malaysian of Chinese descent, his mother is Swiss. The family moved to Switzerland in 1983 where Max did the usual school run. In 2000 aged 20, he landed his first TV job with Swiss private TV station VIVA Swizz. He soon became the face of the station and over three years interviewed over 300 show business A-listers.

In 2004, Max Loong joined the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in Los Angeles as an alumnus. It was during his time there that he met Jerry Garcia and Abdi Manavi. He also had several appearances in independent films while studying.

In 2006, he joined MTV Southeast Asia in Singapore. Amongst other shows, he hosted the award winning MTV Mobbed. Max Loong’s personal website is a typical Swiss understatement. While he names MTV Mobbed as one of the shows he hosted, he forgot to mention that he regularly reached 200 million viewers. I don’t know how many viewers Oprah reaches, but Simon Cowell battles to get 10 million interested. In 2007, Max Loong was for the first time listed amongst the 100 most influential Swiss personalities and received the Elle ‘Breakout Star of the Year’ award.

But while working for MTV, he didn’t let his acting drop out of sight. He played in Swiss and French films and series; with Swiss Television he made a drama series called Adventure Max; and he starred in Singapore’s Emmy nominated comedy series First Class. He has regular engagements in Switzerland and Singapore as well as other Asian countries; and now he has business in Los Angles as well.

Max Loong has family in Switzerland and Malaysia and a girl friend in Singapore, too. This alone would make him clock up air miles like few others, but with his professional engagements now covering the globe, he’ll be able to make use of frequent flyer discounts no end.

Roping Max into the Supperclub was a smart move by Jerry Garcia and Abdi Manavi. From his TV shows, Max knows all the right people in Los Angeles and abroad without seeming to suck up to them by being a local guy; and as a host he should do well, too. When living in Zurich, he usually managed to become the soul of any party he attended without dominating its centre. That would, in my opinion, be the perfect way to host any party. And despite all this, he is refreshingly absent from the gossip pages that sell scandals for news.

And before you run off to book your table at the Supperclub, check the prices!

Further reading
Strictly Gay Dancing
Boxer on Ice
Splash: Tom Daley on ITV 1

Carl Hirschmann’s Home Theatre

Carl Hirschmann’s name is normally banded about in the gossip and crime columns, but this time he managed to get into the cultural pages. A press conference hosted by him and the Theater Neumarkt in Zurich was aimed at promoting a new play to be put up by the theatre.

Carl Hirschmann party boy

A press conference hosted by Carl Hirschmann guarantees the attendance of a bevy of journalists mainly from the gossip department. They were sorely disappointed this time, as there wasn’t a shred of scandal about the announcement to be made.

Carl Hirschmann opened the press conference with a short statement, and then left immediately sparking an exodus of gossips. Theater Neumarkt’s co-director Barbara Weber quipped ‘and now they’re all leaving’ to the laughter of the remaining real journalists.

The opening statement had covered the main fact that the former Club Saint Germain in Zurich would be hosting the Theater Neumarkt for several months up to the end of this year. Carl Hirschmann had closed his VIP night club venue following the death of his father end of last year while his rent contract will keep on running to 2014.

Now the club will host the play A.N.D.Y., a production put up by Theater Neumarkt based on Andy Warhol’s 1975 book Andy Warhol’s Philosophy: From A To B & Back Again. As Andy Warhol and his set were regulars at one of history’s most decadent disco venues called Club 54 in New York, putting the play into the rooms of the equally decadent Club Saint Germain gives it a certain authenticity.

Also in the Club Saint Germain, Theater Neumarkt will put up the play Vestire Gli Nudi (Clothing The Naked) by Luigi Pirandello. The play tells the story of love, treason, attempted suicide and the involvement of the gossip press in it all. The stories of the protagonists and the press crisscross and contradict each other exposing them all as liars to the point where the real story is never told. In view of Carl Hirschmann’s past, the play gets some additional validation from the venue as well.

Theater Neumarkt’s co-director Rafael Sanchez said that the theatre had been looking for a suitable venue for several months prior to contacting Carl Hirschmann when he announced to close down Club Saint Germain. He had been intrigued by the idea and when the matter of money was broached, he declared to Sanchez that they would not be able to afford the rent of the first class venue at Zurich's prime address at Bahnhofstrasse 66. Theater Neumarkt will receive the use of the rooms rent free.

While Carl Hirschmann had been running Club Saint Germain, he had lived in the Grand Hotel Dolder in Zurich; he had been evicted from there after his arrest, but is now back in residence. During that time, the club was more his home than the hotel, giving home theatre a completely new meaning.

Further reading
When a Sassy Headline Becomes an Embarrassment
Poor Rich Boy: Carl Hirschmann
Zurich is More Than Banks

First International Solar Flight a Success

Solar Impulse has successfully completed the first international flight on solar power alone in flying history. The historical flight took it from Switzerland to Belgium where the airplane will be on display during the Green Week in Brussels.

Solar Impulse in flight

The prototype solar aircraft Solar Impulse constructed by Bertrand Piccard and his team has made the first international flight from Payerne in Switzerland to Brussels in Belgium. The flight took 13 hours including the wait at Brussels to get permission to land. The latest scion of ‘the First Family of Science’ has managed to tag a further ‘first’ to the impressive Piccard family palmares.

The start of the flight was delayed by over two hours due to dense ground fog in Payerne. It took Solar Impulse from Switzerland over France and Luxembourg into Belgium at an average altitude of 3,800 m (12,500 ft). The whole flight was accessible on internet through Twitter and Facebook (amongst others); a camera installed in the cockpit allowed the interested to take a look at the controlling panels in the airplane.

When Solar Impulse touched down in Brussels, a great cheer from the gathered crowd could be heard. Spectators and Brussels officials had gathered for the estimated landing time at 9 p.m. to be witnesses to that historic flight. Not the least to cheer was Bertrand Piccard as the whole flight had gone without a hitch. He later confessed that he had had nightmares for weeks of an empty hangar in Brussels with a notice ‘no exhibit due to technical glitches’.

Brussels air control Belgocontrol on the other hand called the incoming flight for landing a nightmare. They described it as a feat similar to getting a pedestrian over a suburban motorway during rush hour. Solar Impulse flies a top speed of 70 kph (43 mph) with four 7.5 kW engines powered by solar energy alone.

Solar Impulse will remain in Brussels for the coming Green Week conference on resource efficiency from May 20 to 24. The airplane will fly from Brussels to Paris-Le Bourget end of this month to be presented at the 49th Paris Air Show from June 20 to 26 as a special guest. Solar Impulse should take off for daily flight displays though the organisers of the air show are aware of the difficulties they will be facing (meteorological, organisational, technical) to accomplish this.

The latest flights are part of the further plans by Bertrand Piccard to be the first human to fly non-stop around the world on solar power alone in 2013. He should know the way as he was the first human to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon.

Further reading
The First Family of Science: The Piccard Scientists
The Race for the First Flight Over The Channel
Antoine de Saint Exupery and the Lost Prince