Interview With Irene Ang, Founder and CEO of Fly Entertainment

Tucked away in a nondescript industrial building along Henderson Road is the headquarters of Singapore’s first artiste management agency Fly Entertainment. Initially surprised that an agency for stars like Allan Wu and Beatrice Chia-Richmond was housed in such an unassuming location, this interviewer’s feeling of disbelief eroded when talking to Fly Entertainment’s Founder and CEO Irene Ang. The office’s understatement is an extension of Irene Ang’s down-to-earth nature, one that belies the business savviness of the entrepreneur Irene Ang in, what is arguably, the, if not one of the, most cutthroat industries in Singapore.

Irene is probably most recognizable as Rosie Phua, the wife of Singapore’s most beloved ah-beng Phua Chu Kang. As she would tell it, the role was one that she stumbled into – while still an insurance agent, Irene had been working as the ‘warm-up’ for the show ‘Under One Roof’ when she was spotted and asked to audition for the titular role.

It might seem strange that an insurance agent who entered into the entertainment industry just to meet more people (and hopefully sell more policies) was able to attain considerable achievements as an actress, but those beginnings reveal the secret recipe to Irene’s success in life – set a goal, have faith that it can be reached, pursue the goal with gusto, execute with a focus on being excellent, slam into walls, learn and do it all again.

Be The Change You Wish To See In The World

As Irene tells it, Fly Entertainment was started slightly more than 10 years ago, with nothing more than 2 staff, a fax machine and a burning passion and belief in the potential of local talents. One of the persistent threads that link the stories of a significant number of Singapore entrepreneurs is that they achieved business success by resolving to solve the problems they identified in the industry they were already in – businessmen equivalent of the programmers that create applications to scratch their own itch.

After joining the entertainment industry, she fell in love with it, largely due to the relationships that were formed yet there was a sense of frustration on how things were ran. She didn’t like how veteran actors and actresses who had invested years of their life in theatre and television were paid pittance, sometimes not even paid after the job was done. She didn’t like how talents had to return to work because they couldn’t sustain their passion.

She also felt that a lot of things were not done professionally. Signs of the improvements that have occurred can be seen in seemingly mundane tasks like make-up and wardrobe design. Once it was the norm for theatre people to supply their own wardrobe and do their own makeup, now production companies engage professional wardrobe designers and make-up artists.

Fly Entertainment was Irene’s way of getting involved in the ripples that would eventually become waves of change during a period that saw industry luminaries like Ivan Heng (founder of W!LD RICE), Goh Boon Teck (Chief Artistic Director of Toy Factory) and Selena Tan (founder of Dream Academy and one-third of the awesome Dim Sum Dollies) pushing the boundaries to improve the industry in Singapore and creating a space where theatre, television and more generally the performing arts are viable career choices.

For Irene, starting Fly Entertainment was an exercise in being faithful to Mahatma Gandhi’s quote ‘Be The Change You Wish To See In The World’.

Surviving in the Business and the Blue Ocean Strategy

Irene’s own career follows a similar trajectory as her company. Starting as an actor, she grew to do standup comedy, bilingual hosting and stage work. As she progressed in her abilities, as she provided more services for the market, her chances in surviving, if not thriving, in the industry improved – she could stay in it.

Likewise, since the market’s demand for artistes is small, instead of looking for opportunities for her artistes in an industry that was practically monopolized by MediaCorp, which had its own artiste management arm, Irene employed the ‘Blue Ocean Strategy‘ and created opportunities for her artistes. Instead of lamenting the size of the market, Irene resolved to build new markets for the artistes. The events arm of Fly Entertainment was established so that Fly Entertainment’s artistes and hosts could be hired for more events. As Fly Entertainment has grown, it has started to increase the products and services it offers to the market.

Fly Entertainment, out of necessity, also started looking for and creating opportunities outside of Singapore. Fly Entertainment provides casting services for foreign productions based in locations like Hollywood, China and UK. She started to work with cable channels like Hallmark, Discovery, AXN and Star World to find jobs for her artistes instead of waiting for MediaCorp, with its own stable of artistes, to use Fly’s. Being forced to seek out opportunities outside Singapore brought benefits – one of the advantages of working with overseas projects is the increased remuneration for artistes as these projects had significantly higher budgets.

Irene sees Fly Entertainment as being an Asian agency, by virtue of being based in Singapore, that is well positioned to grow to be the bridge between the Asian and Western entertainment industries – helping talent go west and production companies to find gems in the east. Part of her vision in creating a company that is a bridge are the twin dreams that she will discover Singapore’s Cate Blanchett and Fly Entertainment will become the Singaporean equivalent of Robyn-Gardiner-Management, an Australian agency that has played a significant role in exposing Australian talent like Cate Blanchett to the world.

Helping the Local Industry With Business & Procurement

While recognizing the value and role of associations in supporting the participants of an industry, Irene’s opinion is that businesses that actively procure products and services from local participants might be a better way to help the local performing arts industry – a business is forced to make things work, if not the business will die completely, and when it works, it helps lift the whole industry up.

Basically, use local talent.

An example given by Irene is related to the recently open Integrated Resort in Sentosa. Although the opening of the Integrated Resorts promises more venues and performances, these increases won’t benefit the local entertainment industry if the production companies don’t hire locally. Take for example the costumed character Shrek running around the Universal Studios attraction – what’s really stopping the hiring of a Singaporean for that role?

Irene believes local companies should always strive to work with each other, even if it seems initially that a partnership cannot be formed because the rates can’t be met. Sticking to that principle, Fly Entertainment has been sponsoring artistes to the projects by the students of NYU Tisch School of the Arts Asia. If participants in the industry help each other, the whole industry can grow better.

Irene’s advice to young entrepreneurs

Irene believes that the younger generation tend to think success can come instantly, a perspective that she feels is endemic of the generation that grew up during the time of the dot com boom where millionaires were minted daily. The younger generation shouldn’t look for shortcuts to success – you can’t just sit around, play games and hope to write that one application that will make you millions instantly.

Every business needs a foundation and the early years should be invested to building a foundation. Fly Entertainment built its artiste management arm and the branding of the company before diversifying into areas like casting and sports management.

A side-note

As someone who used to train in the sport of fencing, it is particularly interesting to me that Irene moved from foil to epee, a weapon class that competitively has no rules regarding priority and right-of-way like foil and where the whole body is a valid target area. In epee, fencers can both simultaneously score points. The way to eventually win in epee is to simply hit the opponent more while in foil one must contend with the possibilities that a hit does not count due to the various rules governing priority and right-of-way. Being just awesomely better than the opponent versus relying on decisions based on a referee’s interpretation and an opponent’s exploitation of weighty rules.

Finally, always be prepared for that one day every year where everything goes wrong – it is a cosmic fact of life.

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