please add one positive note to your "feedbacks": i still think he is very cool and i like him commentating badminton
I think many fan look at "that guy" as badminton analyst hence the dissapoinment. I think he is just a pure generic commentator who tries to bring more "entertainment value" this this sport, yes, he happens talk to much also! We shouldn't compare him to Morten Frost or Zhao Juanhua who are very good at disecting and analyzing the game but I don't think Zhao and Frost will do any better than "that guy" if they do it solo, is never easy. For that(solo), I give lots of credit to Julian Clark. Is very easy to point out the negative of someone but do we know anyone that can do better than "that guy" in solo? Please, not Wong Choon Hann or Kwun Yoke Ming Is holiday season, give him a break
Um, you couldn't be more mistaken Sports commentary is anything but 'talking to yourself'. In fact, 'talking to oneself' signals the onset of something else Again, to clarify, no one is saying 'That Guy' is a bad person. What I'm saying is 'his commentary' is brazenly terrible
I think you are right on. He may indeed be appealling to people other than badminton fans. Coincidentally, he has a twin in Mr. Yu of GDTV who also talks constantly about off court stuff. Except that Mr. Yu is a true blue badminton enthusiast who would not miss a chance to show off his connections such as just getting a phone call from LCW.
OK, firstly, let's drop this "that guy" stuff. It's totally disrespectful. His name is John Burgess and he should be referred by his name. Secondly, a certain person's commentary is a thing of taste. Some like it, some don't. I personally don't have any qualms on his style. I find it quite refreshing actually compared to the staid, monotone, analytical delivery out there. At least he tries to portray badminton as an exciting game. For those who say he talks too much, turn down the volume. Voila! (PS... I know my badminton)
Sports commentating is like talking to oneself . Hahaha fivetwosix ... Couldn't agree more with you that sports commentating is like talking to oneself. It's what one sees, and telling everyone about it. Even at Badminton Central, most of our members are talking to ourselves most of the time. Correct... For without John Burgess, we would have less Badminton on screen. Cheers... chris-ccc .
Would Mr Yu be the older commentator (looks like an uncle) ? He can get quite animated . I find him more exeprienced & interesting than John B, at least he's more knowledgeable about the badminton world, more accurate info on players & their background. At SS Finals, he kept prodding CTF to give comments & analysis during group match LCW vs PG. + of course adding his own enthusistic take of the game, quite a funny uncle. Of course, there's also Hasbullah Awang for the malay version (other than his bad pronounciation of certain names), who uses flowery words to describe the shots, like writing a poem .
Totally agree. The first time i heard WCH commentate, it was terrible.He couldn't express what he saw or analysed.There was this huge embarrassing silence and he went..uh..uh.and with some time to think he still couldn't find the words.I don't know KYM.Yes,MF is easily the best English commentator but we have not heard him done it solo. John Burgess and Gillian Clark are the best we've got. At least they can convey excitement in a badminton match;I've heard one really dreadful one before where he was clearly yawning for most part of the match between LD and SSM (and how can LD's match against a non-CHN opponent be boring?) At least JB is frank.He admits he likes MAS players and he's biased in favour of them but he doesn't know why.(But i can hazard why. MAS players are very down-to-earth and most can speak conversational English with him.) JB also knows he's imperfect and can laugh at himself.Now that I know he will have some 'facts' wrong, i just laugh about them and get entertained instead of hearing him seriously.He clearly sees himself as an entertainer rather than commentator.
Wow, you sound like you have been a sports commentator before. maybe we should recommend you to Mediacorp.It's not a bad idea to get paid for watching badminton.Just once in a while so we get a break from JB. Pray, tell us about your commentating experience.
That's exactly how I feel . At first I found his commentating a little annoying, but I'm so used to it now, and I'd rather listen to him than an American Basketball commentator (erk, personally I just can't stand them...). At least he's enthusiastic about the sport! And I think perhaps people are just giving him a little too much attention, and forgetting to pay attention to the game... Commentating is a background thing for me. Not something I actively listen to (I mean I do listen... I just... well you know what I mean). It just adds to the atmosphere. I'd appreciate if people would stop that as well ... I know I'd feel really bad if people started calling me "that guy". I'm sure you know what he meant though . It would be like talking to an invisible person. An invisible friend... It would be hard not to feel quite silly!
It was a while ago. Did it for eleven years Had a lot of great moments... and a few spectacular gaffes as well
Good stuff. I'm glad people are less harsh about his commentary now and to have now heard positive things about John from some (I think "that guy" was used to protect his identity earlier on?), that was really the intention of my post, to get people seeing things from his perspective. : ) To me, other than some tact issues as mentioned by a couple of people, which I point to cultural differences, I think he's doing great for his role to add "colour" to the game and not as a badminton analyst or guru. He has always stressed that he's of rugby background but badminton is his favourite sport. And he loves calling me his "parrot" whenever I frown and correct the facts or stats he has gotten muddleheaded about. Being in the sports media industry myself, I know that there is no perfect commentator and because he is committed+passionate about what he is doing for the sport, that is to me a fine fit. And neither is there a "perfect" commentary because everyone has a mind of their own and it is not his job to please everyone, there are people who buy the things he says and others who might get rubbed the wrong way like Oldhand, who based on his own "expertise" in sports commentary, finds John's "brazenly terrible". But, I think, the fact that he can stir up a forum topic about his commentaries, is a suggestion that he's doing fine because good commentary is not about getting people to agree to the things he says but rather, to stir up a discussion and debate within the public about the things he say, which leads to greater awareness of the sport. I've seen John and his team work very hard to get players onto the commentating chair alongside him, to add that analytical component, which he knows he lacks. PS. Oldman, I mentioned 'talking to oneself' in quotations i.e. not in the literal sense but rather talking one's thoughts out loud (I didn't think I had to spell it out so precisely), I don't think there is anything schizo about that, don't we all do that sometimes?
John is not doing badly, infact i like his style... more like NBA, WWE & other american style... really add life into the thing. He might not be wise in baddie but he is good.... Keep it up J0hn... You cant please everyone, at least I like his style!
Maybe some BC-members are kind of biased, because they watch the broadcast more like a badminton instructional video to improve skills and they want an analyst/coach to talk to them?
More please... ..Jan, is that yoooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuu????.. Do you have more of your experience to share? How about your live sideline reporting experience? Anything interesting? Did you meet with the other BCers? or were they too shy?? Btw, re Oldhand's fave commentator & other comments on commentators mini discussion, you can have a quick read at this other thread: http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59409
Ha ha. Uhm, its not my first time "live sideline reporting" already, so I don't know where/how to start to answer your question, its so broad! You can ask me specific questions about the event if you have.. I actually don't know who the BCers are, uhmmm, until you told me about using BC... Oh other than Tarek and Serla, who have worked as my assistants before at other major events.
^^Okay...^^ ..if you don't have anymore to share, then it's okay. We'll just have to use our imaginations to imagine how you actually went about doing the live reporting... Specific questions about the event??..No, nothing specific. But sure, lay 'em out here for us to enjoy...I'm sure you did other things other than doing the live sideline reporting thingy (like, did you go shopping, did you go & eat those fresh seafoods which were being highly advertised all over BC, did you go to the players' opening day dinner etc...........did you even go to sleep?) Oh, those BCers, actually if you've heard any loud noises/chants of: - "Ayo (players names)!", then that's probably INA's die-hard supporter Hau-ge (huangkwokhau).. or - "LCW, jia you!", then that's probably pjswift and her kaki friend Jen or - "Lee Yong Dae, boleh!" then that's probably our Louisa - And if you heard someone typing real fast on a keyboard, then that's probably abedeng.. But, understandably, they were probably too engrossed in the matches like you were...
How to go about doing live reporting? HMMM. Its quite a norm to me now that I actually don't think about the how.. I'll try. The SS Finals was a little more complicated than the usual knock-out tournaments because of the complexities of the group stage, so that was slightly more challenging. (I had to do the math/stats for most people in the media room! Everyone was so confused about who was going to get kicked out of the group etcetera.) But it was overall fun, otherwise I actually get quite bored watching so many matches in a day... So the whole having to work out who stays and who goes spiced up the day for me in KK. A brief run through - I'd select a few key matches to 'follow', do my research on the players/histories, then watch the matches, take notes of critical moments. At the end of a match, I'll rush out to 'grab' players for a few words (if they are in a good mood, they will talk like there is no tomorrow...), then I'll rush back to the media room to craft a story angle, write the story, add the 'live' photos then publish the story, usually my day ends at 3am (if the games end at 11pm). On to the "personal things", HMMM, I'll self-censor what I think is necessary to reveal. I didn't hang out or catch up with the players and coaches much in KK because I've just seen most of them in France just a month ago, and I doubt much have changed within a month?! Anyway everyone was in a holiday mood in KK, so "business" was not a priority! On the contrary, I've not seen my media friends from Malaysia and other parts of the world since Thomas and Uber Cup (they don't travel out as much as Badzine does) , so I spent more time catching up with the media peeps in KK. Yup.
I like Hasbullah Awang for his lively and energetic commentary...... Of course, he's forgiven for pronouncing Gao Ling as "Gua Ling"
