ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES – American live-streamer and YouTube star IShowSpeed landed in Singapore yesterday, following earlier stops in neighbouring Southeast Asian countries.
In a live stream that started at about 3.40pm, the 19-year-old, whose real name is Darren Watkins Jr, is shown wearing a blue Singapore football jersey and sitting in a moving vehicle.
“I don’t know much about Singapore,” he said.
More than 100,000 people had tuned in to the YouTube video two minutes after it started.
IShowSpeed, who goes by Speed for short, is then shown visiting Universal Studios Singapore. As he entered the theme park, flanked by minders and the attraction’s staff, several fans approached him for handshakes and selfies.
“I don’t think that there’s any other country that has a Universal Studios in Southeast Asia,” said Speed, after posing for photos with mascots such as the minions from the Despicable Me film franchise.
The live-stream feed showed a black screen soon after a theme park employee was heard telling Speed: “We can’t do any live-streaming on the attraction.” The stream was subsequently taken down at about 4.20pm.
It is not clear how long Speed’s Singapore stop will be or what his itinerary is, but his followers expect him to attend the Gumball 3000 supercar rally.
In the comment thread on YouTube, some viewers suggested local places for Speed to visit, such as Northpoint City shopping mall in Yishun.
Speed, who hails from Ohio, started his current tour on September 9 in Thailand, where he apparently lost control of a tuk-tuk he was driving and crashed into a temple’s wall. He also nearly choked on a durian seed in Malaysia on September 17.
He had earlier done a similar cross-continental live-stream trip to Europe.
He achieved internet fame in 2021 as a budding content creator streaming himself playing games such as NBA 2K and Fortnite, with fans entertained by his over-the-top reactions to gameplay events.
