Little Boy Found

Joshua Suherman headed his own entertainment empire as Indonesia’s reigning child star in the late 1990s. When puberty hit, he stepped out of the spotlight. Now he is looking to return.

As former child stars go, Joshua Suherman is refreshingly low-key. He is tall for 14, a bit gangly but boy-next-doorish-cute, his hair falling shyly across his forehead in the style made popular by Korean pop stars.

He answers questions politely, never showing impatience or unease at his adult interviewer’s inquiries. But he seems relieved all the same when the interview is done and he can return to the music studio in his home in Cibubur, east of Jakarta.

After several years away from the cameras and soundstages, he is preparing to release an album of rock tunes with his younger brother Jose and a friend; their group is tentatively called Hat Trick. It’s a comeback of sorts – if teenagers can make comebacks – for the boy who once ruled Indonesia’s airwaves.

Joshua made a children’s album at the age of four; his impish looks, the kind a friend describes as of “puppies and kittens”, and precocious verbal skills soon made him one of the country’s top entertainers.

His hit song Diobok-obok (All Stirred Up), about a fish tossed around in turbulent seas, was taken by some as a reflection of the turbulent poltitical times. Blessed with an unusually high cuteness quotient, he went on to do his own TV quiz show, TV comedies, films and lucrative commercials, flogging everything from orange drink to vitamin supplements. He was said to make Rp 2 billion a year, and demand a standard Rp 9 million appearance fee.

His father, Jeddy Suherman, who is also his manager, brings out a couple of old photo albums; in one is a cover of Gatra newsmagazine focusing on Joshua’s business empire. However, not everyone was won over by the wise-cracking tyke. When I interviewed Ira Maya Sopha, the biggest child star of the 1970s, for a story about young entertainers in 2000, she recounted appearing on Joshua’s quiz show. She was shocked when the boy, no doubt fed the line by an adult writer, quipped, “How come Cinderella got fat?”

Even Joshua started outgrowing short pants, and his trademark gnome cap no longer fit. It was time to cede the stage to other moppets. His personal website – offering Joshua merchandise and meet-the-star appearance dates -- was last updated in September 2004. Since then he has been going to school and practicing his music; only die-hard Joshua fans recognize him today.

[When initially contacted for Joshua’s number, his former business manager, Helmy Yahya, quickly SMS-ed back “I don’t have it, boss”; Jeddy Suherman’s only comment is “people can be funny”].

“I got to an awkward age, because I was no longer a child but I wasn’t grown up yet. We didn’t want people to get bored with me,” Joshua says.   

There is no Baby Jane-like bitterness about the happy times gone by; he says he was “blessed to have that time, it was Joshua’s time.”

“I didn’t feel stressed because I was the one who wanted to do it. When I was on stage, or playing in a soap, it was fun because I did it with all my heart. It was like playing for me.”

His father is in within earshot, but he says the decisions have always been democratic about his career path. Joshua, who turns 15 in November, says the album will not try to channel the cute kid of the past.

“I don’t want this album to be like I am trying to come back and pretending to be like when I was a kid,” says Joshua, who wrote the songs. “We’re starting from zero, so it will be challenge.”

Asked if he is an entertainer or a musician, he answers brightly, “Entertainer.”

“I want to remain in entertainment; music is my priority now. I’ve learned from the experiences of others [former child stars] perhaps not to follow what they did. It takes sacrifice to be successful but we have to believe that we have something to offer.”

It’s a long way off perhaps, but he would like a partner who, like him, is “anak band” (in a band). “If my kids want to do music, then that’s OK, then I’ll help them.”

Joshua joins his brother and a friend in the upstairs studio, and they belt out a song. It is a bit raw, very loud but has a catchy line about not being left behind by a love.

As we leave, we pass one of the big portraits of the little Joshua that hang throughout the house. We call Joshua down to pose in front of it. He duly obliges, turning to the left and right, hamming it up, helping us get the right shot. The little pro lives on.

+ Bruce Emond

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