Iconic Shanghai impresario Grant Buchwald, AKA Grant-Oh! AKA Papa G is turning around 27 years old this Wednesday night at The Pearl, and he's inviting the whole city out to celebrate! Unless you've been living under a rock – a very drab, dull, grey, un-sequined, very unspectacular sort of rock – you'll recognize your man as the absurdly bearded force behind Shanghai's beloved cabaret dinner club and live house, The Pearl. He is, of course, one of the delightful doers and dreamers that make this city a little bit more wonderful, so you should book off work on Wednesday, go to his birthday party, and give him drinks and gifts and nice things.

We talked to G about his Shanghai story, his milestones for the year, and exactly how all his hair migrated from the top of his head to his chin area.

CNS: What's your name, and what do you do? What's your star sign? What brings you to Shanghai? Tell us your entire life story.

Papa G: My name is Grant Buchwald, also known as The Pearl's Papa G.

I'm a Gemini. My birthday is May 21, the first day of Gemini.

My life story. So, I left Canada in 1990, went to Japan with IBM, and realized the corporate world wasn't my world…

CNS: You worked for IBM? That's quite a career change.

Papa G: Yeah, I did three and a half years there. That's where I actually met (my wife) Kay. Actually, I met her my second day in Tokyo. She was part of my welcoming lunch at IBM. And we've been together since, 30-some years now.

CNS: Congrats! So, the corporate world was not for you, this is literally the first time anyone has mentioned a huge career change in Shanghai… ever!

Papa G: No. No, to be honest, what happened was it was during the crash back then, and IBM was going through a really bad time. So, I saw all these guys, my bosses who'd been with them 30, 40 years at IBM, scared if they had a job the next day. And I'm like, I don't want to be like this. I don't want to give my life to a company and then still worry.

So, luckily I was able to switch gears.

CNS: What did you get into after leaving IBM?

Papa G: I've always wanted to get into media, music and whatnot. And I had a friend; they were looking for a scriptwriter for an MTV Asia program about Japanese music, fashion and youth culture. So, I went in on a Sunday afternoon, interviewed, they offered me the job on the Monday, and I quit IBM, taking an 80-percent cut of my pay for a three-month contract.

CNS: What kind of stuff were you doing for MTV in Japan?

Papa G: Yeah, it was really cool because, you know, we're dealing with Japanese music, fashion and youth culture. I'm going to underground clubs all the time, looking for the culture. But then also because it was MTV, and I was the only foreigner, I ended up having to, you know, go out with the Rolling Stones as the regional host and all that stuff.

So, you know, it was cool.

CNS: How did you end up in Shanghai then?

Papa G: The great thing is my wife, who stayed corporate, went from IBM to Hitachi to SAP and was high-level at SAP. So, they moved us over here. So, I'm the trailing spouse. We arrived in Shanghai on Valentine's day in 2006.

CNS: I remember when you moved here, you were doing a lot of photography…

Papa G: Exactly. I never planned on that. But I moved here not knowing actually what to do. So, after MTV, I had actually opened my own film company, and so we also were doing TV shows for what used to be MTV and became Channel V. And that was about Japanese music, but also about anime, game software and whatnot.

So, we did that, and then we became big with corporate video stuff. This was in Tokyo City. So, when I moved here, I thought about it, but I didn't really want to start all over again and build another video company and staff and team.

And I'd always thought about photography. So, I took photo lessons on Friday afternoons with eight other expat wives. They were all bringing pictures of their dogs, their cats, their kids and whatnot. And one weekend, it was around Christmas time, I went back to Tokyo, and I came back with these crazy photos of Japanese Santa girls in little Santa bikinis, dancing with these African guys in thatched outfits…

CNS: Just classic, traditional Japanese Christmas stuff.

Papa G: … And what it was, I was actually using some of the video techniques I did back at MTV, but on a camera. So, delayed flash and movement and stuff like that. I kind of created a whole different style. Yeah, then I just kind of went with that. That became unique.

And so, in the the early days of SmartShanghai they hired me to do nightlife photography. And then one night at Mao… not Live House, Mao.

CNS: The club, Mao. I think it was "music, art, oasis…"

Papa G: Yeah, that's the one; the other Mao that became Hollywood. So, I was there at like four o'clock in the morning. This guy from Ferrari came up and said, Were you that photographer from SmartShanghai?

And then it was like two or three months later, I got a phone call from him saying, Hey, we've got a big F1 event coming up. Would you put a team together and come and shoot? So, of course, I put the phone down and ran around the apartment doing a happy dance and excited.

And so, we shot that event, which was the pre-pre-opening of M1NT… if anyone remembers that place.

CNS: And so from there you go to investing in nightlife ventures? How did you become Papa G at The Pearl?

Papa G: Yeah, I was part of the original investment group that renovated The Pearl when we opened as "Chinatown." Horrible name, but great venue; it was amazing at the time.

But I invested there just as a photographer, right? And loved it. And the same thing when The Pearl came along – I invested strictly as a photographer. It was just because I loved the venue so much.

But as time went on, I realized that either I was going to lose all my investment in The Pearl like I did in Chinatown, or I would step away from Ferrari and photography and go full-time into this.

So, I mean, I did it because I do love the arts. I do love performance. But I really don't know what I'm doing. And so it's been a real learning experience. How to work with different artists from different cultures, different backgrounds. I mean, it's not an easy thing.

As well as how to work within the framework that is China. Because that's key as well. As long as I'm at The Pearl, I want to make sure that we're not there to give a political or religious messaging. We're there to entertain. That's it.

CNS: What were some of the earliest shows that you remember? What did The Pearl launch with?

Papa G: Well, I mean, the very first, the very opening two or three weeks of The Pearl were actually the live version of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

And we still do it however many years later, called "Drag Me To The Rocky Horror Picture Show."

CNS: Fast-forwarding ahead, in honor of your birthday, and looking back at this year, what's a milestone for The Pearl that happened this year?

Papa G: Well, I have to say, this past year has been really, really difficult. I mean, for everybody in the F&B industry and entertainment industry. But despite this, I'm actually most proud of is my team.

So, we brought on a team of 10 dancers, performers and producers last year, and the creativity coming through them has been incredible.

I wanted to mention the fact that we have one of our teams going to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh this summer.

CNS: Oh wow, okay, can you tell me more about that?

Papa G: So, Susan and Trenton have been with The Pearl for years. Trenton is our Freddie Mercury at our Queen shows. And he and Susan teamed up a couple of years ago to make some creative shows. And they came up with one, which is a bilingual murder mystery show based on the TV series "Women Who Kill."

CNS: Oh right, I love that show; it's a good show!

Papa G: So anyway, theirs is "Why Women Kill." And so they created a show that has jumps between the 1950s, 1980s and present day with different housewives who killed their husbands. But it's a musical and a murder mystery.

So they've actually, because they're taking it to Fringe, revamped it and done all original scores. It's all original music. And that will be coming up in June and July.

And so we are doing fundraising events all around the city to try and raise money for the team and artists to make it to Fringe.

CNS: So that's really exciting. Hometown kids do good. Right?

Papa G: Yeah, I know, I find it amazing. And of course nothing makes me happier than to support that. This is the ultimate dream and goal anyways, and why I find my work so exciting is being able to get these people together and create something unique.

CNS: Right, right.

Papa G: And for their dreams to come true, and when their dreams come true, my dreams come true. It's one of these things that you see that China is really misrepresented in the Western media and misunderstood. And so I've always wanted to find a way to take Chinese stories and Chinese performers and rework them in a way and take them internationally.

Because again, my utopian view is always that world peace and happiness can come through exchanging cultures. And one of the best ways to exchange cultures is through music, through arts, and through creativity. And the more we spend with each other and whatever, you know, things get better and world peace and all that kind of stuff.

You're going to get me rambling again.

CNS: No, it's all good. What's happening on stage at The Pearl these days that has you excited?

Papa G: For me, personally, I'm probably proudest lately of our Lady Gaga show. It's incredible. I have to admit, it's really incredible. Live band, three Gagas – three different Lady Gagas – seven dancers, and it's incredible. It's over three hours. It's one of those shows where people come for their first time, and they come again and bring friends, and it snowballs because it's a show you can see more than once.

CNS: Wow.

Papa G: So, we do one full set that's band and dancers. Then we do another set in which we have our other divas, Cat and Grace, who do their own thing with dancers. Grace is doing piano. Cat doing guitar and all live and then with dancers.

And then we go back to the band with dancers and then a huge finale.

CNS: How often do you guys do that? Like if people want to go check out the next one.

Papa G: We're doing it again at the end of this year and then again in July. July will probably be our last show, last Gaga. Also, because we're taking a summer break in August from some of the dinner shows. And focus back on music because some of our people go to Edinburgh. Other people want to do some vacation traveling.

Don't be afraid. We will be announcing our last big Taylor Swift show, our last big Gaga show, our last Cinderella, and these kinds of things.

But it doesn't mean we're going anywhere…

CNS: So, you're taking a break. Are you going to come back with refreshed new shows, kind of thing?

Papa G: Exactly.

CNS: Many readers will be curious... how is it that The Pearl has managed to survive so long, where other similar institutions haven't been able too?

Papa G: It has not been easy. We are evolving and changing all the time. You see there are many venues opening around the city and the country influenced by what we have accomplished over the years which makes me feel proud that we've had an impact on entertainment here.

There were some times during challenging economic periods that we wondered if it was time to give up and move to Chiang Mai. After many long discussion with my wife and No. 1 supporter, we decided to stay. She knows I can never leave my kids, the performers. They are like family to us and we would never leave unless they are safe and happy. I guess that's why they call us Papa-G and K-mama. We love them. So I think one aspect that drives us forward is the familial community that we have, not just with performers but with our fans as well.

Secondly, I am not one to give up. I feel we still have so much to do. To create. Then suddenly, things started to happen. I can't say what, but expect some big news in the months to come of projects I hope to be involved in. Big and very cool projects!

CNS: How about some facts and figures?

Papa G: As The Pearl is not just a venue but also a full Chinese agency we have been building up a great pool of talent. We have over 30 performers under our visa and that will increase this year once some of the other projects come online. And we have so many countries represented, a veritable United Nations: Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Cuba, Canada, Georgia, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine, USA (sorry if I missed someone).

CNS: And you mentioned before that the local district governments have been part of The Pearl's journey?

Papa G: In the early days of The Pearl and certainly Chinatown in 2009, it felt that we were not really well understood as a business in the area. Totally understandable as there was nothing like us in town, let alone Hongkou which in our area, sported an older and more established demographic.

But, just like Shanghai, Hongkou District is constantly changing and evolving. I noticed a big shift starting in 2020 when the local Hongkou authorities reached out to us and really supported us and still do. They realised that we had become a tourist destination not only for people in Shanghai for all of China. Almost every weekend we are meeting customers from all over China. Many of them fly in on a Thursday and come every night until they leave on Sunday. As we have different shows every night, they can catch maybe three to five completely different performances in a three-day period.

As the relationship blossomed, they came to see how we were here to entertain, just good natured fun. Our goal at The Pearl is for people to come in, have fun and leave feeling better than when they arrived. I know I'm a "Dreamer" (which is the title on my office door) but I hope through exchanges of culture through arts, music, dance, musical theater, cabaret we can all understand each other more which leads to less racism and more love. Peace man!

CNS: Let's do some birthday questions. What's the best birthday you've ever had in your entire life?

Papa G: Oh man, it flashes me back to Tokyo. I wouldn't say the best, but the most memorable was my 30th birthday in Tokyo. I rented a live venue, and I had, I can't remember, it was five or six punk rock bands performing. And I had long hair. I actually had hair back then.

And for some reason, under the influence, we just said, Hey man, why don't we shave your head?

CNS: What – you shaved your head on your 30th birthday?

Papa G: Yeah, I had a friend, and he's bald, and we just kind of made a joke about it. Next thing I know, he and a bunch of guys went out and bought razors and everything else. And then I'm on stage with a punk rock band performing around me as they shaved my head in front of, I think it was like 300 or 400 people.

CNS: This can be a very liberating thing, though…

Papa G: It was great! Actually, one of the best parts of that was my wife was out of the country. She didn't know I shaved my head. And so when I heard her coming, I had one of those little wind-up cameras, and I took photos of her as she opened the door to get her reactions falling back against the wall.

CNS: Is that when the beard came into play? When the stuff on top goes away, you come back with this on the chin?

Papa G: Exactly. After it happened, my brothers warned me. It's like, dude, you shave your head; you know it's not coming back. And I'm like, what are you talking about?

And they were right; it did not come back in the same way.

So yes, with time and gravity, it migrated to the beard.

CNS: What's the best birthday present you've ever gotten?

Papa G: A tough one. I guess for me nowadays, it's just getting people together. It's awesome. I have to admit, I do really enjoy my birthdays because you'll see such a completely different group of people in the same place at the same time, which you would almost never see.

So I might have diplomats and businesspeople with punk bands and tattoo artists and chefs and whatever, all descend on The Pearl for a good time.

CNS: The cross-section of Shanghai is there, right?

Papa G: Exactly, that's what I really enjoy about that. I mean, it's incredible how you'll get a concert and you've got a lot of 20- to 30-year-old locals who are just singing and 40- to 60-year-old foreigners. I remember one Queen show where we had three generations from the same German family attending. They're watching a Queen show together with 300 other people screaming and cheering. It's awesome. I mean, that's the thing.

When you experience that, it gives me so much hope and energy.

CNS: So what's the plan for the birthday party this year, then?

Papa G: Tickets are 100 yuan (US$13.85) and include two drinks. So it will start off, actually, we'll show the Gibson Guitar 100th anniversary concert that I shot. And then we go into a full night of entertainment with basically all the stars of The Pearls.

CNS: That's great.

Papa G: We've got Dave Stone who is going to open up. Then we've got, of course, the Red Star Band. Grace, our singer. We've got Slava doing Ariel. We've got Coco hosting.

So, yeah, we've got probably, I don't know, 14 performers throughout the night.

CNS: Looking ahead, is there a specific milestone you want to achieve before your next birthday?

Papa G: Success. That'd be great.

CNS: Riches, fame…

Papa G: I don't care about riches, but can I please at least get out of debt? (laughs).

Honestly, I feel like in the next six months, there are a lot of things that are about to happen. I'm working with a lot of other groups, outside groups, because we are looking at expanding The Pearl. We've been offered a lot of different venues, different cities.

I can't say where and how at the moment. Plus, we are also working with a lot of bigger shows that we're bringing over. So give me a couple or three months, and I should hopefully have some incredible news for you on some of the stuff we're going to be working on.

CNS: Do you want to talk about the Box Office (restaurant/cafe next to The Pearl)? That's a milestone that happened this year.

Papa G: Oh, that's true, yeah. So the Box Office, I'm proud of it, because our food is actually good. We have an in-house baker, so we bake all our own bread. All our pizza dough and everything else is made fresh. We worked with Eduardo Vargas. He helped us create the menu, so it's good quality.

I'm very, very happy with that. For Box Office, it's also a place to come and hang out before a show, or if you're waiting to get in, come and hang out here. We'll be doing some merchandising in here.

I just haven't had time to focus on it. Also, we are actually, oddly enough, now, this past weekend, we supplied pizzas to Hongkou Stadium during the Mariah Carey show.

CNS: You've got to get a picture of her eating one… I'm thinking that would be difficult.

Papa G: She doesn't look like a restaurant pizza lady. I don't know if she actually had it, but we were selling to the masses.

CNS: We ask everyone this – what's your favorite part of Shanghai and why?

Papa G: I could go on and on. I should plug the fact that I live in Hongkou. I love Hongkou. It's a historic area of the city, and there's a lot of amazing history here. There are still a lot of amazing buildings. Even last week, I just took a walk out and found a park I didn't know about that had three different islands.

And then, just then, down the road we found an outdoor crawdad place, and we just sat out there and had crawdads, and they had a selection of four Tsingtao beers on tap – I was in heaven.

I just love Shanghai! What a dynamic city! Options of what to do are endless. Riding bikes along the West Bund area, walking tours up Suzkou Creek (we did one recently with our tour guide friend, Daniela. It was Great! Learned so much about old history while I taught her about history of the last 18 years and how the Suzhou creek has evolved – I think it was a fair trade. LOL!). So many museums and ever changing art exhibitions.

CNS: And where does Papa G like to eat?

Papa G: Oh my God the food. For special occasions and family celebrations we go to see Mark at The Cannery. I can never get enough of their smoked salmon. By far the best smoked meat in town is Parlay! Matty and his team are amazing, plus you can make a full day over there. Eat/drink at Parlay then go over to RIIINK for a drink(s) (I'm scared to roller skate at my age and break a hip) then definitely finish of the night at Juanitos. Great cocktails, staff, vibe and their food is damn good too. Pork Knuckle!

Other day option is definitely Zeitgiest! It's white asparagus season now, which full disclosure is I'm an investor too, so I might seem biased when I say they have the best, most authentic Bavarian food in town – but I dare anyone to prove me wrong! Then some margaritas and tacos with Logan at Tacoliscious before some live music with Denise, Ezra and Smokey at Chair Club. Monday jam nights are the best! This is a monthly Monday for The Pearl's Red Stars band and me. We do dinner to catch up on life, drink at Tacolicious and discuss creative show ideas and then they jump on stage at Chair Club for a Jam. It's perfect night! Band and I also love to hang out at Les' Bar. Lesley is a goodess! She is an amazing lady, full of life, always positive energy flowing out and shots and huge supporter of The Pearl. Love her.

But we love Chinese food too. So many places we go to. Many I can even name. We just know which street or alleyway to go to. Just last week we were exploring Hongkou area where we live and love. We found Zhabei Park and nearby in an alleyway was outdoor shop with spicy crawfish and four kinds of Tsingtao draft. My goal was to walk around for a couple hours find a café and get some work done… instead we ended up there for hours enjoying SH life. We did the Jing'an life for years, but I enjoy our life in Hongkou so much more. The history here is amazing and thankfully the old neighborhoods and historical architecture is still intact.

I'm like, this is why we're in Shanghai. You know, take a walk. Find a new neighborhood. It was a good day.

I mean, I went out to try to find a coffee shop and do some work. Got nothing done. We just walked around and had a perfect day. So nice.

CNS: The last question is, because it's your birthday, what's the big life lesson you learned this year?

Papa G: Good question. I'm going to go with: Never give up.

If you want to head down to Papa G's birthday revels, it's tonight (Wednesday). Doors open at 6pm and goes till late.