Chinese singer Joker Xue sold out three nights at the Singapore Indoor Stadium (SIS) for his "Extraterrestrial" tour.

As casual listeners of his music, we must admit that we were slightly puzzled — was he always so popular here, and if so, why?

Don't get us wrong — the 40-year-old is a vocal powerhouse with great songs to boot (think "Actor" and "Tian Wai Lai Wu"), but selling out three nights at SIS is no mean feat.

But after watching him for the first time on Jan. 6, we think we've figured it out: apart from being a really good singer, he's very much a joker (and we mean this in the best way) who has built a strong rapport with his fans.

This much was clear when the show started — not 10 minutes into the show, Xue's self-deprecating humour kicked in.

He apologised for starting the concert about five minutes late with, "I'll only start a show late for one of two reasons: either you guys are late to enter the venue, or I was taking a dump. Today, it was the latter."

The singer would later poke fun at himself again by sharing that his stomach wasn't feeling too good because of all the good food he's been having since touching down in Singapore, which led to having to spend more time than usual on the toilet bowl.

To chope or not to chope

Xue also clearly did his homework before the show. His banter with the fans was peppered with Singlish phrases such as "steady bo?" and "ho seh".

For the purpose of this concert, he assumed the role of an alien sent to Earth to destroy it and called out certain practices we earthlings have that have angered our extraterrestrial friends.

"I heard that you guys like to reserve seats here. It's called... chope seat!" Xue said. "The person might not be present, but their stuff is always there. That's how [Singaporeans] stake claim on the seat, is that right?"

He continued by saying that while some people use tissues or phones to chope seats, he's also heard of those who use their shoes and underwear to do so.

"I went past a kopitiam and it was terrible, the tables were full of underwear!" he deadpanned.

In case you're wondering, he's joking.

But for the purposes of the show, a male audience member was arrowed and grilled on whether he's part of the chope culture.

The man confirmed that he's part of the problem, and that he too, believes in using his shoes to do so.

"Okay, please demonstrate. For example, if you need to go to the toilet right now, what will you do if you're afraid that someone will take your seat? Three, two, one, do it now. " Xue quipped.

The man first placed his bottle of water on the seat, but Xue insisted that he do so with his shoe.

The man then gamely removed his right shoe, put it on the chair, and walked away from his seat at Xue and the rest of the audience's encouragement.

There were plenty of other notable moments from the night, including Xue's anecdote about spending 30 minutes trying to order kopi because of all the permutations (siu dai, poh, bing, and so on) we have, but you'll have to be lucky enough to attend his third and final show tonight for the full experience.

What a guy.

Top photos from Joker Xue's Weibo & by Lee Wei Lin