A precious night with Opal

Last weekend’s sold-out variety concert by Panisara “Opal” Phimpru served up three hours of happiness, fun and surprises to the fans who packed out Thammasat University’s main auditorium.

The show was divided into four parts, dealing with different aspects of Opal’s life – her childhood, her friends, love, and where she is now – and featured 11 special guests, most of them transgender.

The show lasted about three hours, with the majority of it devoted to Opal’s talk show rather than the musical performances, and keeping the audience laughing throughout.

Opal, who appeared on a mirror-studded stage in a sexy pink blouse with glittering wings extending from her shoulders and smart black shorts, started the show by singing “Run the World” and making her way over to the rhinoceros-like throne in the middle of stage, which she called “the rhino’s throne”. (The Thai word for rhino is slang for slutty women.)

After greeting fans, Opal talked about her life – employing the same technique as she would use to fill out a job application form – providing such details as name, age and occupation.

As a child, she said, she always sympathised with the villains on TV, never the heroine, as they were always outspoken. She then sang “Chan Mai Chai Nang-ek” (“I Am Not a Heroine”), after which she was joined by her first guest Siriporn “Tuck” Yooyod clad in an identical outfit. Tuck sang her popular number “Mod Huang” (“No Worry”). 

Opal returned to the stage and talked about her friends. Her next guest, DJ colleague Chaowalit “Chao Chao” Srimankongthum, invited audience members to pose their questions, just like on their radio programme, “Kham Tham Chao, Kham Tham Opal” (Chao Answers, Opal Answers).

She later talked about her “third gender” friends and transgender people in general, expressing her sympathy to them while criticising people who despise and look down at them “as if they are not human”. 

“Many of my friends are from the third gender and they are not born to be jokers so nobody should admonish them. I want society to be more open to them. You should never judge people by their appearance,” she admonished before handing the stage over to close friend and singer Chalongrat “Pete” Nopwichai to perform his hit song “First Kiss”. 

The highlight of the show was the “Gay Set Party” fashion show, featuring Madam Mod from the satellite Play Channel and Pompam, Gotji and Golf from “Toey Thiew Thai” programme. They sang “Moves like Jagger”, “Rolling in the Deep” and “Last Friday Night”. 

Much to the audience’s collective delight, the celebrity transvestites were joined by bare-chested muscled men.

Opal returned to the stage to talk about her past love life and her sorrow at relationships turned bad. She sang “Khon Mai Rak Dee” before talking about her “ideal man” and was joined on stage by a surprise guest, Lt-Colonel Wanchana “Colonel Bird” Sawasdee in teenage garb who sang “Na Bad Now” and danced. The muscular Wanchana is best known for his portrayal of a royal warrior in recent Thai epics. 

Colonel Bird appeared a little embarrassed while singing and dancing but his performance was cute and the audience loved it, cheering, screaming and applauding throughout. “I wanted to make Opal’s fan club happy so I did my best to practise for this show,” said the bashful Bird.

Opal came back on stage, this time dressed in a tubetop and a golden miniskirt. “I’m standing here tonight because of all your support for me,” she said. “I’ve believe in myself since I was young and I hope I can make someone believe in themselves too.” 

She wrapped the concert with the song “Believe” before returning to her “rhino’s throne”.