Tukkie blows shot at a Nobel
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Comedian Sudarat "Tukkie" Butrprom is usually guaranteed for a few good laughs onstage, but Thai expatriates in Oslo came away disappointed from her show last Friday in the Norwegian capital.
We’ve heard complaints that she didn’t put much effort into “Concert Babe Pluak Pluak”, delivering just four songs and a series of lame gags. “And most of the time she spoke in the Isaan dialect – and not all of us in Oslo come from Isaan, so a lot of the humour was lost,” reports one man who was there.
Some grumble that Tukkie was more interested in letting fans pose with her for photos – at 100 krone (about Bt500) per keepsake, which was nearly a third the price of a ticket to the show. She also auctioned off an “official concert T-shirt” for 4,500 krone.
And she wore the same dress throughout the show despite having plenty of time to change during the intermission. “I wish she’d invested more in the production – a whole show with one dress?” complains another fan.
Tukkie came off as insincere and less conscientious compared to other Thai stars who’ve performed in Oslo, like Mai Charoenpura.
Tukkie announced onstage that she was off to Paris the next morning. The seething fans could only conclude that she was more interested in hitting the French boutiques than entertaining them.
Our man in the UK
National Artist Sumet Jumsai was recently appointed a Fellow of St John’s College at England’s Cambridge University. It’s a prestigious honour that dates back to the 13th century.
The long-time Nation guest columnist is lecturing in architecture while focusing on “urban aquatics” research. Meanwhile he’s writing another chapter for his book “Naga”, about the origins of civilisation in the Asia-Pacific region.
All this means Dr Sumet will be absent from the various civic projects he started in Thailand, but he jokes that this could be a good thing. Maybe if his detractors know he’s overseas, they’ll pick up the ball and get the projects implemented faster.
