A YouTube star with Thai blood

There are two types of videos on YouTube - those made "for" the website and those copied-and-uploaded clips flirting with copyright violation. Shyaporn Theerakulstit's works are among those that serve the noble purpose of the website to great effect.

 His are hilarious, thought provoking, witty, innovative and inspiring. His channel's views have exceeded 100,000, with more than 4,000 subscriptions. His most popular video - "500 impressions in two minutes!!" - has attracted more than 1.04 million views, not earth-shattering by YouTube's standards but the more than 10,000 comments that keep accumulating every hour are the testament to the quality of this clip.

The fan club of this young director/actor continues to grow and has expanded beyond cyberspace. He has been featured in magazines and websites and was even once dubbed one of the sexiest Asians.

WATCHING MOVIES HELPED

"Shy" was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but both his parents are from Thailand. They separated when he was five and his mother had to work hard raising him and getting her doctorate degree at the same time.

"That's why I wasn't often exposed to Thai language or culture, except for my mother's fantastic cooking, though we did spend several summers in Bangkok with her family," he told The Nation.

He studied acting and philosophy at New York University, receiving acting training at various professional acting studios throughout New York City and getting a traditional liberal-arts education.

Despite little filmmaking or directing training while in college, he attained knowledge of film |simply from watching a lot of movies."If you watch enough films and shows, both good and bad, you begin to see patterns and learn what works and what doesn't in telling a story. And, particularly, it helps with timing and pacing," he said.

After college Shy took the rather traditional route of most New York actors, mailing professional acting headshots to agents and casting directors and "pounding the pavement" going out on auditions and casting calls. For several years he pretty much only did theater, both classical and experimental, with mixed results.

"The problem with theater is that for every great production you are a part of, you end up also having done four or five really bad productions. It's really hit or miss," he said.

So he began transitioning into film and television, doing a few commercials and independent films. And then he decided to work on both sides of the camera, starting with borrowing a friend's video camera and shooting little short films.

The first video he uploaded onto YouTube was a film he shot for a 24-hour filmmaking contest called "Finders Keepers." It was really only of interest to friends and those at the contest. He uploaded two or three other films and people seemed slightly interested, without a particular surge in subscribers.

THE VIDEOS THAT WERE HITS

Then in early 2007 he made two videos back to back which addressed Asian American themes, "500 Impressions (in 2 minutes)" and "Asians: The Asian Response to Asian Responders", which demonstrates his wit, sarcasm and great acting skills. Both videos got featured on Digg.com, and suddenly his subscriber base began to grow.

"It's not much by YouTube standards, but far more than I would have ever imagined. Maybe because there's a general lack of representation of Asians in Western media, Asians in Western cultures are now turning to new outlets such as YouTube to find their artistic mirror," he said.

"A large number of top subscribed channels on YouTube are Asians. It's where this new generation has found its voice and it's absolutely great."

***To watch Shy's works go to YouTube and search "Shyaporn".

Full interview with Shyaporn:

You certainly are a US citizen now. But please tell us a little about your Thai link as well as something about yourself and America ..ie where you grew up, schools and anything at all that you'd like to talk about.

I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States, but both my parents are from Thailand. They met in Detroit where my mother was in school and my father was I believe doing his medical residency, and then moved to Pittsburgh. For various reasons they separated when I was only five and my mother had to pretty much raise me by herself, as well as working full time and getting her doctorate degree. The unfortunate side effect of their separation was that I wasn't often exposed to the Thai language or culture growing up (except for my mother's fantastic Thai cooking), though we did spend several summers in Bangkok with my mother's family.

 

Your website profile about kungfu and all the martial art stuff... You didn't put that on to fend off potential enemies, did you? It's as scary as it's really impressive.

I actually didn't begin studying martial arts until after college, which is a shame, because I always was interested in the discipline. I think on some level, when I was younger, I rejected pursuing martial arts because of the stereotype in the West of all Asians knowing kung fu or karate. Ironically, I asked to study violin when I was in the third grade, so I pretty much ended up fulfilling my ethnic stereotype anyway.

Please elaborate on your education and study, especially where it concerns your filmmaking, acting and directing work. ie how many years studying directing and acting and so on.

I received my BFA in Acting and Philosophy at New York University. The acting program there is a studio program; three days a week is spent on acting training with various professional acting studios throughout New York City and the other two days are spent on a traditional liberal arts education. I actually received little to no filmmaking or directing training while in college. All my knowledge of film is simply from watching an excessive amount of movies and television. But if you watch enough films and shows, both good and bad, you begin to see patterns and learn what works and what doesn't work in telling a story. And particularly it helps with timing and pacing.

Basically what did you do before youtube? ie Studying? Acting? And what are you doing now besides youtube?

After college I took the rather traditional route of most actors in the city; I had professional acting headshots (photographs) taken, mailed them out to agents a nd casting directors and "pounded the pavement" going out on auditions and casting calls. For several years I pretty much only did theater, both classical and experimental, with mixed results. The problem I have with theater is that for every great production you are a part of, you end up also having done four or five really bad productions. It's really hit or miss. So I began transitioning into film and television, doing a few commercials and independent films. And then I decided to work on both sides of the camera, so I just borrowed a friend's video camera and began shooting little short films.

What inspired you to contribute to youtube? Your friends recommended it? Or you just wanted to have some fun?

Well, as I said, I had begun shooting my own little video shorts, but only my circle of friends ever saw them. They just sat on a shelf. Then, back in 2006, YouTube broke away from the pack of budding video sharing websites and I just took advantage of the technology to share the videos I had already shot with my friends. After I uploaded what I already had shot, I thought it'd be a great way to exercise my creative muscles and began shooting other little shorts. It was mainly just for fun and to make my friends laugh.

Please tell us about your first youtube video. And also viewers' reaction. They surprised you?

The first video I uploaded onto YouTube was a film I shot for a 24-hour f ilmmaking contest called "Finders Keepers." Again, it was really only of interest to my friends and to other people who had entered the contest. I uploaded the two or three other films I had made and people seemed slightly interested, but I didn't have a particular surge in subscribers. But then in early 2007 I made two videos back to back which addressed Asian American themes, "500 Impressions (in 2 minutes)" and "Asians: The Asian Response to Asian Responders" which both got featured on Digg.com, and suddenly my subscriber base began to grow much more quickly. 500 Impressions has just recently passed a million views, which isn't all that much by YouTube standards, but far more than I would have ever imagined.

I hadn't expected it to happen, nor had I planned on doing "Asian"-themed videos; they just seemed funny to me at the time. But I think because there's a general lack of representation of Asians in Western media, Asians in Western cultures are now turning to new media outlets such as YouTube to find their artistic mirror. If you look at the top subscribed channels on YouTube now, a large number of them are Asians. It's where this new generation has found it's voice and it's absolutely great.

Well, we forgot a simple question: Do you speak Thai at all?

 

I'm afraid I'm not able to speak or read Thai, other than simple things such as "I can't speak Thai" or "delicious!" My parents divorced when I was quite young and my mother had to work full time, as well as going to school for her doctorate in education, so unfortunately I never really heard Thai spoken much around the house. We would visit Thailand during the summer months when I was a kid and I would actually gain fluency during my stay, but it would vanish shortly after returning.

What's your biggest link to Thai culture?

 

One of my biggest bridges to Thai culture is indeed my mother's cooking, which is spectacular. It's sort of ruined me for eating Thai food in restaurants here in the States because restaurant Thai food here is so Americanized. Fortunately I learned a love of cooking and food from my mother, so I'm able to whip up a few dishes for myself when I have a craving.

But the other link to Thai culture she gave me were the trips to the Thai buddhist temples in Washington DC and New York we would take from time to time. I have fond memories of listening to the prayers, offering food to Buddha and the monks and then enjoying said food afterwards. I loved seeing the spiritual combined with the communal at the temples - they were definitely a place for Thai people in America to meet and touch base with thei r heritage and local community (as well as show off their cooking skills!). One of the things I loved about the communal meals at the US temples was that, while most of the food was all delicious, home-cooked traditional Thai cuisine, there was always one person who brought McDonalds. Now, as a kid, you don't always appreciate the fact that you have all this brilliant Thai food in front of you, you just want the Micky D's hash browns! Thinking back on it, I find it really amusing.

I suppose my only other link to Thai culture is Tony Jaa... he's fantastic. Met him briefly during a screening of The Protector here in NYC. Very nice and humble fellow.

Do you follow the messy Thai politics?

 

I started following it a bit before the coup happened over a year ago. From my perspective, a very rich, well-connected and corrupt man, who controlled the media, managed to stay in power through deception and misdirection, and eventually had to be removed by force. It was interesting how closely your situation there paralleled the political situation here in the States, except of course you folks kicked the Prime Minister out and the geniuses in this country chose instead in 2004 to re-elect the guy.

Thai political trouble acutally gave me a newfound respect for the King; I admire the way he has spoken to these situations throughout his reign. Very much a voice of reason in the storm.