Game for a laugh

Na Nake, the bearded man with colourful spiky hair and a penchant for fashionable sunglasses, returned to the stage over the weekend after a four-year hiatus for his fourth stand-up comedy show.

Judging by the size of the audience who turned up for the six shows put on between Friday and Sunday and their reactions to his jokes and antics, he did a good job, though it has to be said that some of the crowd were unhappy at some of the gags and the over-the-top mockery.

The theme of "The Naked Show 4" was the Thai expression "sa yang ngan", which loosely translates as "why is that?" Na Nake whose real name is Ketsepsawat Palakawong Na Ayudhya, launched the first in his "Naked Show" series in August 2004, following up with episodes two and three in August 2005 and 2006. In this latest show, he made jokes about behaviour, occurrences and practices that puzzled him so much that he found himself saying "sa yang ngan".

These included why people on TV, including actors in dramas, spoke far more politely than people do in everyday life. Na Nake argued that swear words      are common these days. "People swear and say something rude all the time.      We are not polite even to ourselves," he said.

To an audience of about 700 at King Power's Aksra Theatre on Sunday night, Na Nake tried to explain jokingly that     for him Thai words of insult meaning animal and monitor lizard were just like other common nouns such as refrigerator or iron.

He said if we did not think of them as insults, they were just words. He then started calling some of his showbiz guests by those names, and encouraged the audience members to call him the Thai word for monitor lizard. For many in the audience, this was a first: a rude word being shouted by so many people simultaneously in such public place - the recent anti-government rallies being an exception.

Na Nake later went on to the mock the hosts of a particular TV entertainment show, football commentators and a certain girl band. He also made jokes about TV advertisements, in-car navigation systems, gadget-crazy people, and the recent craze for an American doughnut brand. His parody of Thai youngsters crazy about Korean music draw much laughter and applause.

Another highlight of the show was Na Nake's mimicking of famous TV show hosts like Wuttitorn "Woody" Milintajin-da, Traipop Limpapat, Witta-wat Soontornvinate and Panya Nirunkul.

The 42-year-old comedian, who hosts TV programmes and acts as an emcee at marketing functions, became more aggressive, using swear words more frequently, as he joked about his bad experiences at the airport with security personnel, on the plane with air hostesses, and inside taxis with politically-active drivers.

Admitting that he disliked young     children, Na Nake also recounted a bad experience with a nine-year-old "little  rascal" who acted as his co-emcee at a function at the request of a customer. "The customer is god, and the customer's child is the father of god," he joked, adding that he got even with the boy who called him "stupid" in front of the function's  participants when he failed to answer his riddles correctly.

As the three-hour-long show moved on, Na Nake made satirical jokes and mimicked a dissatisfied consumer, puzzled social observer, angry passenger, embarrassed adult and annoyed public figure. Some of his jokes attracted thunderous laughter while others got the silent treatment. As if aware of possible legal problems, he quipped: "I already consulted my lawyer".

The show also featured a musical performance by Na Nake at the piano and his company's senior executives at other instruments. The four songs performed were composed by Na Nake and his team and were sung by guest singers Stamp, Boy Trai and Bee Peerapat, with the comedian singing the last song with the same name as his show's theme.

The video screening of seemingly unrelated footage at the beginning of the show failed to take off. It attracted only some cautious laughter and nervous giggles and left the audience puzzled. Captioned "These are what they call sa yang ngan", the video featured the traffic police dummy Sergeant Choey, actor Pakorn "Dome" Lam, RS big boss Surachai Chetchotisak, animals mating, the famous panda cub in Chiang Mai and a music video of a luk thung song with suggestive lyrics.

A few surprises came at the beginning and the end of the show. The Royal Anthem was played by Weerapong Thaweesak on the glass harp - an instrument made of upright wineglasses filled with water - and was so beautiful it earned him thunderous applause. And shortly before the end of the last show on Sunday night, a staff member of Na Nake's company successfully proposed to his girlfriend.