Watchara "Jennie" Sukchum, also known as Jennie Pa-nhun of Hat Yai, rose to YouTube stardom for her appearance in hilarious parody videos, the most recent being a Thai version of Britney Spears's hit single, I'm A Slave 4 U. She is also a member of Bangkok-based theme party organiser Trasher. Its upcoming "Britney's Bitches" party will be held at Live, RCA, on Aug 1.
Tell us about the origin of your parody videos.
It was just for the sake of fun. In university, we were a group of students taking the helm of every campus activity, and we all had humorous showiness. We even collected our money to buy a big stereo and turned a hallway into an on-campus runway, which we trotted down in an overly feminine way. Then we realised that we could do better by making parody videos revolving around issues and gags that many Thais could relate to. The One That Got Away seems to be our most successful video — it reached almost 2 million views, and Katy Perry even tweeted about it.
What makes your videos successful?
It might be because our true personalities show through in each episode. I come from southern Thailand, and I have an authentic Southern accent. So I just speak English with my special accent. The funny thing is that some of our viewers misperceive my accent as Northeastern.
Parody videos and parties — how do you mix the two?
The parties began when we were in university. It really annoyed us that nightclubs playing pop music were so rare in Bangkok. We wanted to organise a pop music party with hit tracks that everyone could sing along to, and we also created interesting themes so that guests could have fun dressing up. Seeing that the parody videos brought us fame, we came up with the idea of using them as a platform to promote our upcoming parties.
It's pure passion for these things that has pushed me. When Trasher's videos went extra viral, I received recognition from people in the entertainment industry. I was contacted by a Channel V Thailand for an assistant producer position. I started working there and later moved to GMM Grammy's Bang channel.
What's the next step for Trasher?
This year we will go more outdoors, apart from our usual indoor themed parties. I don't want to leak the entire secret, but we're going hit one of the country's renowned party islands in October, and it will definitely be huge beach madness. For videos, we've just kicked off a new set of humorous encyclopaedic videos entitled, "Trashwiki". The first video is ironic relationship advice called, The Right Way To Love Men.
Check out Trasher's videos on its YouTube channel, "Trashtele", and keep up with its parties at fb.com/trasherbangkok.
