Since being a member of the famous Yutthakarn Kayubnguek team in 1993, Udom Taepanich, a.k.a. Nose, has been a success in the entertainment field. He later decided to separate from the team and do his own stand-up comedy, taking leading roles in Glong and Loveaholic. He also writes pocket books and exhibits his art in many exhibitions including Yarabay, Art Against War, Free-dom, Yokohama Triennale 2005 and Domcumentary. His latest project is an exhibition of his collaborative work with Porntaweesak Rimsakul called New Media Lab and can be seen as part of the Platform project.

I began as a stand-up comic because I thought making people laugh by just standing alone on a stage telling jokes was a challenging task. No one ever tried it before in Thailand. We have a lot of good comedians but mostly they play in groups.

Those stories I told really happened. I just tried to narrate them from a different angle.

My attitude towards the world is the most important thing I have in my everyday life. It keeps me alive and makes me into the person I am today.
Of all the things I’ve done, art makes me the happiest. I really don’t know why. Although I don’t even earn a living from it, still I love art. It could be because I’m having fun with it, I guess.

I must admit that in Thailand, we don’t get much support in the art field.

In my view, a painting is one-way communication. It differs from installation art, and its Thai translation explains all about its specialty—jud wang. An artist just wang (put it there) and it’s audiences who turn it into something beyond their own expectations. To me, using installation art in this Platform project is giving power back to the people.

When this project’s over, I think I’ll just go with the flow. If someone asks me to do something interesting, I’ll do it. If there is a nice role offered from a director, I would jump in and learn from it.

When I was young, I suffered from my own ambitions. Now that I’m getting older, my ambition is less strong than before. I think happiness occurs when people drop their ambitions a bit and just do whatever they need to do.

I now understand that failure can happen, and it’s acceptable. Ten years ago, I felt like I had to be a success at everything I did, which is impossible.

I believe we learn from the past. Problems and obstacles will always occur in our lives in different forms and we gradually learn through them. It’s like when someone breaks your heart; you can’t say that it will never happen again for sure.

Currently, I don’t have any goals or plans, but that may change ten years from now. In the past, I was like a tourist, taking a package tour, setting goals to achieve. Now I see that living without a goal is like backpacking—it’s more fun, more of a challenge.

I admire Prapas Cholsaranon. I like the way he makes complicated stuff understandable. Although he’s a businessman, he also creates good things in our society.

I want to be like him, but I’m not good at business. I try to be positive and give myself a break. Maybe making people laugh is another kind of virtue.

If I couldn’t speak, I’d use art as a tool. I don’t need everyone to understand everything I try to say. Let’s say I hang up a photo of a sunset in my office—it doesn’t mean I want everyone in the office to understand why I think this photo is so beautiful. I just want them to feel something. Art is something you may not understand, but you can feel it.

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