Hi,

I am in Chiang Mai for the summer to do research for my undergrad dissertation. I'm a Social Anthropology student, and interested in gender issues, so I would like to interview some of the performers in Simon Cabaret. I was just wondering, before I go over there to introduce myself, do any of you know any of the performers, or anyone connected with the cabaret? It is really hard to find any information about the people involved in it online, so it would be a great help if someone could point me in the right direction.

thanks

My guess is that you would need to approach the performers themselves and arrange

for some kind of meeting/interview..I am sure that they would be happy to oblige..saw

it myself some years back and is an extravaganza in every sense of the word...

good luck with your research....Dukkha

yeah that was my plan, I was just wondering if anyone personally knew any of them and could put me in touch. I'm planning to go down tomorrow or Monday during the day and speak to someone. I've been to the show twice, after the show doen't seem like a good time to speak to them!

I can't be of much help. A friend of mine used to dance for Simon's, but maybe that was only in Pattaya. If I see him this week in Chiang Mai, which is likely, I'll try to remember to ask him.

Right after the show is a bad time at first, because the cast is posing for photos with the audience. Maybe a little later they won't be so busy.

Peace Blondie that would be great, thank you. Even if he just knew the name of someone in charge there that I could speak to.

I don't really want to approach the performers after the show, even after photos are done. I'm sure they just want to relax, and I don't want to be bothering them.

A researcher needs search n'est ce pas???? Dukkha

Hi,

I am in Chiang Mai for the summer to do research for my undergrad dissertation. I'm a Social Anthropology student, and interested in gender issues, so I would like to interview some of the performers in Simon Cabaret. I was just wondering, before I go over there to introduce myself, do any of you know any of the performers, or anyone connected with the cabaret? It is really hard to find any information about the people involved in it online, so it would be a great help if someone could point me in the right direction.

thanks

I hope there is more to the study protocol than this: Otherwise, you run the risk of your paper being rejected because the data used was unreliable. Your study requires a local to line up the interviews and explain the nature of your study. If you run into a jam now, your best hope is one of the local social service organizations where someone may have an interest. It's worth a visit upon your arrival. Your prospective subjects have been poked and prodded so many times that they many are fed up with people rummaging about, no matter how professional the researcher is or how innocuous the study is.

I'm not trying to crush your nads here, just warn you that you may be in for a shock when you get back home and your data collection is questioned. You still have time to fix it. I appreciate that an undergrad research paper won't be subject to the same critical assessment as a peer review or application study, but your methodology appears shaky and if a professor wants to be a prick about it, that's where you will be nailed.

If your subject pool is biased, the results are skewed and the resultant conclusions, no matter how well written or intentioned, are tainted. If your professor approved the methodology be sure you have a copy of that approval included with your submission in the data and protocol annex.

It's not unusual to have to toss data because of collection deficiencies. It happens to all of us. At least you have a chance here to prevent it and not have to go back and verify subjects that are even more creepy and closer to death then when you saw them 3 months earlier.

And sorry if this comes off as nasty, but having a paper rejected or grilled totally blows chunks. It's like you want to rip the intestines out of your research supervisor and use them to hang him from the lab window.

Geriatrickid,

thank you for you comments and concern. I am not prepared to share my research proposal on a public forum, nor do I feel the need to defend my methodology. You obviously have an academic/research background. However, my field is Social and Cultural Anthropology. As such, I am not collecting 'data', I am concerned with the personal human stories involved. The final piece of work will be more in the style of an ethnography than an assesment of hard data collected. I am not interested in surveys, graphs and questionnaires.

I have been in contact with CMU and am hoping to find a student from the same discipline as me to explain my project to the people I intend to interview. My supervisor at my own university is fully aware of the details of my intended research, and approves my research methods. I can assure you, this is completely normal research practice for Social Anthropology fieldwork.

If you would like to see a copy of my proposal, please feel free to PM me and I can email it to you.

"At least you have a chance here to prevent it and not have to go back and verify subjects that are even more creepy and closer to death then when you saw them 3 months earlier."

And I object to this statement. Creepy and near death is not how I view average the cabaret performer from the research have done before arriving in Thailand, sorry! Maybe I'm way off here. After I've started the fieldwork I'll be better able to comment.

Maybe anyone else with any useful contacts or suggestions might be better to PM me.

j0j0, you're not the only one who caught that creepy statement about the performers being even more creepy and closer to death. geriatric kid, you've been publicly warned not to make such disparaging remarks.

Actually, instead of running into the former Simon Cabaret performer that I know here (who looks no closer to death than he ever did), I ran into someone else from that neighborhood who knows several of the performers. He gave me a rumour that the cabaret is going to close soon! I have no idea if it's true.

do you know, that is funny, I heard the same rumour from some staff at a guesthouse near where I am staying. I was at the show just on Friday night there, and no sign of it closing then. The place was only half full, same as the first time I went, but it is the low season. I'd be interested to know if it is just a rumour or not, though your sources seem a little more connected than mine!

All the more reason for me to get down there soon and introduce myself I suppose!

do you know, that is funny, I heard the same rumour from some staff at a guesthouse near where I am staying. I was at the show just on Friday night there, and no sign of it closing then. The place was only half full, same as the first time I went, but it is the low season. I'd be interested to know if it is just a rumour or not, though your sources seem a little more connected than mine!

All the more reason for me to get down there soon and introduce myself I suppose!

It will close at the end of this month, I had a notice as I send clients there. There is still a Simon in Phuket. If you have to change the place of your research because of this I can hook you up with the Alcazar in Pattaya.

Hi,

I am in Chiang Mai for the summer to do research for my undergrad dissertation. I'm a Social Anthropology student, and interested in gender issues, so I would like to interview some of the performers in Simon Cabaret. I was just wondering, before I go over there to introduce myself, do any of you know any of the performers, or anyone connected with the cabaret? It is really hard to find any information about the people involved in it online, so it would be a great help if someone could point me in the right direction.

thanks

i own a cabaret pm me for your need information.........

It's not unusual to have to toss data because of collection deficiencies. It happens to all of us. At least you have a chance here to prevent it and not have to go back and verify subjects that are even more creepy and closer to death then when you saw them 3 months earlier.

The statement was a general comment made in respect of having to redo data gathering. It was not intended to describe the subject pool in this "investigation". To be more specific I was referencing events regarding a Hepatitis study where researchers had to redo the risk assessment interviews and determine if the elevated liver enzymes were attributable to other factors. It was intended as an example of the type of error made despite a year of preparation and oversight by multiple layers of bureaucracy. To be more specific, it was not a direct reference to the employees or staff of Simone Cabaret. I trust this addresses the concern stated.

Still on topic, I had lunch today with a competitor who complained that Simon Cabaret in Chiang Mai will have a new owner and either not go out of business, or will reopen soon.