I FELT THERE WAS A SENSE OF THEM BEING UNABLE TO GRASP THE REALITY THAT

are so many smaller scenes and so you navigate that and you find your folks. You find people that’ll give you a ride to the open mic. And then you have a meal with them afterwards and kind of debrief what happened earlier, and this becomes the work. This becomes the daily clock in and clock out. You go home, you sleep, you wake up, you listen to last night’s set, you notice the weak points, the strong points. You write and then you meet up with your friends, you ride together for the open mic. You show what you worked on and get your reaction, you record that and debrief with your friends afterwards. You find a community and then you do it everyday. That’s how you make that passion into something. It grows the passion cause you’re with your homies, and you guys are all figuring it out together

What type of advice would you give to a younger version of yourself?

Consume the greats in the field you’re trying to pursue. See what the leaders of that field do and try to understand how they do it. That also gives you a sense of whether or not this is really what you want to do. And you can also watch the people who aren’t the best in that field, but make a living. There’s a lot of mediocre comedians making a living. I took some safety in knowing that I could still make a living even if I’m not the best. You don’t have to worry about paying rent. This is weird, I don’t know if it’s inspirational, but it’s real.

That’s pretty jokes. I guess it takes the pressure off a bit?

That was part of the equation for me. When I was starting out, every week I’d go to my home club and see the new comedian that’s touring in town. So every week there’s a new comic that’s touring, and a lot of times I’d watch ‘em and they’re not my favorite comedian for some reason. But they do ok. It gave me a sense of, “If they can do it, I probably could do it too. I can eventually do this better than they can in my own way.”

Did you feel that you needed to be “funnier” to make it because you were Asian American?

I think so, I definitely feel there’s a different feeling to being an Asian face on stage, compared to being white. But I also just wanted to be funnier because I wanted to be my best. It was a personal drive to have the set of the night.

Have you found that it’s becoming easier for niche comics to build their own followings? And do you see that as beneficial to aspiring Asian American comedians?

Yes. With social media — we’re in the era of clips and reels — all kinds of people are blowing up. Way more than what a Netflix special alone can do. We’re in an age where with technology and algorithms you can be as obscure or niche as you want to be and still build a pretty good following and probably make a living. You can just put it out there and anybody can see it. So as far as being seen, I don’t think that’s really an issue anymore. In terms of accelerating the growth of opportunities for Asian American comedians, it’s just a matter of getting more voices, writers and performers, from different places and generations, from across the country.

What did you think it’d be like to be a professional comedian and what has been the reality?

In a weird way, I’m kind of where I thought I would be. When you first start out, your goals are low. They’ve got to be attainable within a certain timeframe. But then it keeps moving after you get there. I just felt like I’m not going to be America’s best comedian. The notion of that is weird and really not that helpful. But I had this idea that I’m just going to be the best I can. So for me, in terms of success, it’s never been about being famous or getting super rich or having a lot of material stuff. It was always about being the best that I can be and being the best version of the comedian that I am. I’m still on this path of continuing to grow. I live simply and I’m content with that.

CONTRIBUTORS

Richard Liu

Julia Huang

Eugene Kan

Nathan Kan

Yuen Yung Lee

Charis Poon

Joyce Lee

Suzette Lee

Tanya Raukko

Nate Garcia

Alex Maeland

Derick van Wikj

Dustin Holmes

Kevin Wong

Warren Lee

Eileen Sho Ji

Daniel Wu

P-Lo

Arthur “Cal-A” Alcantar

Abigail Hing Wen

Kelvin Yu

Sheng Wang

Carmen Chan

Christina Choi

Silas Lee

Image Credits

all front matter eileen

PRINTER

Colham Printing Co Ltd

SPONSORS thedarksideinitiative.com/pages/the-golden-generation