Q&AAsian-American comedian Sheng Wang on Netflix’s Purple, Ali Wong and his love of cooking

For Taiwanese-American comedian Sheng Wang, purple is more than a colour; it is a way of being. From his style to the way he floats through the world writing jokes based on the small, fleeting moments of life, the 46-year-old maintains a sense of tranquillity and creates impact with his art by not trying so hard. It is no shock that his second Netflix special, Purple, is the most revealing of who he is at a time when people are finally paying attention. Coming off the success of his 2022 Netflix debut, Sweet and Juicy, Wang, a 23-year comedy veteran, became a marquee name touring theatres across the United States. Here he talks about his brand of comedy, friendship with Ali Wong, director of Purple, and love for cooking. How do you think the colour purple relates to you and your comedy? Purple, as far as the name goes, was just a fun name. I mean, I love the colour. There’s a joke in the special that references a purple toothbrush, and then there’s also a reference to my aura based on the fact that I’m cooking with shallots. There’s just sort of vague purple-ish themes throughout the special. And also it represents strength and royalty. And to me, the second special, it feels like there’s a bit of a growth in levelling up. And so I thought Purple would be a fun way to go with the title. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Netflix Is A Joke (@netflixisajoke) We had thought about playing off of the first one, like “Sweet and Juicy” going to like, I dunno, “Umami” or “Delicious” or some other thing that’s like food-related. We ended up going “Purple” just because it feels a little bit more intriguing, a little more vague, a little poetic and kind of let the audience feel out what this is. A big part of your special and your comedy in general is focusing on those small moments in life that you build into a greater theme of something that is funny. When you are out there living life, what are your tricks to listen and absorb jokes? I think it’s about being present and putting down the phone. I think it’s just being engaged with your life, especially during moments that don’t feel like a moment. It’s those in-between moments, you know? I don’t really actively do this, I think this is just a general good practice to like to be bored, to stay off our phones to a certain extent, where it’s not always an immediate automatic response. So for the special, again, I don’t do this intentionally, but basically, I live life, I try to pay attention. A lot of these moments from all of our lives are usually so small and fleeting that we don’t pay attention to them. And we’re kind of experiencing them almost on autopilot and running on emotions. And we’re not really choosing anything. We’re not making a choice there. And so, I’m basically just collecting these moments. There might be a small touch of some discomfort or dissonance or awkwardness or absurdity or something. And I just jot it down, and sometimes it’s clearly funny as it is. Sometimes I have to kind of find it on stage as I share this moment with the audience. But it all starts with just being present and engaged with your life. I wanted to be a comedian, I wanted to be a poet, and I wanted to be a photographer. And for me, stand-up comedy embodies everything, those other things as well. Tell us how you met Ali Wong in the comedy scene and how your friendship started. Ali and I met in the comedy scene in San Francisco in the early 2000s when we were both starting out. Basically, at the time, it was a much smaller scene. It was just a bunch of people trying to encourage each other to keep doing stand-up. And there was an emphasis on originality and writing that was kind of the vibe in San Francisco at the time, and we were just running around doing open mics, doing shows, and she did produce some shows; she booked me on some of her shows. We ended up moving to New York around the same time together. We were just on this journey together. We were both Asian-Americans, children of immigrants, and I think we just connected on many levels immediately. We kind of struggled together. How does your friendship transfer over to the director/comedian relationship when it came time to actually film the special? When we would do the special, and she’s directing, she actually doesn’t get very involved in any of the creative stuff. She’s just a voice that I really trust, a mind that I trust. And she’s been through it. So she knows in and out of all this stuff. I’m very lucky to have her as a friend and also someone to just lean on during these moments where I don’t really know what the priority is or what’s most important to focus on, and all these decisions to be made. It’s just nice to have her along for the ride. It’s also helpful, too, as far as representation, to see another Asian-American person go through this. I see her excel and just keep killing it in all different kinds of aspects of entertainment. I just feel very lucky and privileged to have a friend like that, to have a voice like that in my corner. Your other passion is cooking. Is comedy similar to cooking for you? This is an interesting question. As far as cooking goes, it might be very different from how I approach comedy. My comedy is generally pretty precise. It takes a while to get to this, but once it’s in its final stages, the performance of my jokes is pretty precise. I know the words, I know the beats, and I’m just kind of going for it. As far as cooking goes, I’m kind of freestyling. I’m cutting up a bunch of garlic, I’m using a bunch of olive oil, and I’m using a bunch of different seasonings, and whatever happens, happens and in the end, it’ll be tasty. It might taste close to what I did last time. But it’s always a little bit different, because it’s never a recipe that I follow. It’s just a bunch of seasoning and a bunch of garlic. That’s kind of my generic start, it’s like those things, just a little everything. Yeah, no matter what. No matter what form it takes, it’ll work out. Yeah, it’ll be tasty for sure.

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The Taiwanese-American talks about how jokes in Purple, now on Netflix, were inspired by small everyday events, and his bond with Ali Wong

The Taiwanese-American talks about how jokes in Purple, now on Netflix, were inspired by small everyday events, and his bond with Ali Wong