Joe Wong, Ronny Chieng and the rise of Asian voices in comedy
Asian comedians were once forced to resort to stereotypes to find a platform – but a wave of pioneering stars is changing that
The crowd erupts, and he’s off.
“I’m an immigrant parent,” he begins after the laughter dies down. “They say that two wrongs don’t make a right, but two illegals can make a legal …”
The Jilin-born comedian moved to the United States at 24, carving out a career in one of the hardest fields for a non-native speaker, let alone a Chinese man in America. Doing stand-up in a second language demands the cerebral dexterity of conducting a symphony from memory. It also requires navigating nuance, cultural complexity and the risk that one misjudged punchline could get you cancelled faster than J.K. Rowling at a gender studies conference.