 |
|
 |
Large Medium Small |
NEW YORK: When comedian Joe Wong takes to the stage, audience members can be excused if they at first mistake him for a stand-up version of William Hung of American Idol infamy.
Wong comes across as the antithesis of the typical stand-up comedian: He has a heavy Chinese accent, looks like someone in your IT department, and dresses like a kid at a piano recital.
But make no mistake — this comic is no joke.
Reminiscent of Andy Kaufman’s “Foreign Man” routine from the 1970s (which morphed into Taxi’s Latka Gravas) — though Wong really is from overseas — he cleverly plays off the stereotypical image he projects to catch the audience off guard.
When the diminutive, shy-looking Wong shuffled onto the stage of his first network TV appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman in April, he immediately had the crowd hooked with his first line: “Hi everybody … so, uh, I’m Irish.”
Although the fact that he’s an immigrant is used often in his humor, he doesn’t rely on it as a crutch or turn it into shtick, like other foreign-born comedians often do. In fact, some of his best lines are witty, Seinfeld-esque observations.
For example, in one of his routines Wong compares parallel parking with sports: “Unlike sports, when you are parallel parking, the worse you are the more people you have rooting for you.” In another, he says about getting married: “I used to be scared about marriage, I was like ‘wow, 50 percent of all marriages end up lasting forever!’”
On his web site, Wong writes that he loves classic rock, but complains that the genre lacks new songs. He also states that his dream job is to “work on TV announcing losing lottery numbers”.
Wong certainly has a knack for comedy, and has become one of the better-known comedians in New England, and particularly in Boston where he lives. But stand-up wasn’t originally what he had intended to do when he first came to the US.
Born in Baishan in Jilin province, China, Wong left for the US in 1994 to pursue a PhD degree in chemistry at Rice University in Texas. Back then, he was still one of the Chinese students who were struggling to learn English to understand his lectures.
“At the beginning, I really just wanted to express myself well … comedy is how I make sense out of life,” said Wong, whose Chinese name is Huang Xi. “I noticed that for some reason people here just didn’t expect me to tell jokes. I wanted to break this stereotype.”
He was getting serious about becoming a comedian in 2001 after he moved to Boston from Houston, where his old company closed down. Being unemployed for several months, Wong stayed at home and went through local newspapers for job adverts.
“Now, looking back, I know it was an important period in my life,” he said. “I realized that life is too short and if I want to try to be a comedian, I should do it now.”
After taking a six-session evening comedy class while having a day job at a pharmaceutical company, Wong had his first “open mic” in a small bar in Boston in 2002. “I was nervous as hell and can’t remember what jokes I actually told,” he said.
Seven years later, he’s on Letterman, perhaps the ultimate gig for a stand-up comedian today. “It was important for me but I also knew I deserved it – I worked very hard toward it,” said Wong.
“He really has it in him,” said Eddie Brill, the talent coordinator for the Letterman show, who booked Wong for the set. “I am just really proud of him and have never seen a comedian who did so well in his first performance on a television show.” He added that the show is planning on arranging something else in the future with Wong.
Brill first met Wong in 2005 when he was scouting talented comedians for the Letterman show in Boston. Wong went for an audition for the show. “Instinctly, I felt this guy has something special,” recalled Brill.
But at the time Wong was not ready and one reason was his strong accent. Brill, who describes Wong as “humble and intelligent”, agreed to watch and criticize some of his clips.
“It was the turning point of my comedy career because I was actually thinking about quitting,” said Wong.
Now a comic fixture in local clubs in the Cambridge and Massachusetts area, Wong also performs regularly in major comedy clubs and colleges throughout the country, as well as at benefits and corporate events.
“His jokes flow perfectly,” said Tim McIntire, Wong’s comedy teacher. “Timing is everything in comedy. Joe’s English gives him perfect timing for his style of jokes.”
McIntire also said that Wong was one of the few students he had who understood perfectly how to structure a joke from the very beginning.
Wong writes three to five jokes every day on different topics ranging from new immigrant experiences, family life, society, and anything else that pops into his head. “I write jokes pretty much about everything I think can be funny,” he explained.
Working a day job as a pharmaceutical researcher to support his family, Wong has three or four shows to perform every week that range from five-minute “open mics” to 30-minute to 90-minute stand-up comedy. In October, he is going to perform in Beijing and Shanghai.
Doing part-time comedy is not yet financially rewarding for Wong, but it is his great joy. His motivation is simple: “pursuit of the perfect joke, proving that Asians are funny, and keeping my family fed and happy”, he said. “I can’t do comedy at all without the support from my wife, especially with the child.”
