At the afterparty - OPM with Vancouver's Charlie Cho (Hot Sauce Posse) back row: Charles
Kim, Charlie Cho; front row: Janina Gavankar, Ewan Chung, Vancouver's
Philip Gurney, and Jae-Suh - photo Todd Wong
The 7th Annual Asian Comedy night opened on May 26th at the Round House Community Centre, produced and presented by Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre. Flipping racial stereotypes is the norm, and white actors are the exotic rarities. The mostly Asian crowd laughed, tittered and guffawed. Even the white folks laughed and had lots of fun identifying with the humour.
“Vancouver has a lot of inter-racial relationships…” starts Vancouver stand up comic Jeffery Yu, a former social studies high school teacher. “Everybody thinks that mixed race people are so exotic-looking,” he says and goes into a joke about how Asian/White couples always seem to be Asian female / White male. Yu has lots of jokes, and the audience gets lots of laughs. Yu will be featured in a CTV comedy special later this year, and was written up in the Georgia Straight last year.
“You’re just not french enough!” say three Asian casting directors who are auditioning a white actor in a racial role reversal. “This is the first time in a long while that we are casting an all-white cast in a move. Try a little more Catherine Deneuve, a little more French Maid.”
The female actor is clearly exasperated, trying to please them, but clearly failing in her attempts to portray what they “think” is French. Finally she says, “I really don’t want this part that badly,” like so many Asian actors who get frustrated trying to portray what white casting directors and producers “think” is Asian, or Chinese, or Japanese, etc.
“Maybe we can get Keanu, or Meg Tilly,” the directors decide. They’re half-white already, nobody will know the difference.
OPM (Opening People’s Minds) is a sketch comedy troupe now based in Los Angeles, after first originating in Seattle. Charles Kim and Ewan Chung are the leaders with Jae-Suh and new kid Janina Gavankar. They also individually make the tv acting round in L.A. individually racking up credits in ER, Strong Medicine, Girlfriends and Las Vegas. This is one talented troupe!
The skits are fast and furious. Kim plays a Japanese rapper named “50 Yen,” or was that Chung who did it? Sometimes Asians look alike to me. But there is no mistaking their abilities to quickly change characters from one skit to the next. Omigod, it’s like an Asian version of Saturday Night Live with an all-Asian cast, presenting stories with Asian themes, as well as a wonderful skit about a male car mechanic and a female car owner who (gasp!) took her car to a different mechanic for a hose job, when he was too busy. The double entendres and the acting were spot on!
Some of the better characters involved an Iron Chef spoof featuring the North Korean leader dictator Kim Jong-Il with a "Capote" accent, and Savuri from “Memoirs of a Geisha,” the night’s performance who tries her best to become an "exotic dancer."
For the Vancouver show, they are joined by Hot Sauce Posse member Philip Gurney, their token white actor. Gurney was only able to rehearse for about 40 minutes with OPM, but seemed to fit beautifully. Saturday's show promises to be an even tighter smoother production.
Jeffery Yu, Tom Chin and Kermet Apio - at the afterparty! - photo Todd Wong
Kermet Apio grew up in Hawaii, a land and culture that I consider to be much more interculturally and accepting of inter-racial relationships. He now does stand up comedy in Seattle and tours nationally. “You learn to laugh at yourself when your name is Kermet,” he says. Apio spins jokes and stories about growing up named Kermet as well as growing up Hawaiian.
“How was school today?” my parents would ask when I would come home.
“How do you think it went. I’m named Kermit,” he replies.
“I was first born,” starts Apio, “I was the guinea pig. My parents learned with me as practice. My sisters got normal names.”
It’s a friendly “in the know” crowd at the Roundhouse. They know what it’s like to grow up Asian. But the comedy is universal. It’s the situations that we laugh at. The stereotypes, the mistaken identities, the misunderstandings. But Asian Comedy Night goes beyond the obvious. This is also a night of social commentary. Yes there is racial discrimination, but we don’t have to get down about it. If we can laugh at the world and ourselves, we’ll do okay.
Thanks to Vancouver Asian Comedy Night, the world is safer for Asians and their friends, and hopefully the world will understand better why Asians are such bad drivers, don’t understand the concept of tipping, think White people all look alike, and why we speak with funny accents.
Check out the Comedy workshops at the Roundhouse on Saturday afternoon, as well as the final show on Saturday night. It's well worth it. Take your white friends... or your Asian friends... even if just to have an excuse to make fun of each other later.
