Comedy Central
Michelle
Author: Michelle
Posted: December 1st, 2007
Filed Under: Back Issues , December 2007
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By Michelle Woo

 

Three men sit on stage, legs crossed, wearing nothing but their skivvies. They’re about to explain the wonders of the Asian male body with, well, more show than tell.

To a cringing, squirming audience, the shameless trio flexes and stretches, poses and pivots.

“See? No body hair,” one says, drawing attention to his bare chest. “Also, Asians have no armpit odor.” 

And then, gently tugging at their spandex briefs, they decide to do it. Once and for all, they take one for Asian men everywhere and dispel the myth. (Don’t worry, the sight is PG-rated.) The crowd gasps — and then bursts into hysterics.

The scene is part of “Louder! Faster! Funnier!,” a live show performed by San Francisco’s sketch comedy troupe 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors. In a fast-paced production, the group of shamelessly silly men (and one woman) takes humorous swipes at everything from cultural issues to politics to pop culture.

Today, Asian American comedy groups are multiplying rapidly. From L.A. to New York, these low-budget companies explore themes of race and identity through the universal language of laughter. For those who’ve been in the game for a while, the goal is to evolve with the times. 

“In Asian American comedy, you get a lot of repeat jokes: fortune cookies, happy ending massages, stinky foods, F.O.B. accents, crazy Asian grandmas,” says Maggie Lee, a writer, actor and producer for Seattle’s long-running Pork Filled Players. “We’re forced to think of new topics in order to keep ourselves fresh.”

These niche performance groups can also be a breeding ground for up-and-coming actors hoping to propel into the mainstream. C.S. Lee of Showtime’s “Dexter” and NBC’s “Chuck” was a founding member of New York’s Asian American comedy group Mellow Yellow. “Heroes” cast member James Kyson Lee honed his acting skills as part of L.A. improvisation troupe Room to Improv.   

Eddie Kim, co-director of Projekt NewSpeak’s Sketch Comedy Show in Los Angeles, says his organization aims to create opportunities for Asian American actors, who often struggle to make it in Hollywood. Along the way, comedy allows them to speak the truth about important issues without having to speak in code.

“We just want people to laugh and be like, ‘I understand,’” Kim says.

 

Here are eight Asian American comedy groups (all with a healthy dose of KAs) coming to a stage near you:

 

Cold Tofu Improv

 

Founded: 1981

Location: Los Angeles

Founding members: Marilyn Tokuda, Denice Kumagai, Judy Momii and Irma Escamilla

Artistic director: Helen Ota

 

n Description: In 1981, before the world had heard of Margaret Cho, Bobby Lee and Russell Peters, four women sought to enter unexplored territory: Asian American comedy. They wanted to explore universal themes that people of all backgrounds could relate to. Thus, as a groundbreaking grassroots project, Cold Tofu was born. Today, the long-running improv company has become an active resource in the community with its core members entertaining crowds across Southern California and hosting improvisation workshops for actors of all levels. At live shows, performers transform into soap opera stars, karaoke singers and even characters in a pop-up storybook.

n Laugh-out-loud line: Sung to the tune of Kansas’ “Dust in the Wind”: “Must hang on, my love will last forever for that Vietnamese guy … Dustin Nguyen, all we want is Dustin Nguyen.”

n Upcoming performance: The final Cold Tofu Improv show of the year will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 13 at Maryknoll Japanese Catholic Center, 222 S. Hewitt Street, Los Angeles. Admission is $5.

 

Loose Screws

 

Founded: 1993

Location: Honolulu

Founding member and director: R. Kevin Doyle

 

n Description: The members of Loose Screws won’t do song parodies, scoff at overtly sexual jokes and don’t like to rhyme. Such traditional improv shortcuts are limiting, director R. Kevin Doyle explains, and the mission is to stretch themselves as far as they can go.   

“We’re dedicated to developing and performing new and innovative forms of improvisational theatre, not strictly comedy — though we love comedy,” Doyle says. 

As Hawaii’s premier improv troupe, the Screws have acted out everything from short scenes to entire plays, all created on the spot. Their most innovative and elaborate show to date is “Screwbuki,” an improvised one-act play with costumes, make-up and often-hilarious attempts at accurate Kabuki technique.

n Laugh-out-loud line: “Daikon!” — what the audience should yell out if a performer makes a bad joke or does something stupid. (Daikon is Japanese for radish.)

n Upcoming performance: Loose Screws performs the first Friday of every month in Honolulu. For an invitation, contact R. Kevin Doyle at (808) 523-1004 or rkevin@loosescrews.org.

 

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The 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors

 

Founded: 1994

Location: San Francisco

Founding members: Michael Chih, Ming Hornbuckle and Harold Byun

 

n Description: Self-described as the “World’s Most Psychotic Asian American Sketch Comedy Group,” the Warriors tackle stereotypes in the most outrageous of ways. Nothing’s off-limits for this high-energy group, whose latest show, “Louder! Faster! Funnier!” took shots at everything from China’s toy recall and prostitution in Thailand to Clint Eastwood’s “Letters from Iwo Jima” and Oprah’s Book Club bestseller The Secret. Always striving to stretch boundaries, the troupe was named the 2006 International Sketch Comedy Champions and were showcased in an Emmy-nominated PBS documentary titled “Mighty Warriors of Comedy.” Beware: The zany men of 18MMW seem to enjoy performing in the near-buff. You have been warned.

n Laugh-out-loud line: “Aiiiiiiiie! You will learn to debone chicken with an economy of moves,” declares a pseudo Bruce Lee as the host of his own cooking show.

n Upcoming performance: TBA

 

Stir-Friday Night!

 

Founded: 1995

Location: Chicago

Founding members: Quincy Wong and Keith Uchima

 

n Description: Blending sketch comedy, improv and audience interaction, Stir-Friday Night! has become a fixture in Chicago’s illustrious comedy scene. The troupe attempts to dispel Asian stereotypes by blasting them into the open, kicking around age-old issues such as the need for perfectionism and being forced to play an instrument. In a sultry song and dance number titled “Yellow Fever,” the ladies extol the virtues of their “Asianness,” mocking the creepy fascination over Asian females. The Chicago Tribune has called SFN’s sketches “quick and hilarious.” Fans call them a force for change. 

n Laugh-out-loud line: “Donuts don’t kill people. People kill people,” says an enraged employee in a sketch titled “Slow Motion Donut.” An all-out, slow-motion office battle ensues for a piece of the last donut.

n Upcoming performance: The latest sketch show, “Buddha Call,” begins at 7:30 p.m. every Saturday night from Dec. 22 to Jan. 26 at Donny’s Skybox Studio Theatre, 1608 N. Wells Street, Chicago.

 

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OPM (Opening People’s Minds)

 

Founded: 1996

Location: Originally in Seattle; now in Hollywood 

Founding members: Leroy Chin, David Kobayashi and Roger Tang

Producers: Ewan Chung and Charles Kim

 

n Description: When OPM guarantees a “happy ending” to its show, you can bet there’ll be some material you wouldn’t want Umma to see. The witty, multi-ethnic group just wrapped up its latest sketch production, “Exotic Messages,” featuring a soap-opera-style scene where a Korean mother desperately tries to convince her daughter not to marry a Filipino man, a showcase of the hottest F.O.B. fashion trends and a peek at what happens when black women and Korean men date. Last year, performers Charles Kim and Ewan Chung starred as “MC B-Hung” and “Yang” in the hilarious hip-hop ode “K-Town Hottie.” Fans of the award-winning troupe, cheekily referred to as OPM addicts, roar in their seats at the endless pop culture references, politically incorrect jabs and raunchy, not-for-the-kiddies content.

n Laugh-out-loud line: Racist Korean mother: “Your children will be so confused. They’ll go, ‘Am I Korean or am I Mexican? Do I own the building or do I clean the building?’”

n Upcoming performance: TBA

 

Pork Filled Players

 

Founded: 1997

Location: Seattle

Founding members: Wally Glenn, David Kobayashi, Roger Tang and Ellen Williams

 

n Description: As Seattle’s oldest sketch comedy group and the region’s longest running Asian American theater group, the Pork Filled Players say their intent is to first make audiences laugh — and then make them think.

“We take a madcap look at the world and what it means to live in it,” explains managing producer Roger Tang.

One sketch takes a backwards look at diversity training as an Asian American woman is called out by her white boss for not eating sushi, wearing anime T-shirts and liking Asian men. Another explores prejudice between Asian ethnicities.

Having just closed their 10th anniversary show, “Lard & Order: Porkfilled Intent,” the Players have become known for bringing smart cultural and political satire to the stage in a non-attacking, tongue-in-cheeky way.

“It’s important to laugh about racial topics because it is such a great way to open things up for discussion,” says Maggie Lee, who writes many of the sketches. “It’s much better than a lecture!”

n Laugh-out-loud line: Adopted son: “Mom, Dad. I’m … I’m … I’m coming out. I’m … I’m … Asian.” White dad: “Don’t be ridiculous. We taught you better than that.” White mom: “We should have never bought you that Nintendo!”  

n Upcoming performance: The Players are planning a straight theatrical show for 2008.

 

Propergander

 

Founded: 2000

Location: Los Angeles

Directors David J. Lee, Michael Golamco, Naoya Imanishi and Randall Park

 

n Description: If there’s one thing Propergander has learned, it’s that comedy shouldn’t be taken too seriously. “We’ve been known for producing what essentially amounts to the best damn fourth-grade class plays you’ll ever see in your life,” says David J. Lee, a founding member of the L.A. based company. With scenes that are racy, riotous and sometimes downright ridiculous, Propergander aims to bring excitement to those who don’t normally go to see theater. In a scene titled “Fertilizing Eggy,” one actor plays the “egg” and the 13 others play sperm. Running and screaming ensue. In another scene called “The Nyuck Study,” the largest cast member struts out in drag. “There’s always a message, and there’s always heart.” Lee says of the performances. “And sometimes there’s a guy in an embarrassingly awesome ostrich suit.”

n Laugh-out-loud line: “You’re not a samurai. You’re a ho samurai,” says a betrayed warrior in Propergander’s full-length epic comedy “The Eight Samurai.”

n Upcoming performance: A production of one-acts will debut in 2008.

 

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The Sketch Comedy Show by Projekt NewSpeak

 

Founded: 2007

Location: Los Angeles

Co-directors: Brian Corpuz and Eddie Kim

 

n Description: After struggling to find opportunities for Asian American actors in Hollywood, Eddie Kim decided to create some. Enter The Sketch Comedy Show, a December production that featured both live sketches and short video vignettes by 12 up-and-coming performers. “It’s SNL meets The Chapelle Show,” says Kim, whose group brought attention to the show through promotional skits on the project’s YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/newspeaktv. Topics ranged from testicular balding and girls using urinals to extended goodbyes and crude interpreters. Kim hopes the project will ultimately evolve into a TV show.

An offshoot of community production company Projekt Newspeak, The Sketch Comedy Show aims to gain a loyal following through word-of-mouth and Internet marketing. Soon, Hollywood will have no choice but to take notice.

n Laugh-out-loud line: While playing “Name That Asian: Korean Edition” at the Koreatown festival, the host holds up a photograph of a shirtless Daniel Dae Kim.

Real-life contestant No. 1: “Is that Sung Kang?” 

Real-life contestant No. 2: “That is, oh my gosh, he’s on ‘Lost.’ Um, something Kim.”

Host: “Something Kim? That’s just about every Korean on this planet.”  

n Upcoming performance: TBA