Club Shay Shay - Club Shay Shay - Jimmy O. Yang Part 1

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

Download the PrizePicks app today and use code SHANNON to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup! https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/SHANNON  Explore viral bestsellers and products of healthier hair of ALL types from Bask and Lather. Go to baskandlatherco.com and use code SHAYSHAY for 20% off Jimmy O. Yang sits down for a hilarious and insightful conversation that traces his journey from Hong Kong to Hollywood success. He opens with his unfiltered take on travel, food, and why Hong Kong deserves more global attention, highlighting its world-class cuisine, fusion culture, and international appeal. Jimmy reflects on his breakout role in Crazy Rich Asians, sharing how persistence, a single audition, and support from his team helped him land the scene-stealing role of Bernard Tai. He reveals behind-the-scenes moments, from improvising key scenes to influencing wardrobe choices that made his character unforgettable. He also recalls working alongside cast members like Awkwafina, Gemma Chan, Henry Golding, Constance Wu, Nico Santos, Ronny Chieng, and Chris Pang, describing the experience as creatively and culturally transformative. The conversation dives into his comedy roots, including how improvisation—something even legends like Robert De Niro embrace—shaped his acting style. Jimmy explains that playing over-the-top characters comes from letting go of control and trusting the moment. He shares personal stories about growing up in Hong Kong, cultural traditions like red envelopes during Chinese New Year, and how early exposure to money management shaped his financial mindset. Jimmy contrasts Eastern and Western attitudes toward money, success, and lifestyle with humor and honesty. From there, he opens up about his early struggles in America—learning English by watching BET’s Comic View and Rap City, navigating cultural differences, and finding his place in a diverse environment. He reflects on identity, assimilation, and the challenges of being seen as “foreign,” even within his own community. Jimmy also recounts his unconventional path to comedy, including working as a strip club DJ, selling used cars, and grinding through open mics in Los Angeles before landing roles on Silicon Valley. Along the way, he draws inspiration from comedians like Dave Chappelle and George Lopez, while also acknowledging Asian pioneers such as Bobby Lee, Ken Jeong, Margaret Cho, and Yao Ming, who helped pave the way. The episode also explores representation in media, stereotypes, and authenticity, referencing conversations around actors like Peter Dinklage. Jimmy explains why he embraces his background—including accents—while pushing for more nuanced portrayals of Asian characters in Hollywood. Throughout the conversation, Jimmy blends sharp humor with real-life experiences, offering a candid look at the grind behind success, the immigrant experience, and the evolving landscape of comedy and entertainment.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ready for a different take on Formula One? Look no further than No Grip, a new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the under-explored pockets of F1, including the story of the woman who last participated in a Formula One race weekend, the recent uptick in F1 romance novels, and plenty of mishap scandals and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years.

Listen to No Grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. March Madness is here, and if you're trying to keep up with everything happening on and off the court, we've got you covered on the podcast, Flagrant and Funny. Do you want to start with the first special for the Big Ten coach of the year? Oh, whatever. Would you like to? So you're a Spartan, is that what I'm getting?

On Flagrant and Funny, we're giving our unfiltered takes on the biggest moments of the conversations everyone's having. So whether your bracket is busted or you just want the latest on the tournament, we got you. Listen to Flacrid and Funny with Kerry Champion and Jamel Hill on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. I'm Daniel Alarcon, and this is my friend. This is much more famous than I am. I wouldn't go that far, but I'm John Green, co-host of the podcast The Away End, with my old friend Daniel.

On our podcast, The Away End, we'll share with you the magic of international football, all leading up to the 2026 World Cup. Together, we'll find out why, of all the unimportant things, football, soccer, is the most important. Listen to The Away End with Daniel Alarcon and John Green. on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Miles Turner. And I'm Brianna Stewart. And our podcast,

Game Recognized Game, has never been done before. Two active players giving you a real look at our lives and what we actually think, on and off the court. Nothing's off limits. We talk tanking. I might get in trouble for this answer, but I think it's, like,

definitely happening in the WBA. We talk about our mistakes, too. They pulled me to their side and was like, hey, man, We got a call last night, man. You can't be rolling around the city like this tonight before games. Check out Game Recognized game with Stoian Miles on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Daniel Jeremiah.

And I am Greg Rosenthal. I know that, Greg. We're teaming up on 40s and free agents, the podcast that owns the NFL off season. This is where teams are built. Free agency, combine, pro days, trades. Every move matters. From my draft boards and mock drafts to my vaunted top. Top 101 free agents and how rosters come together.

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French food sucks. When's the last time you crave French food? What about free fries? French fries is American. We claim that shit already. Go to Hong Kong. Everybody speak English there. And it's a beautiful city.

Some of the best food you ever have. in the world. Fusion food, Western food and Chinese food. Right. And the pasta in Hong Kong is amazing. Pasta! I bet you you find a bowl of pasta there that's better than a pasta here. All my life, they're grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle paid the price, want a slice, got the roll of dice, that's why all my life I've been grinding on my life, yeah, all my life, then grinding all my life price, want a slice, got the rolling...

Hello, welcome to another episode of Club Shethe. I am your host, Shannon Sharp, also the proprietor of Club. I love Shay-Shay, stopping by for conversation on the drink today is a global and Hollywood star. He's one of the biggest international stand-up comedians today. He's a scene-stealing actor. Who can forget his incredible performance in Crazy Rich Asians? It's celebrated and sought after speaker, writer, author, producer, performer, and an entertainer. Please welcome to Club Shethe, Jimmy O. Yang.

Thank you. Thank you, Shannon. Appreciate that, man. Thanks for stopping by. How you doing? I love the show, and this is the best intro. People should just come on the show for the intro. Has anyone done an intro for you?

No, they haven't. Can I? May I? Sure, go ahead. May I? Okay. How do you start? How do you start? This club, this is...

Welcome to another episode of Club Shaysh. I am your host, Jimmy O. Ye. Yeah. Can I just have that? Welcome to another episode of Club Shay. Shea. This is the proprietor of also Shay... Shea Cognac?

Yes. Yeah, yeah, sponsored by Shay Cognac. Sitting across from me, he's not just a football player. One of the best. podcasters in the world, the black Joe Rogan. He got more muscles than Arsenio Hall funnier than Jay Leno, David Letterman, all combined. Just one episode with Kat Williams made him more money than you guys would ever see in your lifetime.

His sex tape don't even need no video. It just sound and it goes viral. Weighing in at 228 pounds, 6-2, three-time Super Bowl champion, four-time all-pro, eight-time pro bowler, 14 years NFL season veteran. Hall of Fame, and let's give it up for Shannon Sharp. Thank you, man. Man, that's unbelievable. I like that.

Okay, good, good, good. I feel like you deserve that, you know? You've done it for so many people. Yes. So, no, no, before we go. You can't drink it. No, yeah, before we go, we're going to toast. But you say there's something that you do in your culture.

Yeah. For a salute or toast, so how do it? What we do? Yeah, so when someone pours you tea or a drink, you do this, you tap the table a little bit. So the story comes from, it's a sign of respect saying thank you. But the story comes from, like the king, back. back in the day, right? During the dynasty days.

Right. He went out in public. Right. And then he started pouring his servant tea, but they don't want to blow his cover. Right. Because usually you bow your head. So you do this instead. This is bowing your head.

Okay. Yeah. Well, that's nice. You know, the fastest demographic for cognac drink is Asian. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Hennessee and stuff. Yeah. They give me a bottle of Hennessy every year.

We better than that, though. I like it a lot. Yeah. So, you know, let's get right into it. You've done a lot of projects, but kind of the movie project that kind of catapult you, launched you was crazy with Rich Asian. How did you get the part and what did it do to jumpstart your career? Man, that was a very special movie.

I can't believe those eight years ago. I didn't read the book at first, but my publicist, Sam, who's here, she read the book and she was like, they're making a movie, you got to be in it. And then I remember her and my manager kept calling John Chudor director like every day, Like, hounding him, you know, like, what's up? What's up? And then I was like, hey, I know I'm usually, like, not a super handsome, six-feet-all, chisel, leading man. Right.

So, but this is a movie, like, for Asians, by Asians. Correct. Let me just audition for the leading man part. Right. And then my manager was like, hey, I got to be honest. So do you look for, like, a good-looking dude for that? Yeah. So I'm like, man, what are you trying to say, man?

So he was really, she was that honest? Yeah, yeah. He was like, yeah, they're looking for, like, a chowian fat type. like leading man type dude, like, you know, but we got a side character for you. Yeah. We got a funny, funny side character. And I actually auditioned to be the groom at first. Really?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is a great part played by my buddy Chris Pang. But I ended up with the burn a tie part, which is funnier, I think, and a little crazier. Right. And I get to bring a lot of, you know, I think when I went into costume fitting, I get to kind of pick my own clothes. And I was like, why don't we just kind of leave my chest open like that? And at the end, when they catch me making out with this girl, like, in the wedding party, I was the one that pitched them that, because they gave me some, like, gold underwear,

like boxers. I was like, nah, this guy should be wearing, like, a golden thong. Right. And then they couldn't find a golden thong overnight in Singapore. It's a pretty conservative country. Okay. Yeah, pretty. You know?

So the seamstress had to hand-make, like, literally, like, banana hammock thong for me. And I stole the thong, so I kept it. It's a 101 souvenir. Did you know that this movie, like when you're shooting, because sometimes people, you know, like, when we shoot a movie, kind of know it's going to be really, really good. And sometimes we're not really, really sure. In the process of doing this movie, did you know it was going to have the commercial appeal in the States like it had? I really didn't. I don't think any of us expected that kind of box office, that kind of importance.

But I did know that when we're shooting the movie, there was a very special feeling. because it's the first movie, first project TV, anything, that you have an all Asian cast that I've been. Because I've done Silicon Valley, I've done other TV shows, movies, and usually I'm the only Asian dude there. I'm the Asian guy. But this one, man, like I met my contemporaries, you know. I felt like I met my best friends on this set. Matter of fact, last night, I was just hang out with Alco Fina. I was hanging out with TV.

We're both in the movie. We're still best friends. But when we're in that hotel lobby, when we're shooting that movie in Singapore, I just had a very special feeling in my heart. I was like, even if this movie doesn't work, I found my creed of people. And if the audience can feel a ounce of joy that I felt when I was filming this movie, I think we made something special. And I think they did. How many of the cast members were you familiar with, do you have prior relationship with, or was this your first time meeting these guys once you? you got to set?

One. I knew Nico Santos. Okay. And Ronnie Chang, but I never met him before because they're from stand-up. Okay. But then I met Gemma Chan. I met Henry Golding, Constance Wu, like all these people from America, from Australia, from wherever, right?

Like, it just felt like the Asian Avengers. Right. Gather it together. And we're still best friends, man. Wow. Yeah. How many times did you audition? Because you said, like, you know what?

Okay. It's an Asian movie about Asians. Yeah. from Asians that are director and doing everything. How many times you're like, I need to be, I need your manager say, you really need to be in this movie. And you're like, I'm auditioning for the leading role, but you got the role that best suited you.

Like, how many times did you audition? I just auditioned once. Just once? Yeah, and then I met with John on Zoom. Okay. And then he was a fan of mine on Silicon Valley, and I'm a fan of his. And we just kind of talked it out, and he was like,

I got this character for you. Would you do it, you know? And that was that, yeah. But it's one of those movies. Sometimes you're going to an audition. Like, you're like, man, this is, they need a funny Asian dude that plays ping pong. That was literally like a movie part I had to audition for. Well, that's a stereotype of you, bro?

Yeah, no, but I'm like, I'm a funny, I'm one of five funny Asian dudes in Hollywood, and I know actually how to play ping pong. If I don't get this part, I'm going to quit acting. You know? So with this crazy rich Asian movie, I'm like, they casting 20 Asian people if I can't even get in, As a top 20 Asian, I'm just going to kill myself. What's your favorite moment of being on set? Because now you're in a movie, an all-Asian movie, all-Asian cast, producers, everybody, directors, everything is all about your community.

And who can better tell a story about Asians than an Asian? Yeah, that's right. I mean, it was such a fun shoot, especially in my scenes. They made a parking lot look like a container ship, and they hired all the models because it was like a beauty pageant contest. Yes. All the models from all over the world on that. And I just got to improvise, you know, talk about like Miss Moldova, Miss whatever, you know. So that was a pretty fun day for the boys to hang out, you know.

When you're on set, how much do they let you add, live? Because I hear a lot of people, you know, and they said, look, there are some lines that they want you to stick strictly to that because it leads to something else. But a lot of times when they're dealing with someone like yourself or like a cat and I've had people, you know, Mike Yelps and Marlon Williams, it's like, okay, you get an opportunity to freelance a little bit. Let's not go overboard. But how much of that did they let you be you? On that movie, John, let me be me. I mean, you know, you always want to hit the line that's on the script once. Yes.

And even if you improv, you got to stay within the script. Correct. If the next scene is you go into the library, you can't just be like, hey, tomorrow, let's go to the coffee shop. Like, that's not going to work. And people do that sometimes. But I think with my training, with my background, when people hire me, they know, like, I'm going to bring that, you know, as well. Because I started on Silicon Valley. There's a lot of improvisation.

It's some of the best improvisers in the world. And now, whenever I take a project, even if it's like a drama, you know, I have a talk with director. I'm like, is it cool if I bring a little, like, we'll try the script a couple times, but then I want to bring something to. Right. And a lot of times improvisation, it's not just saying a funny line. It's not just like, you know, changing the script.

Sometimes it's a reaction sometimes. Like I've done this thing on Silicon Valley where I walked off camera. and then I ran back in and said something, you know, it's just, it could be anything, you know. And I think it's part of acting. Like, Robert De Niro, like, improvises. And it's not necessarily for the joke, but sometimes it's just within the moment what feels right. Shoot your shot on prize picks and get $50 instantly in lineups when you play your first $5. That's right.

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To keep the flow going. Yeah. Let me stay here. That was my, my move, my barometer of something, if something is funny, if I can make the crew laugh. Okay. If I can make people behind the camera laugh, that's how I know it was good, you know. And I learned that when I was doing Silicon Valley, and sometimes you can just hear, like, like, they're not supposed to laugh, but you're like, I just hit it. good one. That's a good one. Because I think as a stand-up, you need the audience feedback.

Right. Which is why stand-up is so great. You get immediate feedback. And if a joke sucks, come back tomorrow and be better, you know, and make the audience laugh. So if you can make a crew laugh or in a sitcom where there is an audience, those are pretty good, you know. You play a crazy billionaire in crazy rich Asian. Sure. What do you, I mean, how did you like, because you're funny guys like, you know what, if I had a billion dollars, this is how I would act. This is how I behave. So when you're playing that character, you're like, what, what inspiration did you draw upon? Weirdly, that was the easiest character. Why was this so easy? Because he is just living in the id, there is no, like, there's no self-control. If me and you don't have any self-control,

we say whatever we want, we do whatever we want, when we just let that run wild, how would this person act? Right. So it's, you just let yourself free, and it's super fun. Yeah. If you actually had a billion dollars, what was the first thing you would do? Buy an underground bunker? Oh, there you go. Man, I don't know. I don't wish to have a billion dollars.

Really? I think that's a hassle. Yeah. I think a hundred mill is good. 100 mil. 100 mil, maybe a, you know, maybe a private jet or just a jet card. I don't need a private jet. Right.

You know. Just access to one. You don't need to own it, maintain it. You just want access a couple, you know, me have me two, three hundred hours a year on one. That's it. That's it. Because a billionaire, there's too much security. Now you worry about your kids getting kidnapped. You don't know people's intentions. And people hate billionaires. Let me just have like 900 mil and then I'm okay.

Moving on, your mom, your mom on saving, your mom like to say, guess how much? Yeah, that's a name of my second special. Yeah, inspired by her. So she tries to guess the price in which something costs, or she's saying, how much you think this cost? Yeah, but she wanted to guess really high. She feels good about getting a good deal. Oh. You know, like those glasses, like she'll bring home some glasses. Like, Jimmy, guess how much?

And then I know they, like, she probably got it for like 80 bucks, right? Because she's all about the deals. That's why she's asking me. Right. But I got a guess really high. Make her feel good if you got a great deal. Yeah, I'm like, oh, $5.50. And then she's like, $80.

Yeah, isn't your mom super smart? Yeah. Your mom get offended when you gas too low? Yeah, yeah, she does. She does. And she's like, you don't even know. You don't even know. You don't know designer glasses.

You don't know designer shoes, you know? Like, you don't know the price of these things. Yeah. Your mom, if this is what's been, and we done this in the information, is your mom is like my mom and grandma. They don't want gifts. They want cash. I remember calling my grandmother, and I asked what she wanted for Christmas.

And so I'm naming our thing. She said cash. She says, it's the right color and it always fit. So from that point on, she got cash for Mother's Day, birthday, Christmas, all that. So your mom won't cash. She don't want you to buy gifts. Yeah, and I think that's within Chinese culture. Every Chinese New Year, you get a red envelope, you know, the kids usually.

So it's totally okay to give cash. Really? Yeah, they won't. Like, in China, they won't. don't take tips a lot of times because they're like, no, no, we're not a tipping culture. But during Chinese New Year, you have, like, red envelopes ready. You've got kind of color code them, the one with, like, the rabbit on it, the one with this word on, it got 20 bucks for your securities, you know?

This one got $100 for, like, your nephews and nieces and stuff like that. And that's how we build up our first savings account. I think that's why Asian people are so good with money. Really? Yeah. Because, you know, a lot of times it's like, well, money is so insensitive. It's not thoughtful. It don't take any thought to give somebody money.

We want you to take time and go pick out a purse or pick out this, X, Y, and Z. But in your culture, it's like cash is okay. Yeah, we don't want thought. We just want money. I mean, come on. Who cares about thought? There's no money in that. So were you like this as a kid?

Did your parents give you money instead of buying you gifts when you were a kid? I mean, for my birthday, they'll buy me gifts and stuff like that. But yeah, for Chinese New Year, you go around people's houses, friends, family, friends, uncles, aunties for like seven and eight days. because you get two weeks off. Really? Of school. Yeah. It's the best.

I grew up in Hong Kong. So we got the Western holidays at Christmas and we got the Chinese holidays. Oh, wow. It's amazing. Yeah, and then you just go collect your money and then you go back to school and you compare with your friends.

How much do you get? Oh, I saved up like three grand. And that's your first savings account. Wow. So the Chinese New Year, you get two weeks off for school. Yeah. Do people actually go to work? So is it like a national holiday?

It's the biggest holiday. It's like Thanksgiving Christmas. You know, people travel. back home or they go travel. I actually just went to Macau and did the Chinese New Year's show over there. Yeah, it's just big vacation. People don't even care about New Year and New Year. It's your favorite okay. Let me tell you something. Don't be that guy that used the same shampoo for your head and your beard. You're not going to see the results you want and you're not saving time. Truth is that one size fit all advice, it ain't for everybody. And it's time to

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suddenly popping up every year? He still smelled of podium champagne and expensive friction. And how do you? did, a 2023 event called Wag Ageddon, change the paddock forever. That day is just seared into my memory. I'm culture writer and F1 expert Lily Herman, and these are just a few of the questions I'm tackling on no grip, a Formula One culture podcast that dives into the under-explored

pockets of the sport. In each episode, a different guest and I will go deeper into the wacky mishaps, scandals, and sagas, both on the track and far away from it that have made F1 a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to no grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Marsh Madness is here, and if you're trying to keep up with everything happening on and off the court, we've got you covered on the podcast, flagrant and funny. You look at the top four number one seeds.

What do you think UCLA is going to do? Break down that for me, my friend. I do think UCLA has a really good chance of getting back to the final four. Obviously, Yukon is the overwhelming favorite. in this tournament, but I'll be honest, I think people are kind of sleeping on Texas. Experts are suggesting that UCLA is the number one challenger to Yukon and that right after that would be Texas. SEC is so deep and so thinking just about everything. It really is annoying.

So it's UCLA, Texas, South Carolina, LSU. Only ones that could possibly upset Yukon. On Flagrant and Funny, we're giving our unfiltered takes on the biggest moments of the conversations everyone's having. so whether your bracket is busted or you just want the latest on the tournament. We got you. Listen to Flakrant and Funny with Kerry Champion and Jamel Hill on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. I'm John Green. You may know me as the author of The Fault and Our Stars, and now I guess also as the co-host of the Away End, a brand new world soccer podcast. I'm Danielle Alarcon, a writer and journalist, and John and I have known each other since we were kids. My first World Cup was Mexico 86.

I was nine years old. I watched every game and I fell in love. On our new podcast, The Away End, we'll share with you the magic of international football, all leading up to the 2026 World Cup. For us, soccer, football, is a story we've shared for over 30 years since Daniel was the star player on our high school soccer team. Very debatable. And I was their most loyal and sometimes only fan.

I love this game. I love its history, it's hope, it's hard. heartbreak, and above all, it's beauty. Together, we'll find out why, of all the unimportant things, football, soccer, is the most important. Listen to the away end with Daniel Auer Kohn and John Green on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up? I'm Miles Turner. And I'm Brianna Stewart. And our podcast, Game Recognized Game has never been done before.

Two active players giving you a real look at our lives and what we actually think, on and off the port. Nothing's off-liven. We talk trade requests. What's the vibe of that when it's like your star player is like, well, I want to leave. And then actually now I'm going to stick. We talk tanking. I mean, honestly, like, I might get in trouble for this answer, but I think it's like definitely happening in the WBA. And yeah, we talk about our mistakes too.

They pulled me to the side and was like, hey, man, we got a call last night, man. You can't be rolling around the city like this tonight before games, no, you know, doing this, doing whatever. And of course, family stories. And we're like, mommy, why did you miss that? Mommy, do you play basketball? Check out Game Recognized game with Stoian Miles on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The whole lineup, shampoo, conditional bomb, oil stimulator, everything you need to keep it clean, healthy, and right. And once you see the before and after photos, you'll be thanking me in no time.

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You think so? I think I'm too good one, right? Really? I think now, let's say, I sound like an asshole saying this. Now I'm trying better to, like I'm trying to spend more money. Damn. I'm living way too below my means, you know. That's not a bad thing, considering the circumstances of what's going on right now.

You might want to stay that way for about another year or so. Yeah, that's true, because also actors, comedians, you don't know, like, especially in the acting world, comedy and kind of control your own. Right, because you can do stuff, you can go do gigs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Build a new hour, sell a special. But in acting, you just never know. You got to be very financial discipline. You don't know when the next paycheck comes.

But I think now I'm okay. I'm trying to spend more money. And this joke never worked. I shouldn't even tell you this. Like, I tried to do this joke where I'm like, you know, all my athlete friends, whatever, they're like, man, once I made it, you know, everybody's ringing up my phone to, like, borrow money. and I'm offended because nobody asked me to borrow one.

And I wish people would just ask me to borrow money. Like, do you think I'm broke or something? But then it's not a relatable joke. I sounded like an asshole. And now I bet you a bunch of people is going to hit me up for money now. Because you do realize, like, there's this, I don't know, I don't want to be stereotypical, but they think you Asians are good with money. They have money.

A very financial responsible. Yeah. And so nobody like, man, you're on TV. You got comedy special. You've been in movies. Let your boy hold something. Jimmy? You know, I think it's because a lot of my friends are also Asian. So they're doing okay.

They're doing okay too, huh? Yeah. Man, this is going to sound terrible. Cut it out if you guys don't like it. The only two people to ask me for money were my black friends. Is that terrible? Should I leave? Is that terrible? Is that? Well, one of my best friends is your best friend, Rod Smith. Rod asked you for money? No, no, no, no, no. But Rod, he's my opener's cousin. And I see him in Denver every time I tour, awesome guy.

But he gave me the advice. He was like, don't let nobody borrow money. No. And then I was like, well, nobody's asked me to borrow money. Would you just give, I mean, at a certain point, you don't ask because you know that you're not going to get it back. You only give what you can afford to stand to lose. So if somebody asked you for $1,000, can you afford to not get that money back? Because you're not getting it back.

Yeah, exactly. I don't expect it back. Okay. But then sometimes friends hit me back like, like I got this friend, so my old roommate, he used to ask me for some money. Or like, you know, to front the rent a little bit, which is weird. Like, because I think Asian people are good with money because you can be a janitor. You can like not really have a job, but you got $20,000 in savings. Yeah.

You know, Americans just not very good at savings. Like my buddy, he was on a TV show. He was making like $50,000 like a season, you know, which is not a lot of money. But like to me back in the day when I was, like, I was broke. Yeah. It was like, oh, I can, that will last a lifetime in rent. My rent was only $500.

But then two months later, he wouldn't have no money. And then he would ask me for money. You know, it was very... He might be westernized. Yeah. Because, you know, we get, the Western culture, we get a little money. We go, like, man, I always wanted this bag. I always wanted this shoes.

I always wanted this car. True. And the next day, you know, I ain't got no money. Zero savings. Yeah, it's very scary, man. Yeah, I don't know. But you know what I'm saying? You're not promised tomorrow. So die tomorrow and get out a pocket full of money.

What good in that? Well, see, I got to live a little bit more like this. You know, like, I agree. That's what I'm saying. I don't know how to spend money. I got to live like today's my last day. What's the, like, when you started making it, what's the most expensive thing that you buy? Did you buy something really nice?

It seems you got a nice watch on. You got an AP on. Oh, yeah. This is a special Singaporean edition that I bought in Singapore. Only 50 ever made. Maybe I do know how to spend money. Yeah. Huh. I did buy watch when I first made it. I got a Rolex Pepsi like a 1969 vintage watch.

Wow. Yeah, I like to buy watches. Okay, you're a watch guy. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Like a little story, a little character. And I still, I wore it off on my first special. I wore that for my new special. I wore that for my new special. That's coming out, too. That's one of my favorite watches. You said the Chinese tariff made Chinese product a luxury. Timo with the new Gucci. Yeah, man. People can't afford Chinese products anymore. Everything got a tariff, man. And the thing is that because it's so expensive, so inexpensive, you're like, oh, man, I'm just going to load up on this. But now when they put the tariffs on it, like, nah, bro, I got a hole up on the Chinese products. Yeah. And maybe you brag about it, you know, back in the day when you see made in China, you're like, ah, this is cheap stuff.

But now it's like made in China. Like, this guy paid double the price for this. This might be some good shit. Which is better, Elon Musk's cyber truck or a Chinese electric car. Oh, Chinese electric car. A cyber truck looks like a joke, you know. You guys haven't electric cars for a long, long time. Man, when I went to China, man, they have so many companies you never heard of.

You might have heard of like B-Y-D, but they have like so many other companies. Yeah. Like even like their Apple store, like Huawei, you know, has cars inside of it. That's like their version of the Apple store. And it's beautiful, man. And there have so many. And I don't know. I don't think we get them here in America.

But in Europe, they started to get Chinese cars now. And it's killing the European car markets. Yeah, that's not, that's not, that's not, that's not, that's not, that's not, that's not letting that help come in. Yeah, no. No. That would be a real brag if you have a Chinese car here, because they, they look awesome. I've never seen one. Because it's like, I went to Japan. I remember I went to Japan many, many years ago. And you might see one American car for like 15,000 Japanese cars. Yeah. Because they probably had to pay the American term. Yes. And it's really expensive. Well, what you like, it's nothing to see a foreign car in America. Right. But. But. But, but you like, it's, it's nothing to see a foreign car in America. Right. But. But. But. But. But. But it's a rarity to see an American car in a foreign country. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's, I think in Japan there's a word like, like they're like American files. Yeah. Like they really enjoy American stuff.

Yeah. Some of them. Yeah. You know, whether it's an American car or even, I think Trader Joe bag. Trader Joe's like tote bag. Yes, I saw that. Selling for like $1,000 somewhere in Asia. Yes, yes.

A bag that you can buy at Trader Joe's for $5 is trading for like $1,000. $1,500, $1,500. And I bet you they loved you in Japan, right? They're like, man, American guy, this is awesome. Well, back then, I don't know if it's still true. They wanted American money. Now, I don't know how you, because we went to the electronic district and they were like, you know, buying cassette and DVDs.

They had a lot of stuff that wasn't even out in America yet. And it was like, you pay American money, American money. Really? I'm like, yeah, we give you, you, you know, in their broken English, they give you a deal, they give you discount. I'm like, okay. Well, you're going to give me a discount? Yeah, I'm going to play with American money.

They probably scammed you. They probably got you good, man. They do. I don't know. Well, now you can use, obviously, you use yen over there, but the exchange rate's really good for us right now, I think. Yeah, the last time I wanted Japan, exchange rate was awesome. And then in China, everything is still quite cheap.

What's the Chinese? Yuan. R-M-B, yeah, R-M-B. Okay. In Hong Kong, you use Hong Kong dollars. Okay. But it's like 701, 8 to one exchange rate. Really?

Yeah, in mainland China, you can get a bowl of noodles for like 50 cents still. Wow. Yeah, the cost of living is still quite low. And of course, you got like big cities like Shanghai. And then, of course, Hong Kong where things are a little more expensive and very international. They have everywhere you go, it's Gucci. So Hong Kong is more westernized. You're going to see the Starbucks and you're going to see all the things that you would find in America.

you'd find a lot of that in Hong Kong. Yeah, because Hong Kong was a British colony for like 100 years. Okay. And now it's called the special administrative region. So it has its own government and stuff like that. So it's a little different. It has its own currency.

So when I grew up, I learned English. Not very well. You know, like how American kids would learn Spanish on books. But yeah, yeah, it's very international. They have all the international brands. And it's one of the most dense, I think it's like the fourth most dense city in the world.

Really? There's seven and a half million people on a small island. It's beautiful. It's like Manhattan, but even better. Like, people always say, oh, my God, New York is, like, the best city or whatever. When I went to New York, I wasn't even impressed because I grew up in Hong Kong where the tall buildings are amazing. The subways are clean, and they're just like an energy of the people everywhere on the street. There's a word for it in Cantonese called Yanhe, like literally the chi of the people.

Okay. Because you walk down in L.A., there's nobody. Like, you feel weird walking, you know? I remember when I first immigrated to this country, I was 13 years old. My grandpa was like, let me, I want to take you to my favorite American restaurant. And we walked 45 minutes down La Sienega. Nobody walks on La Siena. Yeah, we look like two homeless people walking down, like hitching a ride or something.

And then we got to this restaurant and it was an El Poir Loco. That was his favorite American restaurant. You walked 45 minutes of El Paso L'Olo. I thought it was amazing. I never had grilled chicken like that. It was great. If you said that you learn, if I'm not mistaken, you learn how to speak English by watching a BET, right? Yeah, BET, Comic View, Rap City, everything.

I've heard that because I've heard people that learn, like, I watch I Love Lucy, or I watch sitcoms, and I would just sit there and listen and mimic what they say. And because I've heard a lot of people say, if it's not your native language, English is one of the hardest language to learn. Now, Mandarin Chinese, I've heard is the hardest to learn. I would think so, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Also the intonation is very, you know, difficult. But yeah, I learned English by watching BET because when I came here, first of all, I never

heard a stand-up comedy. Okay. You know? And then when I came to America, I'm like, man, what is this comic? This is so interesting. And I get to see all these different comics. And I wasn't just learning about the language. First of all, I thought, like, whatever they were saying on BT, I couldn't understand

anything. Right. You know, so I was like, if I can understand this, I can understand America. So when you first came, you didn't speak any English? Like I said, I learned it on the books, but like if you drop a 13-year-old kid who learned Spanish in the books in Mexico, he's not going to be able to communicate with that one. So when I first came, I know like, where's the library? You know, stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But to have a conversation. Man, conversational, I just was like, people were talking way too fast. I really can't understand anything. So I was like really foreign when I first came here. And I had trouble communicating. I was in ESL classes and stuff like that. But yeah, when I was watching BT, I was like, if I can understand this, I can understand not just the language, but also American culture.

Because all the stereotypes and stuff like that, I didn't know why people like skydiving, you know. And there's comic was like, you all know, black people all got bad transmissions. I was like, I didn't know that. I was like, what? Black people have bad transmissions in their cars? I don't even know if that's a true stereotype. But I was like learning new things and learning about the culture, you know, and the people.

That's why I thought it was so interesting. It was probably my first inspiration of stand-up. But I read that when you went to school, that was really the first time that you had really saw anybody outside of the Asian community. You went to a school, they were all Asians. And so now you're with black, you're Hispanic, Latino, and different things like that.

So what type of, like, damn, you're looking around like, these people don't look like me? They don't talk like me. I mean, damn. Yeah, it was kind of innocent. because there was no race in my mind. I thought everybody was the same, you know. I saw some Mexican kids playing soccer.

I grew up playing soccer and I started hanging out with them. Right. You know, and then the only Asian kids in my school in L.A. at the time were Korean kids. Okay. And even they thought I was foreign because I don't speak Korean. They're like, oh, China boy, Chinese boy over there. You know, so I didn't really have like an Asian Chinese group to fall back on, which is good because it forced me to assimilate. Yes. So I had to hang out with everyone. And then in high school, my friends was everyone, you know, like Persian friends, black friends, Latino friends, white, Asian, like everybody. And I think that's what I love about America, you know.

Yeah. You said something very interesting. You said that being if you're Asian, and I had Gabriel Legeresee on here and Raphael Barbosa. And they said, being Hispanic and born in America, you're treated differently. by Hispanics born outside of America. I'm interested, like, are Asian, is that the same way for Asians, if you're born in America and you're treated differently from Asians that were born outside of America? Yeah, you know, this was kind of sad when I first came to the country.

I didn't, I was like what they call it fresh off the boat. Okay. Fobb, you know, Fobb. And then there's these American-born Chinese. Okay. ABC, that's what they call them. And they weren't really trying to mess with me because I made them look for.

foreign. Oh, okay. And that's the last thing Asian people want to look in this country is foreign. They really want to simulate. So yeah, they are like, no, we were born here. We're Americans. And you are not. So we ain't really even trying to mess with you like that, you know. So that kind of hurt, you know, when I first came here. Like, it's my people that didn't accept me at first. Yeah. You had a lot of jobs before you became what we see today. You were Uber driver. You were a DJ. Let's let's let's get with the DJ first. Yeah. I don't know. I, I don't know. I, I, The only Asian DJ is Steve Aoki. Yep, yep, yep. So was that your source of inspiration? No. And you were at a strip club.

I was a strip club DJ. It's a little different than Steve A. Coming to stage one, we got beautiful Amber on stage two. That's right. Yeah. We got Danielle. It was really like people management. It's like stripper management, really more than DJ.

Because I used to make beats. That was my first creative outlet. Okay. When I didn't have a lot of friends in America, I had to dive into something, right, to let the energy out. And I was just making beats on like fruity loops, reason, whatever, and then I was selling beats. And then from that, I kind of know how to DJ.

But when you DJ at a shitty strip club, there's not even like a DJ turntable. Not like that, you know? It's literally you, a microphone, and a computer where you're clicking Nick's song. Right. So really, you're just trying to be cool with the strippers. Okay. Like, hey.

Because they're going to tip you normal. You need to get tipped. Yeah, and also it's like, hey, Amber, like, what song do you want? Yes, yeah. Like, let me play this for you. And then you got to control the lighting. Yeah. You know, different lights look better or worse on different skin tones.

And really, you're trying to get the customers to go into the VIP room to get lap dances. Right. Like, we had a rule. I think every three girls, you have to do like a showcase with all the girls. Come on stage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they walk around and you know, you try to get lap there. Yeah, you're okay, okay, Jim.

You know. I think what you're doing, Jamie. Yeah, so like every... And then you have to play like Motley crew, girls, girls, girls. And then over the microphone, it's like, all right, let me get all the ladies back on the stage.

Amber, Jade and Milan. And Milan's name was like Paris last week. Like, you know, like these girls be changing names on you. And then really your job, it's like, all right, guy in the front. Like, I'm doing crowd work. Guy in the front with the hat, you know,

don't be shy. I see you looking at Jade. Take her in the bag. It's two for one lap dance that's going on. Or you can get two girls for the price of one, you know? Stuff like that. And then you really just like hard selling them.

And that's, to me, that was like also my open mic, you know. Like I was working at a comedy club at the same time. So I would do material at the comedy club. And then at night I would try to do some crowd work at the strip club. Wow. So you're like, yeah, I mean, this is okay. It pays a couple of bills, but this ain't for me. And then you became, so were you an Uber?

Well, I don't know. It was for me kind of. I loved being a strip club DJ. And I was so good at it. The owner, he was like a biker gang gangster. Really? Yeah, it was really cool. Invited me over to his house.

It was like, oh, his boy, it was pretty, like, in hindsight, I shouldn't have done that probably. Yeah, his name, his name is Gunner. And he was like, hey, I'm getting up in age and I want you to take over this place. Sales went up 44% ever since you came in because I was like, I wasn't trying to have sex. Celebrate your pride with the station that's as bold, vibrant and diverse as you are. I heart pride, kinda. From dance anthems to pop icons and hits from 2S LGBTQ. plus Canadian artists. It's the soundtrack that keeps life loud and proud. Just ask your smart

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Break down that for me, my friend. I do think UCLA, has a really good chance of getting back to the final four. Obviously, Yukon is the overwhelming favorite in this tournament. But I'll be honest, I think people are kind of sleeping on Texas. Experts are suggesting that UCLA is the number one challenger to Yukon and that right after that would be Texas. SEC is so deep and so thinking just about everything.

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What's the vibe of that when it's like your star player is like, well, I want to leave? And then actually now I'm going to stay. We talk tanking. I mean, honestly, like, I might get in trouble for this answer, but I think it's like definitely happening in the WBA. And yeah, we talk about our mistakes too. They pulled me to their side and was like, hey, man, we got a call last night, man. You can't be rolling around the city like this tonight for games, no, you know, doing this, doing whatever. And of course, family stories.

They'll be like, Mommy, why did you miss that? Mommy, do you play basketball? Check out Game Recognized game with Stuy and Miles on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The girls, I mean, I was, I just wasn't successful. But, you know, I was like very professional. Right. You know, and I ran a tight shift. So he was like, I need a manager.

I want you to take over. You know, I'm going to build a new strip club, blah, blah, blah. And then I literally had a moment when I was like, maybe I could be like the San Diego strip club kingpin, you know? Yeah. That would be kind of fun. But then I had a really nice mentor. Shout out to my boy, Sean Kelly, who ran the Comedy Palace in San Diego.

That would give me stage time and I was working there. And I'll tell them all these stories. I'm like, man, we just got in this fight. This dude, a monster, he was our security. He took out the stick and beat the shit out of this guy. It was awesome, man. I was bragging. I was like a 22-year-old kid.

And Sean was like, yo, I know you think that's funny. That's not funny. Right. You know, like when you're around these dark places, these dark people for too long, you will start to normalize this. It will start to become okay and that's not all right. Right. So I want you to get out of here. You're very funny.

You'll have a future. Okay. Go to L.A., develop more of your comedy and get on TV. And I took his advice and I didn't take the DJ. job. I mean, the strip club management job. So that's when you came and you started doing open mics and you started doing your own thing. But in the meantime,

you still, you were an Uber driver. Yeah, that was later. I didn't even have money to buy a car for Uber. Oh. You know, so I was just like living with my roommate Terrell in like a $500 apartment. I lived in a living room. He had a bedroom. You know? Right. And we're just doing open

mics. And my buddy Sean had this idea. We opened up a comedy club on a second floor Hooters on Hollywood Boulevard. And we'll be like New York Comics, we'll bark and try to get these tourists up there. So at least every night we have like five, ten customers. Because in L.A., it's really hard to get stage time.

Yes. If you're not a famous person. If you're not a name. TV credit, a special. So we have to build our own stage time. Right. So that's why we'll open up that Hooters Comedy Club, and we grind it there, pass out tickets every night

just so we have an audience. Right. And then that's the only way to get good is stage time. Wow. Yeah. You mentioned Rap City and BET Comic View and all those things. Did you understand? I don't know if you really understood the importance.

I mean, obviously being coming to this country and not really understanding the importance of BET, RAPCity and Comic View because they were huge for the culture. Right. Because Comic View and Death Comedy Jam, that really launched the comics and put them, if you got on there, now you can tour and you could like, And everybody knew who you were. Yeah. And so you're watching that, is that when you really started saying, you know what? That's what I want to do. No, not at all.

Really? I started stand up because I was just bored. I was really kind of depressed. That's why I like all these different jobs because I had an economics major in college. I really didn't want to do that. I had an internship. And then I just took on odd jobs, like the strip club DJ. I sold used cars.

I, what else did I do? I worked at a comedy club, worked at a shoe store. just to see what I like. And then stand-up was one of the things that I tried. And I was like, oh, I'm pretty good at this. And this gave me an outlet creatively. And also, it gave me somewhere to hang out. I wasn't really cool enough to go to clubs.

Right. You know, I didn't have, like, cool friends. They'll be like, you know, popping bottles or whatever. Right. And I was like 20-some, so I needed something. So I'll just hang out at the comedy clubs every night and just grinding it out. Like, in my 20s, I really didn't go out outside of the comedy club. That was my going out.

And luckily, from that, I developed a skill, you know. When your parents spend the kind of money to get you an education, you're an economics major. Yeah. And college isn't cheap. And your parents are invested this kind of money. I'm sure they're thinking, you know what, we didn't come to this country to have a son be a stand-up comedian. Yeah. To have him working in the shoe store, have him do it X, Y, and Z and do these odd jobs.

When you finally told your parents, counted in the direction that you wanted to go in, how did they receive it? They don't even understand it. Like, okay, they might understand playing football, playing basketball. You see someone on TV. Right. My dad, it's like, what is stand-up? Like, what is this? Right.

You know, he's never seen Comic View. He's never seen Chappelle, George Lopez. So he was just confused. He thought it was like a phase hoping I'll get out. Oh, you're growing up. Yeah, and then like every week he will send me like careerbuilder.com email. It's like, hey man, Goldman Sachs is hiring, you know? UBS is hiring.

Morgan Stanley. Come on, Jimmy. So he was just hoping I'll snap out of it. And he finally understood it when I became a series regular on Silicon Valley. Right. Because that's TV. That's active. Yes.

And he can actually see. That's something he can see. Yeah. And now there's a contract. So he understands there's a contract with HBO Warner Brothers, you know. So, okay, okay. Now he's not worried. When you talk, look, obviously like comedians, a lot of comedians, especially if you're black or white.

You had prior. You had Fox. You have Chappelle. You have Martin. You have guys that Bernie Mac. You have guys Rudy Ray Moore. you can look to. If you're white, you got Louis C.K. And you got Carl and you got all these guys that really the only, and I'm way older than you,

Jimmy, the only really Asian comedian that I really knew of back 20 years ago was Margaret Troy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Margaret Troy was the only one. Now, obviously, there are more now. But who was your inspiration? Because it's not a whole, it wasn't a whole lot of them. It was very special to see any Asian on TV when I was growing up. You know, even Bobby Lee on Matt TV. That was like must watch TV. I never watch Saturday Night Live, I watch Matt TV because Bobby. Okay. You know, when Yao Ming came into the league, you're Asian brother. Yeah, yeah, so now you watch NBA. Yeah, Ken Jong, you know, and Margaret Cho.

Many of these people, man, I remember, I think I saw Ken Jong and like, Showtime at Apollo or something. I'm like, this guy's so funny. Yes. Or even last comic standing, the first year winner was that fan. And a lot of people was like, oh, you know, he's pretty green as a comic or whatever. But then I'm like, I'm so proud of this book, man. So I think you were just grasping for any, any Asian thing. But then for me, you know, stand-up, a lot of my inspiration came from a lot of different comics on comic

view, but also Dave Chappelle. Chappelle show when I was in high school was like, must watch TV. You know, like every Wednesday, if you don't watch Shepel show, you got nothing to talk about on Thursday. And then George Lopez. Man, me and my buddy would watch his special, Todd Dark in Chicano, and then there was another one.

It was incredible specials on HBO, and he was talking about his immigrant family and include some Spanish in his act. I don't know Spanish, but then I'll go to school and start speaking like George. I was like, hey, mea, mira, you know, like repeating his jokes because it resonated. Although I didn't grow up in a Spanish family, I understood he was, his family's also immigrants, you know, and a little foreign, a little different. And when he described his aunt, when he described his grandfather, it brought you into his life. Right. And I really love that. So I'll say George Lopez.

is stand-up was really a great early source of information. And for me, that's why I talk about my family. I talk about my real-life experience. You might not be Asian, but you get it. It's like the mom, the guess how much stuff? And this new special, I shot it in Hong Kong, and I included some Cantonese. There's subtitles.

I'm like 10% Cantonese. But I want to be like George Lopez. Like, even if you don't understand Spanish, you'll find it funny and maybe learn something in the process. How are your friends? Were they very receptive to this? Like, Jimmy, give this up. Brother, you need to find something else to do or where they're supportive.

Because you mentioned your mom and dad, they brought you over here to get to be a businessman, to be a lawyer, to be a doctor, be, you know, be a CEO. They probably bring you here to tell jokes. Yeah, I mean, my friends are pretty supportive. They thought it was really cool because we'll, like, grow up, watch Chappelle, watch George Lopez together. And the first way to get stage time in a real comedy club is bring her shows. So you got to bring five friends in order to get four.

five minutes on a real stage in LA sometimes. Oh, okay. At the ha ha comedy club or like wherever, right? And I remember one time, like, at some point you run out of friends, the brings. You could bring the same five friends. Like you brought them last week, bro. Yeah.

Yeah, it's okay if they drink the two drink at all, but your jokes are the same, they don't want to keep coming. Right. You know, but when I had my first bringer shows, all my friends showed up in a pretty special experience, but then you're like, man, I need to get stage time some other kind of way, because you literally run out of friends to invite. Right.

One time, I think I brought four friends. instead of five friends, and they wouldn't let me on stage. Really? Yeah, man, it's cutthroat like that. You're like, bro, look here, for the last three weeks, I don't brought five people every time. Just one time, I'm a guy short. Cut your boys is flat.

Yeah, I know. And this comic, he was running the show, wouldn't let me on stage. He's like, come on, man, I'm trying to run business. You know, it's a bring a show. I told you you got to bring five. I'm like, I got four, maybe one is coming. Can I just get, give me four minutes of stage time? He's like, nah, no.

He's coming later. Yeah. And now this guy's trying to be all nice to me, that guy. I'm not going to name many names, but yeah, that dude. I was talking to, who was I talking to? I was talking to Brad Williams, had him on. Oh, yeah, he's awesome. And he's talking about how Peter Dinklage, when he did SNL in the monologue,

No Dorff Jokes. And I read some Asian-Americans won't play characters that have an Asian accent. Mm-mm, yeah. What about, where are you on this? I'm okay with it because I kind of an accent. I didn't even speak English when I first came here. How can I say no to that? That would be like saying no to my own foreign brothers, you know.

But it depends, I think, if it's sometimes really, it's not to me, it's not as clear because, like, accent, it's a no. Right. Like, can I do this accent authentically? Right. You know, in Silicon Valley, like, I made sure to do this character very authentically and put a lot of myself in there. I did a movie called Patriot State. It's based on the Boston Marathon. Bombin. Yes. And there's a character called Danny Mang. He turned out to be a hero. And he had a very

thick Chinese accent. What am I going to not play that guy? He's a freaking hero. He just happened to be an immigrant. Right. You know, so I'm very proud to be an immigrant. You know, I'm very proud to have not speak English to now where I can, you know, so I think as long as you play it with nuance, you play it with dignity, you play it with authenticity. It's all right. Is that why you feel that it's important to have that and not avoid it? Like, look, Bro, I mean, I'm an immigrant. Yeah. I'm Asian descent.

And just for me to avoid it, that doesn't make me not Asian or doesn't make me my story not authentic. There's so many different types of Asians. Yes. You know, I think the problem was and still is that there's just not enough Asian people on TV. When there's only two Asian people on TV and one of them got a heavy accent, you know, that's tough.

Yes. Because then people look at it and be like, oh, all Asian people are foreign now. So that's why we fight for the representation. There's a critical mass of enough, you know. Like on Crazy Rich Asians, it was also spiritually very freeing experience because now I can just be the funny crazy billionaire.

Right. Because there's other Asians in that movie. Right. You know, it's just people now. You know, instead of you have to carry the weight of this one character representing everyone. So I think what's most important is having more of us on TV, on film. so now we can just be whatever character we want to be.

You said, I read that you said, you want to make Chinese as sexy as a language as Italian and French. Yeah. Like, why is Chinese accent not sexy? Why is a girl listening like, the Spanish lover, you know? Oh my God, he's an Italian accent, British accent. The French. Yeah, why the Chinese accent, not, you know?

I don't know. I mean, I guess it's because of Paris, and there's something about going to Paris and the, the, the, Ipho, tower in the backdrop and they got this bridge. I don't know if they still do it. When they put the locks on? Oh, yeah. That's kind of cute.

Yeah. So I guess, I mean, you're not going to let anybody put no locks on the Great Wall of China or you're not going to be. Not on the Great Wall of China. But I mean, look. So you got to have something that's iconic and scenic in the backdrop. Because let's think about you go and you got your girl, your wife or whatever, and then the Ithel Tower was in the back door. That's the iPhone.

Who cares about Paris? Everyone wants to go to France. So everyone knows going to. They do is the most vivid. Who gives this shit, okay? French food sucks. All right. Like, when's the last time you crave French food?

Never. Does French toast count? No, come on, man. Like, you know. What about French fries? No, French, that's not even, who cares, dude? French fries is American. We claim that shit already.

Okay? We've colonized French fries. But look, man, like, I think people really need to go to Asia. Go to Hong Kong. Everybody's speaking English there. Really? Yeah, man. That's why I shot my special on Hong Kong.

Because I'm like, I got to put Hong Kong on the map. This is such a beautiful international city. And most of the special is in English, you know, and I talk about Hong Kong culture, the people and everything. And it's a beautiful city. Some of the best food you ever have in the world, street food to like the best Michelin store. I don't know about all that, now, Jim,

come on, Shannon. Street food? Yeah, the street food. Oh, my God. You don't heard about some of the things that y'all be eating over the gym. See, see, this is bad stereotyping, Shannon. I'm just saying, just saying. This is like me saying,

this is like me saying black people, borrow money for me, you know? Like, this is bad. We do. Look, China is huge. There's like eight pillars of different cuisines in China. So Cantonese cuisine is different than what you eat in Shanghai. And you have very modern, you know, fusion food, Western food and Chinese food. Right. And the pasta in Hong Kong is amazing. Yeah, man. No, man, anybody going to, nobody going to China Hong Kong for pasta? Right, but he's craving pasta. I bet you. I bet you, You find a bowl of pasta there that's better than a pasta here. I'm just saying, like, it's a great place and people don't give enough credit.

And then they're like, oh, you know, you eat weird stuff over there. Sure, in deep China, can you find some weird shit? Probably, you know, but we don't eat that every day, you know. And in Hong Kong, you just have like the best roast duck, you know, chasue pork. Yeah, I'll be watching y'all on TikTok. Oh, my God, it's amazing. Y'all be cooking on TikTok. Y'all be having them leaves and all kind of stuff.

Y'all be cooking like that, man. Do you y'all really cook, do they really cook like that? Not, no, like, if you live in a village, in America, there's people that cook weird, people that eat roadkill. Do we eat roadkill every day, Shannon? No, we don't, you know? And in Hong Kong, like, people have modern kitchens, you know? It's the most, like, dude, when I came to, when I came to L.A., I'm like, this is country. Right.

This place sucks. Really? There's nothing here but cars and freeways, all right? When you walk, it's not modern at all. When you go to China, man, like, dude, the high-speed rails. takes you everywhere. And the restaurant, the core inside of Shanghai will blow your mind. And it's just incredible

services. That's why I'm saying, like, people got to give Asia, give China a chance, dude. Like, you know? Like so many people, everyone's like, oh, my top destination is Paris. You know, the hotels are expensive. The food sucks. Go to Asia. Is China cheap?

Dude, China, yeah, yeah. You can have the highest end of the highest end. The best hotel chains all come from Hong Kong. Think about it. Peninsula, Mandarin, Shangri-A-Lah, the Rosewood. These are the top of the top hotels around the world, right? All Hong Kong companies. Wow.

Yeah, man. People got to know that. Okay, well, tell me, help me out with this. I'm not the biggest Asian cuisine guy. Every once in a while, maybe once, twice, maybe once a year, maybe once every other year, I'll eat some shrimp-fried rice. But that's about it. Not shrimp-fried rice.

Chicken fried rice. I'm allergic to shellfish. But, I mean, when you start getting like that, like that, the movement. who got pan and General Joe's chicken and, and, uh, that's not even Chinese food. That is. No, no, that's Chinese American food. I mean, I like it. So, don't get me wrong.

I love Panda Express, okay? To me, that's a different cuisine, okay? Than Chinese food. I love it for what it is, you know. Okay, give me, give me some solely Chinese cuisine. All right. So you go to Hong Kong, let's just talk about Cantonese food. Okay, okay.

And I'll give you some other cuisine, okay? Cantonese food on like the basic level, what people eat every day, it's wonton noodle soup. And it's some of the freshest noodles that they make my hand. Okay. Wanton's with shrimp and pork. And then for lunch, you eat like Takaifan. It's like Chasiu and chicken rice.

Just meat over rice. Okay, yeah, that's me. That's me. It's barbecue. It's, they barbecue fresh. You hear the Korean barbecue. Well, that's Korean. Okay.

That's a different country. But yeah. But yeah, the Chinese, like, Hong Kong barbecue, you have like basically our own pitch masks. Y'all got barbecue? Yeah. Choshu is barbecue. That's roast pork belly.

And then you have a barbecue duck. Roast goose is the best thing. Goose is better than duck, and they have that in Hong Kong. No, no, no, no, goose ain't better than that. No, it is. You haven't tried it. Duck can't feed. Duck can't feed?

Nope. Duck, okay, if you like duck, there's rush duck. So duck over rice. And then they have this ginger scalyan sauce. It's just chopped up ginger scalying. They pour hot oil over it, and you pour that over all your rice and everything. It's some of the best thing you ever have. Wow.

Yeah. And then it's Shanghai. different cuisine. You have brazed pork slow cooked with soy sauce. You have crab. You know, this very famous hairy crab. You don't really eat the meat. You eat the row that's inside. The egg. That's the egg. It's not that I don't know. Ro is fish. Roe is eggs. I think it's eggs or it's guts. I don't know what it is. But it's delicious. You mix it with noodles with rice and then. I don't know about that, Jimmy. You're doing too much. I mean, you have me going. You're talking about the roasted pork and you're talking about the

duck and you're talking about the goose. Okay, I was doing what? And the barbecue, the beef and all I was good with you. And then you got to the row. The crab row. But hey, man, it's choose your own adventure. You know, there's so many different cuisines. You can go to China and just have McDonald's. And the McDonald's over there is better than here.

How close is Asian cuisine in America to that what you see over there in the original country? In places like L.A., New York, you can find very authentic Asian cuisine. Really? In the Chinese part of town, like here you have to go to the 626, like Monterey Park, San Gabriel Valley and you have some of the most authentic stuff. You can find Cantonese cuisine, Shanghai's cuisine, Beijing cuisine, whatever, right? But in most, like, middle America, I was just in Detroit, you know, my old roommate and my opener Terrell, he's from Detroit. Okay. So he's used to Chinese food. That's like gravy over rice. The American, like, Egg Fu Young. I never heard of

Egg Fu Young. Yeah, see? You know, when I was in Hong Kong. So it's very different. Oh, and then my other opener, Derek, uh, uh, Ross Smith's cousin. Yeah. He's a black dude from the south from Texarkana. Yeah. And I love taking him to Asian restaurants here. We went to a Japanese restaurant. He looked at the miso soup. He saw the little white cubes in there.

He's never had it. He was like, what is this? Cheese? I was like, no, it's tofu, man. Like, he's never had, like, fuh. He's never had sushi. And he loves it. You know, it's like a nice culture exchange.

And then he takes me to soul food restaurants and neck bones. Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm talking about you, the neck bowl of eggsale. Yeah. Delicious. Yes. And then I had a Kool-Aid and I never had something so sweet in my life. There's more sugar than liquid inside that thing.

I felt like my foot was going to fall off. Jesus, man. You know, but it was delicious. Yeah, man. You said you were treated bad by Asian and American school. Why were you treated bad? Because, like, normally I would think is that they got someone that looks like them that's from their culture. It's like, damn, we got, it's like if you went to another school and you got people that look like you.

Now you don't feel like an outsider. You don't feel like an outcast. Why do you think they treated you differently? Well, because like I was saying, the American-born Chinese people are the Koreans. You know, they were fighting their own battle. Right. Right? Because there was a lack of representation.

Although they were born in America, they still, people thought they were foreign. Okay. Some people still go up to him be Ching Chong. Or like, you know, on a basketball court, they call us Jackie Chan, you know. So they're fighting the own battle of assimilating and which is, which is, which is. sucks because they were born in America. They were American. Why did they even have to fit in? Right? So I get the battle. And then this foreign kid, me, comes in who can barely speak English. If they hang out with me, it will only make them look more foreign. So I kind of get it.

Yeah. But it sucked at the time. Like, can you tell like if something, like, if we like, like 20 people in here and they're Asian. Yeah. And obviously some, like you said, they're different. They're Cantonese and their manner and so forth. So do you know? Because a lot of times and be like, I don't really. ask, but I'm just let people look at it. I'm like, is he, is he Korean? Is he Chinese? Yeah. Japanese. Is he South Korea? Is he Taiwanese? Do you get, do people, do people ever confuse you and ask you, like, what's your ethnicity? It depends where I am. If I'm in Korea town and the cashier starts speaking Korean to me, I feel like that's, that's fair. Okay. You know, I'm there, you know. Would you like say, I'm not Korea? Yeah, I'm not. I can't. What did you say? Yeah, I can't speak

Korean, you know, and then they're disappointed. They think I'm Korean, but I don't speak Korean. You know, but obviously I'm Chinese. I can kind of tell, I think, if someone's Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, whatever. But, you know, also, I guess just saying someone's Asian, that's a big group. Yes. You know, I think Chinese people is very different than Korean people than Japanese people. And then if you go to Asia, then you really learn about the beefs. You know, like the different countries.

Everybody, everybody ain't cool. Yeah, the different countries got different beefs. Yeah. You know, and then if you really go deep, like in China, like Shanghaiese people got beef with the neighboring city. Yeah. You know, like, people just find beef. Yeah. And, you know.

We don't rock with y'all. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. These people are country people, like, whatever. You were born in Hong Kong. What was it like born in Hong Kong? Because, you know, you hear these stories like, it's so Americanized. It's so like it's not anything that you would think an Asian country will be. Yeah, it's a very special way.

When you see it on television, they look, look glamorous and I'm sure it is. But what was it like growing up for youth there as opposed to like when you go back now? Oh, wow. That's a great question, Shannon. When I grew up there, you know, I loved it because after school, you can just walk home. It's super safe. And then, you know, there's food everywhere. There's people everywhere.

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Marsh Madness is here, and if you're trying to keep up with everything happening on and off the court, we've got you covered on the podcast, flagrant and funny. You look at the top four number one seeds. What do you think UCLA is going to do? Breakdown. that for me, my friend. I do think UCLA has a really good chance of getting back to the final four. Obviously, Yukon is the overwhelming favorite in this tournament, but I'll be honest, I think people are kind of sleeping on Texas. Experts are suggesting that UCLA is the number one challenger to Yukon and that right after that would be Texas. S&C is so deep and so thinking just about everything. It really is annoying. So it's UCLA, Texas, South Carolina, LSU. Only ones that could possibly upset Yukon.

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when it's like your star player is like, well, I want to leave? And then actually now I'm going to stay. We talk tanking. I mean, honestly, like, I might get in trouble for this answer, but I think it's like definitely happening in the WBA. And yeah, we talk about our mistakes too. They pulled me to their side and was like, hey, man, we got a call last night, man. You can't be rolling around the city like this tonight before games, no, you know, doing this, doing whatever. And of course, family stories. And it'll be like, mommy, why did you miss that? Mommy, do you play basketball? Check out game recognized game with Stuy and Miles on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Everywhere. Like, you're very stimulated as you walk down the street

in Hong Kong. And it's very convenient. You're going to take a subway across the ocean to Calhoun side or whatever. There's so much to do in a very small place. Right. And it felt like there's a whole world outside of your apartment. But you grow up in apartments. Nobody's houses in the law. It's all high-rise.

It's like New York. Right. Okay. Super rich people have a brownstone or something. Right, yeah, yeah. But we all grew up on a 25th floor. So life was a little different. And then when I came to America, it was complete culture shock.

Now, you can't, especially LA, you can't walk around. You got to drive. There's five lane freeways. There's no people. There's no shops. It just felt very not stimulating and very boring to me. And then I lived in America. I moved here when I was 13.

I lived in America for 25 years without ever going back to Hong Kong. Really? Yeah. Why you didn't go back? I think once I got past like 10 years, you know, there was a fear of like, man, if I go back, it's going to be too emotional. If I go back, maybe it changed so much, they wouldn't accept me. So I waited and waited, and then I felt.

finally went back for the first time last year, and I sold out five arena shows. Really? Yeah, it was crazy. Tickets were going in like 20 seconds. It was awesome. You guys, that's one thing about, I can say about you guys. You guys support you. You support.

Yeah, we got one play basketball. He tells jokes. Yeah, we're there, man. And it was just really cool to go back now as a stand-up, you know, and tell my jokes. mostly my set was in English. It was the set that I was touring with. And I added maybe 10, 15 minutes of Cantonese. And they loved it. And everybody understood it. We're all laughing. And I even get to meet some of my heroes. Like I met Chow Yun Fat. I met Dale Wong, who was like the biggest comedic actor still in Hong Kong. And these are just like my heroes. And now

like they almost see me as a peer. You know? It was so cool because when I met Chowian Fatt, I was like, fan girl. And you know, I grew watching you. Like the, one of the best actors. to ever come out of Hong Kong, you know. And then he was like, ah, you know, you're doing better than me. I spent a couple years in Hollywood, you know, it was okay. But you started in Hollywood and you're making it. And I was like, oh, my God, I can't. It's like unbelievable.

And that's why I shot this special in Hong Kong. Because at first I was going to shoot it, say, for Netflix, Amazon in, like, Seattle. That was the plan, right? But then when I shot this in Hong Kong, there was just so much I couldn't recreate. First of all, I came out like Beyonce, like I popped up on stage. It was like rock concert. It was like fireworks. So you had a full production.

Full production. I sang a couple songs. It was like a whole thing. But then all my heroes were there in the audience and I got emotional at this one part, literally like start tearing up. Just all the emotions after not going home for 25 years, welcome that I'm receiving in my heart. It was just amazing.

My parents were there. Yes. We cut to them when I'm telling jokes about this. them. And there's just so much I couldn't recreate it. And it's just a very special thing. That's why we shot it, you know, ourselves in Hong Kong. I came home to America, edited it for like six months. It was the hardest, it was like editing a movie because we shot five shows and it was like 11 camera angles. And how do I tell the story where it works for the Hong Kong audience and it works for the global audience? So after that, I was like, this is like my baby. And then now we're

going to be out in movie theaters. Wow. Yeah. When you When you were in Hong Kong, did you see any black people? Did you see any Hispanic people? Did you see anybody else other than Asian people? Not really. There are some white people, but like, it was like, especially when I was growing up. This was in the late 90s or in the 90s. You see a white person.

You're like, ah. You're not exactly like that, but he's like, oh my God, he's so, like tall. He's like, oh my God. Or, you know, it's almost like, you know. It's almost like a zoo animal. You see like a zoo animal, you know, you're like, oh, my God, white person. Can you know what, Jim? I grew up in a very small, a rural community.

And I had a buddy of mine, we went to kindergarten, and he left and went to a private school. His name was Mark Samson. And so we knew if we saw somebody, okay, his dad's a doctor. Because they were the only ones in the community. So we knew, like, he ain't just. He was somebody and then you had, I think later they had a doctor named Dr. O. Uh-huh. And his family would, so we kind of knew is that when you looked at white, like, I wonder

what he does. Because like you said, I don't know if black people, I don't know if you have a military base over there. Because like, like Okinawa, if you see black people, you're probably assuming in Japan that they're from the military. I mean, okay, look. Also, that was in the 90s. Now in Hong Kong, it's all kinds of different people.

You see it in my special. Yeah. Like the audience camera, you see black people, white people. People are- Really? Yeah, it's very international. Hong Kong's super international. It's a global financial hub like New York. Right.

So usually people, you know, are there because they're working for like Morgan Stanley. Yes. Or something like that. Yeah, but, you know, I just wish more Americans would go there. Like, experience it like you, you know. But it's... That's a long flight, man. How long a flight is from L.A.?

I think 14 hours? Yeah. But you just... Man, you go to sleep for five hours and you still got nine hours, watch two, three movies and you still got three hours ago, Jimmy. It's worth it, man. Oh, go to Japan first. It's like 10 hours and then go to China.

That's like another, you know, four hours. Now, I hear, Macau is kind of like... Macau's awesome. Yeah. It's like Vegas. Yes. Yes, because you hear a lot of the casinos are opening up in Macau. Oh, my God.

It's bigger. Like, the casino I played at, I played at Galaxy. And it was like a 10,000 people arena over there. and the casino itself within the galaxy casino, there was 11 hotels. The best of the best. There was an infinity pool on my balcony. What?

Yeah, man. That's what I'm saying. Like, it's America is like country bumpkin compared to Hong Kong and Macau, dude. You know, when you go there, everything, you're so opulent. You know, you have the best of the best. And you have, like, $5 street food. You know, it's amazing. And within, like, the galaxy, they have, like, Rich Carlton.

They have Capella. They have, like, all the big brands. But gambling is a little different over there You know? Really? Like I live in Vegas now And, you know, I go gamble You drink, it's fun, right?

Like a couple hundred bucks here And you're blackjack, you go from game to game But it's more like a party In Macau people are serious And it's really hard to find like roulette Or even Blackjack Because they're all playing Bakara They're all playing Bakkarat

And they don't really do drinks They're focused Yes It's like they go to work They're actually there to try to make money You know, it's not so much a party Wow Yeah

You know what? I want to ask you this about because you guys Asian have a very strong sense of community. Were your relatives, aunts, uncle, grandparents, cousins, were you guys in close proximity? Yeah, so that's very interesting because my parents are Shanghaiese. They're from Shanghai. Okay. So they moved to Hong Kong. Okay.

So even their family was in Shanghai. So in Hong Kong, with a lot of family friends. Okay. But not a ton of relatives. Okay. And then not until I was like 10 years old, we went to Shanghai for the first time. My dad took me to Shanghai for the first time and I met my cousin. And it was really cool.

I didn't even know I had cousins. Right. You know? And then when I came to America, a lot of my family has immigrated before us. So some of my cousins were actually born here. And I met those cousins that are in America. Right. So I guess I got family like everywhere.

Right. Yeah. When you went to Shanghai to meet your cousins, did they speak English or you had to speak to them in Cantonese? So they don't even speak Cantonese. They speak shanghanese and Mandarin. Oh. So I have to kind of. change on my, so in my house, even within one sentence, it could be three, four different

languages. It could be English, Shanghai, East, Cantonese, Mandarin, and different regions you can communicate differently. There's so many different Chinese dialects. But Mandarin will be the main one. Because I hear a lot of times when it comes to communicating is that you communicate with your parents in a certain language, but outside you speak American. You speak American. Yeah. But they want you to communicate, but they also want you to understand a language. And so, like, a lot of Hispanic, you know, people, they'll talk Spanish when they talk to their parents, but outside, they talk American. Or same thing with you guys. You speak a Cantonese or Shangrily's or whatever.

Shanghai. Shanghai. Shanghaiese. The language that people, even younger generations in Shanghai don't speak Shanghaiese. It's like an old dying language. They speak Mandarin now. Oh, okay. But then, like, people are like your Shanghai sounds like, you know, an old person's Shanghaiese from, like, the 50s or something.

because I learned Shanghaiese for my parents and my grandparents. Right. And I only speak to them in Shanghaiese. Really? Other words mixed in. Right. Yeah. Can they speak English?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but we don't really speak English because we didn't grow up speaking English to each other. But sometimes there are words that I can't think of that can only be communicated in English. And it's very interesting because I was speaking Cantonese from zero to 13. And then from 13 to now 38, mostly English. Right. But then my Shanghaiese and my Cantonese and my Cantonese. Anthony's, that I speak to my parents, sometimes I can't think of good vocabularies.

If I, if I'm, like, trying to tell my dad about some mental health stuff, I don't know how to say it in, like... In your native language. And then also, how I communicate with my family, that doesn't translate how I communicate my friends sometimes. Correct. And there's, your brain gets split in half, and there's almost a disconnect of growth. Yes. You know, I'm like, man, I'm growing so much as an American, you know, and my linguistic skills. it's growing. And I'm leaving a little bit of what? Yeah, but then, you know, I'm, I, my

shanese, my Cantonese, it's like, kind of stuck in like a juvenile stage. And I sometimes have trouble communicate, you know, with my friends and then my parents. Did you ever think about, say, you know what, okay, yes, I spoke Cantonese from zero to 13. And when you came to America, did you think about, you know what? I probably need to keep speaking this in order for me to stay on top of this. Because a lot of times you get that, people like, well, you know what, in order for me to Because if you don't use it, you'll lose it. Yeah. I think that happened to me, you know.

And my Cantonese, when I first went back to Hong Kong, it was bad. It was like, I sounded like a foreign person speaking my first language. Right. And I talk about this in my, in this special, I found my diary that I wrote when I was nine years old in Hong Kong. Really? All written in Chinese, right? And I can't read a single word of it. Isn't that like the saddest thing?

Like, how can you not read your own handwriting your first language, you know? You might have a like, you know what? You got a safe with about a million dollars in it, and you can't understand that you don't know what it's safe. Right, right, right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, man. Really? Yeah, that kind of, like,

so you can't understand anything that you wrote at the age of nine. You got this diary, and it's like, here you are, and you're about to turn 40 in a couple years, and you're looking at it like, damn, I have no idea what this is. Shibberish to me. Yeah, it was crazy. And now I've learned a little bit, but I have to give it to my dad to, like, translate it from me.

So my dad started reading my diary and just started making fun of me. It's like, he's so weak. You're always sick, always complaining, you know. Man. What was the biggest culture shot when you left when you came from Hong Kong and you moved to the States? What do you think the biggest culture shot? What was the hardest thing for you to simulate? Wow.

I think just life. Because my nuclear family would stay very close and we still have. like Chinese food at home and every weekend we'll go to San Gabriel Valley and eat at a Chinese restaurant. But I think just day-to-day life, because in Hong Kong, like I said, you walk home from school and there's just things everywhere. And you don't even have to go to a club to have fun, right? You can just walk the streets and it's super fun. There's shops and everything. But here, like, it's like what I do for fun, you know, like school after school, I actually try to to play a little football, you know.

I mean, my dad would never sign a waiver. I thought I would play, like, kick return or something. I was, like, quite fast. Right. But I was like 100 pounds. Right. And he was like, no, you're going to die out there. So I was, like, trying to assimilate and, like, find American stuff to do.

Right. It becomes increasingly hard to replicate life in Hong Kong. It's just impossible, especially in L.A. So even now I'm having trouble with that. Really? Yeah, because. You've been here 25 years, Jim. Yeah, I know.

And I still feel like I'm fighting. You feel like you're not outside of Steelhound. Yeah, sometimes because I'm like, man, why am I so bored? Like Saturday, I don't really want to go to a club, but there's, I can't really walk outside the street. I feel like I haven't talked to anyone, you know, and like the whole day. And then I went back to Hong Kong and my life just kind of like made sense. Right.

I was like, oh, I was never like a, you know, going out, you know, Saturday night until like 4 a.m. person. Right. I was just enjoying, like, getting food, meals, and then just walk around. at different shops and I'm good, you know. Do you ever see yourself going back? Full time? Full time, I don't think full time, but I do think maybe I'll split my time there and I've been doing that. I'm actually going to Hong Kong in a week.

So when you go, how long do you stay? Two weeks, a month? A week or so, it depends if it's work. The first time when I went back, I stayed there for like a month and it was a great experience. Like usually when you travel, after a couple weeks you get home sick. You miss the food. go home in your bed. I didn't feel homesick once. Uh-oh.

Because I was home. Yes. You know, so it was a really nice feeling and I want to spend more time there. Right. But also. Do you have family there? A little bit. And friends.

I found my elementary school friends and everything. Really? Yeah, it was really cool. I'm like, oh, maybe this is my life, how my life would be if I never left Hong Kong. Oh, okay. Yeah. And like, they had gone through, you know, this is like one thing I kind of like, I'm like, maybe I missed out.

I never really had a party phase in my life. because I was doing stand-up. And also I was just a foreign kid, you know, trying to simulate when, like, my high school 17-year-old friends are, like, going out. Right. I was just trying to learn English on BET, you know. But then all my Hong Kong friends, they already had their party phase and, like, you know, they went out in Hong Kong, and now they're settling down.

Now they're getting married. They got kids. So it's pretty cool to see that. I was like, oh, maybe, you know, there was a reason why I missed out because I moved and I was fighting my own battle, you know, and my life maybe would have ended up like them, which is great. A lot of them, like, I think if I never move away from Hong Kong, I don't think I would ever have done stand-up or been in energy.

Really? Yeah. I think it was to really, doing stand-up was really filling a creative void. And also the void of being an immigrant and not fitting in. I felt like I fit in in a comedy. Comedy space. Because in a comedy space, the weirder you are, the more different you are, the more you fit in.

The more you're funny. That's not true anywhere else. Right. Right. If I would just stay in Hong Kong, I would have never had that kind of foreigner kind of void in my heart, you know. And I would have probably just been happy living my life in Hong Kong and being finance or something. Could you could in Hong Kong, I hear that it's very strict over there. Could like kids, could you like drink and smoke and do things like American teenagers do?

Oh, totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, not a lot of drugs. I don't think. I don't know. But yeah, people drink. Really? People go on party.

They're like awesome clubs. But you don't have, do you guys have like American? Do you have American beer and stuff like that? You have like Chinese. Every beer. Really? I mean, I'm telling you, Hong Kong's like New York. Right.

But it just happened to be in Asia. Right. And even more opulent than New York. So they have everything. Yeah. This concludes the first half of my conversation. Part two is also posted and you can access it to whichever podcast platform you just listen to part one on. Just simply go back to Club Shet Shea Profile and I'll see you there.

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