Jimmy O. Yang (performing a bit)
speaker
225 appearances
4 recordings
2 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard Jan 2025
Jimmy O. Yang (performing a bit)’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Like I went to shop for like a Yeti cooler the other day and it made me felt like I fit in, man. Yes.
A lot of the American movies, growing up in the 90s, it was a lot of action movies. Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bloodsport. That was the go-to Hong Kong movie because they shot part of that in Hong Kong. Still one of my favorites. And of course, the big movies like Forrest Gump. And my dad was kind of a cinephile, an American cinephile.
I remember him watching Shawshank Redemption and that had a lasting effect on me. But it's also a lot of local films. For me, it was the comedy of Stephen Chow, Zhao Shengqi. who later found a lot of international fame with Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer. But I grew up watching him, and he had a deadpan kind of delivery, and it's just so, so funny.
I think on TV, I really gravitated towards comedies at first. The Chappelle Show was a must-watch. You know, if you don't watch it Wednesday, you got nothing to talk about in high school on Thursday. And I think through Chappelle, I got into stand up comedy. He's still like my favorite.
I didn't even think that was a possibility. I just thought these are what these funny people do on TV. I will probably just go on to be an engineer, a doctor or something like that. the roles that the society has assigned you. But I've always had an inkling, like an artistic drive to me.
I remember when I was a kid, I would go to restaurants and like with chopstick wrappers or like disposable spoons, I would like build little art pieces. You know, it sounds really silly now. And then my mom would be like, you're messing up the table. Look at how messy your table is compared to everyone else. But then now looking back, I'm like, I'm trying to make something.
I always want to create something. Whether it's with chopstick wrappers or a pen drawing on my arm. And then when I went to college, I studied economics. Well, first I studied mechanical engineering. And then I switched to economics, which was much easier. I just wanted to graduate.
Yeah, that was still appeasing Asian parents. Yeah, that was the joke in my first day, which is true. You know, I couldn't do like, I don't know, archaeology. I don't know. I don't know what is like communications. I don't think my dad would like that. Economics, at least it sounded real. You know, not to disparage any communication majors out there.
So I did economics, but I secretly had a minor in theater and music. It never came to fruition. I think you need seven classes, but I took like six classes on each of those. And I remember those are the things I got A's at and those were the things I did the best at because I was passionate about it.
And then later on, you know, after I graduated, when I was like trying to figure myself out, stand-up was just one of many things that I've tried and it just spoke to me. You know, you can literally create something out of thin air without anyone's permission. And I thought that was very liberating.
Yeah. Even open my comics. And we still do that now. It's called giving each other tags. If you have a tag after the punchline that makes the joke better or switching a couple lines together. I listen to my openers sometimes and they'll give me great ideas that I didn't think of. And yeah, it was just like a sense of community. And the thing about stand-up, there's no barrier of entry.
And you don't have to look a certain way. There's no certain look like... Of a stand-up comedian. It's everyone. And almost it's like the weirder you are, the more like a stand-up comedian you are. So all the angst and insecurity of me not fitting in in this country, it kind of got washed away on the stage of stand-up comedy because everybody... was on equal footing, you know?
It's not about who you are, how rich you are, how tall you are, what ethnicity you are, it's just how funny you are.
And what did they say? I don't know. I think I invited my dad out to like when I finally got a showcase at the Laugh Factory. I don't think he came. And then it was later, way, way, way later when I was finally doing well and selling tickets in like San Francisco. And then I think my dad came. And he loved it. Not just for me, but I was talking about him in my set.
So like he was getting a lot of attention and people wanted to take pictures of him too. So I think he liked that.
My dad is also an actor, but he started acting after I did. Because he was like, it's so easy, you can't do it. I can, okay. I'm like, dad, fine. If you think my life's so easy, why don't you go to some open call auditions and you understand how hard it is, how much rejection I face every day at my job. He was like, okay. And he went to all these auditions and he started booking everything.
True story. He got on this show in China, in mainland China, called Little Daddy, Xiao Baba. Half a billion people watched that show. It's like the Big Bang Theory of China, and Richard blew up. And he was like, this isn't easy. I don't know why. My plan completely backfired.
And my aunt in Shanghai, she watched the show, and she would call the house in LA, and she's like, congratulations, Richard. You're such a good actor. Did your son teach you how to act? And he's like, no, no, I'm a natural. Oh, that's very good. You and your son, same business, you know? You two are very funny. He's like, no, no, Jimmy's are not funny. And I'm like, dad, that's bullshit, okay?
You got one good role, good for you, I'm happy for you. But you're not a real actor yet. Real actors, we gotta cry, we gotta laugh. Do you even know how to cry in front of camera? He was like, yes, I just think about how much you suck at ping pong.
Exactly that. I think he has always wanted to be an artist. He always wanted to draw to paint. He was a film buff and things like that. But to him, truly, it was impossible when he was growing up. So when he saw me able to do it, he was like, well, let me try it. And apparently there's a lack of older Asian guys in the talent pool. And he started booking a lot of stuff.
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