Ronnie Chieng
speaker
57 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jan 2025
last heard Jan 2025
Ronnie Chieng’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Extremely surprised. Because we weren't necessarily friends. He was obviously much more successful than me in the festival circuit. So we rarely crossed paths. And I ended up performing with him for the first time in Canada, just for laughs, in Montreal. And that's when he... was very friendly to me at the show. He was very complimentary. He said, it's great. You know, what you're doing is great.
And I said, oh, thanks so much. I didn't think too much about it. Right. And then maybe two years later, I get this email to audition for The Daily Show. And I was like, it was like a dream come true. I couldn't believe it.
And so I still remember doing the audition in my apartment in Melbourne and sending it in and then getting the call back to come to New York City and audition for The Daily Show in New York City, which was obviously a huge deal if you're coming. From Australia. And so, no, I did not expect to get it at all. It was very much him who put the spotlight on me.
As in, The Daily Show would never have found me if not for Trevor insisting that I get on. And again, I'm not his closest friend, you know? I don't even think I'm his funniest friend. He just really was adamant that he wanted an Asian person on the show because he felt that Asian people are like half of the world's population, but...
there's no presence in on the daily show and he i guess at that time he was thinking of a more international show right so he wanted someone who could talk to these issues so i'm just lucky that i was the recipient of his search you know it could have been anybody how familiar were you with the show Very familiar. I've been following U.S.
politics since the West Wing came out, was watching it religiously, and then started, you know, always reading about U.S. presidential history. I'm a U.S. president nerd. And The Daily Show, we were watching it as soon as we were able to illegally download it in Australia. We would torrent, like, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and watch it. So I'm a huge fan. I was watching all the time.
Yes, there's a photo of me standing there not knowing what to do. I was in the studio right next to him. But obviously off his camera. But there was a camera on me because I was doing a segment with him, as you said. And then we finished the segment. And then usually he says, okay, everybody, Roy Chang, everybody. And then everyone applauds and I leave the studio. But he didn't do that this time.
He explained why he was leaving the show on air. And no sign of it. There was no sign. I didn't know he was doing that.
I don't know. He's a very smart guy and I trust his judgment on everything. And I'm sure he had his reasons, you know, and I can't speak to them. But I'm sure he had his reasons to do it because it seems like a pretty extreme thing to do.
Maybe he didn't want anyone to talk him out of it. I don't know.
Yeah. But yeah, maybe you don't want anyone to leak it. That's also a possibility or, you know.
I was like, is this a bit? And then in my head, I was also like, well, we're not live. You know what I mean? Like he could say that and then we could just edit it if he changes his mind. So I was like, this sounds serious. I don't know what's going on. I'm a person who I think I do a decent job at minding my own business. So I wasn't like, well, what's going on?
I wasn't trying to like insert myself into this situation. You know what I mean? I was like, oh man, what's going on? You know, it sounds like he is going through some stuff and so I hope he's okay. You know, that was my primary thought.
You know, honestly, I wasn't thinking that because I was here because of Trevor. If I lose the job because of Trevor, I was okay with that. You know what I mean? I wasn't supposed to have this job anyway. So I've always adopted this very nihilistic view about the job and doing it. Not nihilistic. I care about the job a lot. I love it. It's the best job in comedy.
But I adopted this very live in the present, I guess, Buddhist, don't worry about the future kind of mentality with the job. And the second thing is also, I believe that America will always have a daily satirical news show. You know, I think of all the countries in the world, if America can't do a daily satirical news show, like which country can? We have the most freedom of speech.
We have the most resources for show business. We have infrastructure for comedic talent where people can write and get better as performers and writers and can aspire to be hired on shows like this. And we have the craziest political news. If all those factors combine, if America cannot have a daily news satirical show, no one can.
Thank you so much for having me. This is a real honor to be on the show and to speak to you. Thank you so much.
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