Ronny Chieng (performing a bit)

This underdog movie, which when we were making, there was no indication it would have been as successful as it was. I think that's fair to say, as in it was still yet to be seen. was not a sure thing. Lots of risks were taken by the directors and producers, which we're all eternally grateful for that it paid off. But we were all in this thing in Malaysia and Singapore.

And so we were just hanging out. You know, we would go for karaoke we will go for Korean barbecue we didn't need to explain why we were going for Korean barbecue it wasn't ethnic eating it was just food and then when we get to Korean barbecue we don't have to explain what was being served we all got it so stuff like that you know there was like a shorthand and camaraderie which exists till today

Yeah, Chinese Malaysian.

So they came when I was one.

So then I only came here when I was three and then I left when I was seven. Yeah. So basically they came to America and they left me in Malaysia for like a year and a half or something. And then when I was around three years old, then they brought me over. So they were with my sister without me. So they were probably here for like two years, I guess.

You know, I think they tell me that when I saw them at the airport, I walked away because I was so pissed. But I don't remember holding it against them. First of all, they were putting themselves through college. So, you know, imagine having to support two kids and themselves and college. So they were working and going to college at the same time.

And then second of all, it was like, yeah, it was too young. You know, it's like a baby. Like we don't, like that is before the internet. Who knows what's happening in Manchester, New Hampshire. They just didn't want to risk it. So it was easier to just take my sister.

Oh, great question. So when they moved back, they didn't tell me we're moving back. They said we're just going for a vacation. So I was like, oh, okay. So we'll go and see Malaysia and we'll come back. And then we went back to Malaysia and we never went back to America. And I was like, what happened? Like, why did you guys lie to me?

And so I had a chip on my shoulder for like years of being in Singapore and Malaysia. And you know what? Maybe they changed. Nah, I was going to give them the benefit of the doubt. I was going to say maybe they went there and changed their mind. But I'm pretty sure they went there knowing they were going to go back. But no, in hindsight, I think they made the right decision for them.

Because when they went back to Malaysia, they had more social capital because they had US education and they were culturally more suited to Malaysia and Singapore. So when they went back, I think they made the right choice for them.

Oh, they became like corporate executives. My mom became like a financial controller. My dad became like a general manager of factories in China. And he would commute between China and Singapore and Malaysia. But my point is that I don't know if they would have been happy in America because in America, I was very happy. But I was like a four-year-old kid and they were working at a gas station.

so I don't begrudge them at all I wish they had told the truth that we were moving back for good but I think they made the right choice ultimately so yeah and I was lucky I got to I appreciate being from Malaysia and seeing Singapore and seeing Australia and then coming to America and having a bit more perspective on things you know I truly think it feels like a superpower sometimes

I mean, I didn't start comedy here. I started doing stand-up comedy in Australia. So when I came here, I was already six years into comedy. If you're asking me what it's like to start again in America, it was like a dream because I always wanted to do comedy in New York City. It's the best city in the world to do comedy. You can do five, six, eight shows a night here.

The best comics are here, so you're competing against them. So if you have to follow them, you have to be good. But, I mean, I've told this story many times, but one of the best advice I got was from Mr. John Oliver, who, when I first joined The Daily Show, I met up with him because The Daily Show has a very strong alumni, truly the Harvard Business School of Comedy.

And I asked him for advice on how to be a correspondent in America. being a non-American correspondent on The Daily Show, which is something that he's uniquely placed to give me advice on. And he told me that it took him two years to relearn how to do comedy in America. And he was spot on. He was spot on.

And he was, you know, he was saying like, well, I mean, this is my interpretation of what he was saying, is that when you come to America as a foreign headliner comic, you can do comedy for... 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes. You can kill for... You could maybe even kill for 30 minutes. But you're always doing comedy as like the outsider.

You know, meaning like you're coming in, you're making fun of America on a very surface level. And that works... for about nine months. But after nine months or like 11 months, I think the audience and you yourself subconsciously can feel the inauthenticity of that in the sense of like, you've been here long enough. You should know that this isn't that weird.

why are you still making fun of five flavors of Coca-Cola? You know, like you should know better now. You've been here long enough. And so the point was that it took two years to really kind of get a little bit more understanding of America where you could joke about it in a way that one, Americans haven't heard before and two, in a way that they agree with you in the authenticity.

Yes. Like literally the day after I spoke to him and I told him I was on The Daily Show, he, you know, he Googled everything about it. And he was like, hey, you know, Jon Stewart is a big deal in America. I'm like, yeah, Dad, I know. That's what I was trying to tell you. And he was like, yeah, he makes a lot of money, man. This guy's making a lot. This guy's a multimillion dollar contract.

I'm like, yeah, yeah. Comedy is a big business in America. And then he, yeah, then he started following it more. But they've always been into American politics, you know, from afar.