DIRECT TALK(VISION VIBES)

Draft transcript

Alex Steullet / Host:

Hi there. I'm Alex Steullet and this is Vision Vibes, the podcast bringing you the uplifting stories of inspiring people from all walks of life.

You know, there are a few things that every living creature in the world has in common.

Me and my cat, for example, we both are sometimes happy, sometimes sad, sometimes irritated. We both eat and drink. We both sleep, although my cat does it much better than me. There's one thing that humans have that I don't think any other animal has, and that thing is comedy, a sense of humor.

Not only do we laugh, but we actually like to laugh. It's kind of weird because it takes up energy and resources, but at the same time, it's healthy. It's actually good for us. It's cathartic. It brings us together and makes us feel good.

And good comedy can do even more than that. Good comedy breaks us out of our everyday routines and confronts us with kind of the weirdness and absurdity of existence. And in doing so, we forget about our differences. We kind of come together and learn what it is that makes us all the same.

Today's guest uses comedy to fight Asian hate and build bridges between the Asian American community and other communities in the US. Jiaoying Summers was born in China. But at age 18, she moved to the United States. Now she lives in Los Angeles, and she performs comedy almost every day. Her jokes are unique to her and to her experience, and in in some way, they're a window into the way Asian Americans are treated and, and live in the United States.

Jiaoying Summers:

This is a QR code that you can scan.

And then find out what kind of Asian I am.

Do we have any Asians in the house? So, I'm not the only person who brought COVID to America. It's nice.

Do you think the Asians, we are happy to see somebody squeeze soy sauce on fried rice. It's fried rice. There's soy sauce in some fried rice. You are wasting soy sauce.

We control our anger. I control my anger. I go home and I verbally abuse my white boyfriend like a normal person.

My job is to speak the truth and make them laugh. That's what I do.

There's no boundaries in comedy.

Now there's cancel culture or censorship in America, in comedy, and I choose to stand up for myself and for my voice.

So, my dream is to become the person who can talk about important issues in the world and make it funny.

It's very hard to make that funny, but once you have this very strong point of view, not mocking people, but share what deep inside my heart and mocking myself and people really relate. They love it.

I talk more about the culture shock. I feel like that it helps Americans to understand that we are the same people, Asians, Americans, we are all the same. So, I think that's really help with xenophobic towards Asian Americans.

Alex Steullet / Host:

In listening to Jiaoying speak, there are two themes that I think constantly overlap and, and it's funny cause they're kind of contradictory. It's humor and hard work. The way I think people tend to think of humor is something you have or you don't. It's kind of like a talent. It's just, you know, some people are just funnier than others. But comedian as a profession is hard. It takes effort. Coming up with a routine takes perseverance. And I think this is especially true for Jiaoying as a single mother juggling all of her family responsibilities with her craft.

And so, Jiaoying wants to make people laugh, but she wants to do it in her own way. She wants to blend her experience into her art as a way to kind of make her comedy better and more relatable.

The jokes she tells, I think she's kind of the only one who can tell, and that's what makes her routine funny and it's what makes people like her as a comedian.

You know, comedy starts out maybe with a little bit of natural talent, but Jiaoying shows us that in the long run, it's a job. And for Jiaoying, the practice that it took to get there was not easy to get.

Jiaoying Summers:

As a female Asian American immigrant comedian, I know exactly that is how unfair, how dark comedy is. It's very racist. It's very sexist.

You go to open mic, but you have to stay in line for three hours for a lottery open mic. There's 100 people and 20 people get pulled. You sit there for three hours waiting for they get pulled. You may never get go on stage and that's the time you are going to invest in, and it's really crazy.

I did my first open mic, obviously in Koreatown. And I bombed. I don't remember what I said, I was so nervous. I feel like I got run by a train.

And I remember I was walking down the stage. Somebody was saying, “Somebody should not be doing comedy.” And then I was crying and I went to the bar, I got a vodka shot, and I had the vodka, went to my car and started crying. I was breastfeeding. My milk just started coming out. Then I have a cup to catch the milk to save for the baby. Now I realize this. They can’t drink this. There’s a vodka in the milk. So, I was crying. I’m like, “You’re useless.” I’m dumping the milk, and I’m like, “No, that is white Russian. I should drink it. Now I drink it. And I’m like, “That’s a good joke.” So, that’s actually my first good joke as a standup comedian, the white Russian. That’s the best white Russian in the world. I drink my own breast milk. So, I was crying. Then, I said, “Hm, I’ll write this down. I’ll try it tomorrow.”

I can see that I just do more shows. I just write more jokes. I just make more content because that's the only way I know how I can be better than myself for tomorrow. I know I'm better every day, and I know I am at ease. I'm like, Okay, we are moving forward. And that's all you know.

My daughter and my son, they will understand that why my mom come home late. And why she is always working on her craft. And when they see my performance, and they see that we raise money to help the victims, and my jokes are uplifting our community, they will understand they will forgive me, and I think they will become a better person. And they also become outspoken about problems that's happening towards Asian American community.

Alex Steullet / Host:

At the end of our interview, Jiaoying left us with a message. It was in Chinese, so forgive my pronunciation, but the message was Yong Chi which means courage, and that is really the one quality that stands out when you listen to her speak …is that she doesn't shy away from uncomfortable topics, and she doesn't shy away from uncomfortable language either. She uses words and expressions that I would maybe feel uncomfortable using around my family. But the fact that she uses them, it makes her comedy feel more open. It feels like we're having a heart-to-heart conversation while we're laughing at the jokes. And I think that's really the quality of a great comedian. She's raising her voice for real things that are happening to her community. But she's doing it in a way that it's fun and that everybody doesn't really have trouble listening in the way that they would if, if she was an activist, for example.

I think this interview with Jiaoying really made me think, what better way to raise awareness and promote your community than by making people laugh and have a good time?

That's it for today's episode. This interview was originally broadcast on television as part of the NHK WORLD interview series Direct Talk. You can find our other stories on the Vision Vibes website. I've been Alex Steullet. Join us next time.