Asian comics break down stereotypes one laugh at a time
|
June 7, 2010
by Emily Wilson (ComedyBeat)
“This is my response to the overriding image of mixed race identity as tragic,” said Darby Li Po Price, about his dissertation on multiracial comics for his Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. “The tragic aspect is very limiting, but the comic perspective is very liberating. It allows us to imagine any possible outcome.”
Price, who also has made a documentary, Crossing the Line, about multiracial comedians, recently participated in a panel discussion on Asian American comedians as part of the United States of Asian America Festival in San Francisco. Moderated by Oanh Ha of KQED radio, the panel included Eddie Li, who started working in comedy at 16, Samson Koletkar, who gets mileage out of being Indian and Jewish, and Tina Kim, a former TV news reporter.
Price says some people use the stereotype of Asians as overly serious to marginalize them.
“In the 1800s, the journalist Bret Harte visited California and wrote that he never saw a Chinaman laugh and that they didn’t have a sense of humor,” he said.
Just having Asian American comedians perform challenges stereotypes, Price said.
“Doing stand up comedy requires a high form of social and linguistic skills,” he said. “It goes against the stereotypes that Asians can’t speak English correctly or are socially unaware.”
Price says he has seen quite a change since he first started following comedy in the 1990s. Now there are well known performers such as Margeret Cho, Dat Phan, and Russell Peters.
It was seeing Russell Peters, an Indian Canadian comic, that inspired Samson Koletkar.
Growing up in Mumbai, Koletkar never saw any stand up comedy. Instead a lot of the humor was slapstick and impressions, he said.
“When I told my parents I was doing stand up comedy, they had no point of reference,” he said. “I go on a stage and tell jokes was the best explanation I could give them.”
Koletkar’s parents saw him perform live in 2007 in San Francisco, and then in Mumbai in 2008 at a new comedy club there. Koletkar predicts in a dozen years or so there will be more comedy clubs in India than in the U.S. and the U.K. together.
Koletkar, who puts together a comedy show a couple times a week in Oakland with people from all backgrounds, in addition to his day job as a technical consultant, says there is a group of Asian American comedians here, who are, in general, supportive.
“If someone asks me if I’m available and I’m booked, I’ll point towards some other comedian,” he said.
Koletkar says his audiences range from mostly South Asian at specific events to people from all backgrounds at comedy clubs. Koletkar says as a first generation immigrant, he has a unique perspective.
“There’s such a huge number of immigrants here,” he said. “I think non-Americans appreciate the humor more. They’re never lost when I’m talking to them. I’ve done comedy in Canada and India, and I don’t have to worry about how people are going to relate to me.”
Koletkar thinks the growing number of Asian American comedians helps him by opening up people’s minds to what a comedian looks or sounds like. And for Price, the benefit of more Asian American comedians goes far beyond them being able to make a better living.
“A lot of people who still view Asians as the enemy don’t want to see you as a funny person,” he said. “People without humor are seen as not fully human. If you’re funny, you’re not this total other people can hate.”