![]() ![]() ![]() This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and Ken Jeong is at the Adelphi theatre, London, on 23 June. I’ll just say, ‘It’s OK, I could buy this whole theatre …’” I’m sure I’ll lean on that in London if a couple of jokes don’t go so well. I’ve done it sometimes when I’ve performed with much wealthier comics – Ray Romano or Chris Rock – and it tickles me no end. “Oh my God, I love doing that! I’m not that rich really. “I live in Los Angeles – the rich part,” he boasts, while another joke begins: “Even if I wasn’t rich and famous, which I am …” He hoots when I point out this tendency. One significant alteration in his life has been material, as he reminds his audience at regular intervals. As triumph and tragedy strike us, we do change. But I believe we should be given space to evolve our viewpoints and our philosophies. ![]() In the days of social media, that’s all changed. And comedians, like all people, should be allowed to do that. ![]() “No, no, no,” he shudders when I ask if he would include that gag today. His remedy, he used to say, was to prescribe chemotherapy for all. In another early joke, he recalled being inundated as a doctor with hypochondriacs who were convinced they had cancer. (Jeong was raised in North Carolina by Korean parents, and refers to Koreans as “the hottest-tempered of all Asians”.) The rudiments of that routine have endured into the Netflix special but without the homophobia now he says that the Vietnamese sound like “Koreans on weed”. I was on the bill with Adam Sandler at the Improv, and when you’re opening you have to fight to survive.” Two decades ago, he compared and contrasted various Asian accents, describing the more elaborate Vietnamese delivery as “kinda faggy”. Jeong’s jabbing delivery has lost some of its off-putting aggression, and his language now is more considered. Photograph: Warner Bros/Everett/Rex Featuresīut it’s more than that. Men behaving badly … Jeong, second left, in The Hangover Part II. It was his wife, after all, who predicted that The Hangover would be a feelgood hit because the most insecure male viewer would consider himself well-endowed compared with her husband. It may partly be that we now know him better: it’s hard to feel intimidated by someone who has not only flailed around naked on screen but also seizes every opportunity to draw attention to his own supposed shortcomings. Compare Jeong’s performing style and material from 20 or even 10 years ago (much of it is still accessible on YouTube) and there is a marked softening of tone. Through doing Dr Ken I learned to write personally – we’d even done an episode inspired by Tran’s cancer – and I wanted to bring that into my standup.” When that was cancelled in 2017 after two seasons, he found himself itching to return to his comedy roots. He had a cameo in the romcom Crazy Rich Asians and created his own autobiographical sitcom Dr Ken. Twelve years ago, he stole several scenes as a volatile doctor in Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up before going on to play assorted uptight child-men, including the taunting, short-fused Spanish teacher Señor Chang in six seasons of the smart-aleck sitcom Community, and a petty tyrant who dresses as a medieval king in Role Models. Scene-stealer … Jeong as Señor Chang in Community. “Standup has become a deeply personal journey for me, and I’m very grateful to have the career I do.” “I never, ever want to quit standup,” he tells me from his home in Los Angeles, his default tone one of grave and emphatic humility. Far from being offended, the crowd squeals delightedly, recognising it as the trademark of Mr Chow, the camp, motormouthed gangster played by Jeong in all three Hangover movies, which cemented his move from physician to jobbing comic to film phenomenon and ensured that, should he so choose, he could leave behind the standup circuit for ever.Īnd yet here he is, back on the road again after a decade of film and television success, and heading to London for his first UK date a few weeks shy of his 50th birthday. Or stalking the stage at the start of his new Netflix special, making slow-motion masturbatory hand gestures, his fingers miming the spray of ejaculate in his fans’ faces. That’s whether he’s springing naked from the boot of a car in The Hangover and landing crotch-first on Bradley Cooper’s mouth like the face-hugger in Alien. Rage, mania and disinhibition are the common factors in Ken Jeong’s comedy. ![]()
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