What do your parents/children (delete as applicable) think of your job?        

I can’t really tell with my dad. He did say to me doing comedy should remain just a hobby. It ain't a serious career choice. But he is the one who likes to tell dick jokes and dad jokes to friends (and a serious offender too)  long before I started comedy, so I won’t take his advice on this specific matter. 

For my mum: the worst possible return on any of her investments. That my family was probably cursed or it may have been a bad karma so I am now on the wrong path.  She also thought it was a deliberate attempt for me to make her unhappy (rather than trying to do something to make myself happy)

What’s the worst thing about being a comedian?

If I had been asked this question a few years back, I would have said - without any hesitation - the need for constant external validations, especially by the audience.

Comedians can be so used to having their effort, craft, talent (or even charisma mixed with personality) judged by the audience - measured by the volume of laughter we receive when we perform - it becomes an unhealthy addiction.  In very few other jobs is the validation so brutally and explicitly quantified. 

But post Covid, I would say the worst thing about being a comedian is the new expectation on comedians to juggle between booking and performing at live shows and managing their social media account(s). Now, comedians are expected to be online content creators and to an extent influencers at the same time.  

You notice some works go to comedians with bigger following on social media, so you know very few can be exempt from this rat race.  But managing social media itself is another job.  Be it sketches, clips from stand up clips, editing takes time.  It is just a lot more demanding for the newer comedians that they are expected to do so many different things until they have the resources to employ someone else to do it for them.

I also felt the comedy game used to be the closest to a meritocracy - just be funny.  Work on your craft.  But now, no one really knows fully how the algorithms work. Being attractive-looking becomes a lot more important like other parts of the entertainment industry (comedy used to be the sanctuary for more ordinary-looking people)

I think you are very good at what you do (that’s why I’m asking these questions). What do you think of you?

A big thank you first (however sincere that might or might not be).  My self-assessment varies a lot depending on the mood on that day.  Generally, I have a tendency to downplay any achievement I may have made when being asked or complimented.  My default position would be - something must not be good enough yet! It can be improved.  

I suspect that may have to do with my East Asian - or more specifically Confucian - upbringing.  When I was a kid, I used to get beaten by my mum for scoring 98 out of 100 in a maths quiz for example.  I recall running away from her and asking, “Isn’t 98 good enough? Why are you still not happy?” To which my mum replied, “The mistake you made was due to carelessness.  You know the answer.  But you did not pay attention to it, so you got one question wrong that you should have got right.  It’s not a question beyond your ability or knowledge. For that you deserve to be punished.”  I mean it was such a messed up environment no wonder I ran away from my family. 

Some friends have encouraged me to learn to appreciate myself more and undo the damage of whatever spartan education forced down my throat.  But then when I have a really good gig and start to think, “Oh, I must be really good at what I do!”, the universe sometimes decides to keep me in check and let me bloody bomb at another gig.  So I will always take any complement with a pinch of salt.

But in general, the kind words audience of fellow comedians gave me - either by way of messages or they just came up to me after a gig - have made me less self-critical. I’d like to think I am gradually walking out of the ruin of my upbringing. 

How much do you earn and how much would you like to earn?

Are you one of my aunties from Taiwan? I do not expect this kind of privacy intrusion from a westerner.

Not a lot.  I used to earn a lot more when I was in the corporate world as a 9 to 5 tax accountant.

How important is luck in terms of career success – have you had lucky breaks?

I think it is extremely important.  Talent and hard work are certainly crucial, but these alone do not guarantee career success. 

A friend of mine teaches at MBA schools (ESMT in Berlin and previously university of Warwick) and he wrote a book about this. Prof Chengwei Liu’s “Luck: A Key Idea for Business and Society”

Basically, people who’ve made it typically like to say it’s all their own hard work. There is no luck involved.  But that is hardly the case.  If you look at the so-called nepo babies, being born to parents who are already in the industry and can pass on the connections they have is also a form of lottery in life. Brooklyn Peckham is not that talented to be a photographer shooting to fame that early, certainly? 

I do think though, some luck may only come in the shape of a brief opportunity and one has to be ready to shine in that moment, so hard work is still important. 

I think I got my lucky-ish break when I had my first comedy central clip in 2020, the first significant credit I can put on my CV. I think i did okay, considering it was a zoom gig (called Comedy Central at the Edinburgh Fringe).  Ten comics were chosen but many others had much higher profiles than I did. 

I was approached by the production company just because someone from the production team saw me at an all East Asian line up show at Angel Comedy’s The Bill Murray the winter before.  She liked what I did.  Maybe the diversity quota needs also helped in this case?  Otherwise I did not have much luck with the judges at most new act competitions. Rarely did I get into the finals so I did not have much chance to be seen by the industry (Frog and Bucket was based purely on audience votes and the room was large enough so one act’s friends and family cannot sway the outcome. NATYs was the only exception) 

Alan Davies has said that comedians fall into two categories - golfers and self-harmers. The former just get on with life, the latter are tortured artists. Which are you – or do you think you fit into third category?

Of all the metaphors that could be used to describe people who just get on with their lives, I am quite surprised he chose golfing …. It really isn’t an example of a shared universal experience, as opposed to, say, people who just make a cup of tea before they need to deal with something. 

I think I am more easily stressed and closer to the perfectionist end of the spectrum, but I may just have too many compartmentalised versions of me operating and competing against each other.  Sometimes, self-harming thoughts arise, but there are defence mechanisms built within myself to prevent myself from actually committing self-harm, either literally or metaphorically. 

Who is your favourite person ever and why – not including family or friends or other comedians?

Martin Lewis. He seems like a nice bloke who genuinely wants to help people in need. People who don’t have enough knowledge about budgeting and personal finance to protect themselves. 

I don’t wholehearted love doing the tax and accounting jobs, but some knowledge on financial matters has really helped me to this date. 

Do you keep your drawers tidy and if not why not? (please think long and hard about this question, it's to settle an argument with my girlfriend. The future of our relationship could depend on your response).

This depends on the type of drawers you are thinking of.  Do you mean wardrobe drawers / chest of drawers or desk drawers?  Polar opposite examples.  I am close to being pathologically tidy when it comes to drawers for my underwear and socks. They are folded neatly in a space-saving fashion. Almost Marie Kondo-esque

My desk drawers on the other hand are a complete mess.  I hoard stuff like how Ariel keeps her collection in the cave, as if my drawer is a musuem for 21st century human lives. I keep used pens, free post-it notes, marbles, broken stables, stamps, coins, postcards, crayons, paracetamols, . I know my passport for example is on my main drawer, but it always takes me a good few minutes to locate and retrieve it before I travel.  

Kuan-Wen Huang’s ‘Ilha Formosa’ is at the Gilded Balloon - Lounge at 5.40pm from 2nd - 27th August (not 15th). For tickets go to www.edfringe.com

Picture by Karla Gowlett

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