How Jimmy O. Yang Discovered Standup Comedy

You know, I didn't know about stand-up comedy when I was growing up. Never heard of it. Really? Because I grew up in Hong Kong. What was the first stand-up you saw? BET Comic View. Wow! When I was 13. Which one? I think it was J. Anthony Brown that year, or Bruce Bruce around then. It was so interesting to me because this wasn't even an art form that existed in my childhood in Hong Kong. I'm sure there were some stand-ups. But you never heard of it. Never heard of it. And then I came to America and I was trying to learn English just by watching TV. And then it seems like just completely different genres in this new art form. It's like I heard music for the first time and I was like holy shit there's rock and roll music and there's you know hip-hop. So it was so interesting because I remember I really gravitated towards Comic View. That was so interesting because it wasn't just jokes or me trying to learn English. It was me also trying to like learning about culture. How each race saw each other, blah blah. Even though there were stereotypes you know that they're joking about. But it was cool. Whereas I watched that Comedy Central premium blend, didn't really laugh. I don't know why. So I always gravitated to it once. Urban comedy you know. Well they're having more fun. Yeah exactly. But then because I was watching the performance of it. It's like there's hip-hop fans that like a song because of the beat. And then there's hip-hop fans that don't care about the beat and only listen to the lyrics. I was more like the beat guy you know. And I just loved that side of performance. And then only later on when I got into comedy I was like oh wow. Everyone that's doing that premium blend stuff. Maybe not my cup of tea. But it made me laugh like as an adult because I understood how hard that was. Yeah. I found out about comedy from my parents took me to see Richard Pryor live at the Sunset Strip when I was 15 in the movie theater. Watching Richard Pryor on stage going this is crazy. I couldn't believe how funny he was. Like I'd seen all these funny movies. But to watch this guy just talking on stage I was fascinated. He's one of those guys when you watch you like I can do that because he's just talking. He just there's did he write this. But there's so much insane talent. Like Michael Jordan makes basketball look easy. I mean I guess you know you can't talk. Yeah yeah yeah. Yeah there's there's so many different ways you can get introduced to comedy. It's it's I love hearing like when people like when the seed get planted in people's heads. Like when did you know that you were going to try to do this. People ask me that question and I hear like great stories like the Richard Pryor story or like it's like me and my brother used to sneak in a movie theater watch Eddie Murphy live after you had a heart attack. I promise I'll be a comedian. Like really. You know amazing. I don't have that. I was I think it was a desperation that made me want to do comedy desperation. I never thought that was even a thing. Right. Like because you don't go in the arts when you're Asian. That's not a real job. You know. So is it because your family would discourage it. Yeah. Yeah. And also nobody in my family did it in the arts like anybody that made money was in finance whatever real jobs quote unquote. You know. So I was just I was about to graduate college with an economics degree and I hated the internship I had in finance and shit and I just saw my life flash in front of me. I'm like oh my god for the next 40 years I'm behind this desk fucking mutual funds. Who cares. You know. So I just tried I had like a quarter life crisis right when I was about to graduate. I was like I got to do something to meet new friends to meet girls to whatever. So then I took jujitsu classes for like two months. Horrible. I was I was the smallest guy and the weakest guy in the class. They would team me up with the girls and they would twist me up like a pretzel. It was very discouraging. I quit after like two months if that. And then I tried like different things like boxing classes gyms whatever you know. And then I say the story. I wrote this book and I say in the book like typing in local open mics in your Google search. It's one step away from typing in what's the best way to kill myself. It is that desperation that you need that I need it. So then I just Google local open mics went to the ha ha paid five dollars. You have to pay five dollars for five minutes of stage time to ha ha. So five other comics can not laugh at you. It was you know horrific. But that still felt better than me sitting at home making no friends because I saw a camaraderie. I was like if I'm good I can make some friends like here in the open mic and there's a new world out. There's an out for me. So soon after I think I quit that finance you know internship very promising internship and I just try to do stand up. You know I did everything. I worked the door. I at the Comedy Palace in San Diego this Greek restaurant that will turn into a comedy club at night. I worked the door folded envelopes did everything. If they let me sleep there I would have slept there answer the phones and everything. I just dove into it not just for the love of comedy and the arts but for the love of this new life this new fraternity that I found. You know that's awesome. So so a lot of it it was an improvement on my life that was that interested me in stand up and through stand up. I got laid for the first time. You know I mean so like it worked out for me and I kind of had a crisis where OK I'm doing fine. You know I have a lot of friends now I have you know I go on dates like it's fine like my life is fine and I started making money on Silicon Valley you know. So I stopped doing stand up. I was like I don't really need this you know. But but then after a while like I wasn't getting depressed either. So it was a really good feeling because it wasn't a crutch. It wasn't an addiction I needed to feed. And then eventually I did stand up finally I think for the love of it. I was like you know what I do miss this. I'm going to go do it on my own terms not just because I'm trying to make friends and trying to pull girls. I'm doing it because I enjoy the process of it. So let's fucking do it. And that's the recent I guess resurgence of energy. How much time did you take off to. From stand up I want to know if like a year or two when a couple seasons during Silicon Valley. I would do stand up maybe at max. I would just go down the comedy Magic Club once every two months just so I can you know talk some friends or something. Just just do it. Yeah. Dust it off and yeah. But it was stuck in that same old material wasn't feeling it. And the reason for this special really was I kind of got pissed. I was because everybody that was coming up to me in the streets like you know Jing Yang Silicon Valley whatever. And there's some YouTube clips for watching me doing this. Oh I didn't know this motherfucking can do stand up. You know. And I'm like man I am a stand up. I started as a stand up. I think I'm a better stand up than I am an actor. You know. So let me prove to the world. I'm not just like a vine guy or actor trying to do stand up. I am an actor who used to be a stand up and that is my fucking forte.