Jimmy O. Yang Tried to Teach His Father a Lesson about Acting: It Backfired

Did your family give you a hard time about wanting to do stand-up? Yeah, dude. There's quite the story there. It's a feel-good story. Let me preface with that. So, yeah, my dad was in finance. He hooked me up with that finance job. And when I was like, I don't know, I just don't want to do this. He's like, well, do you have another job? I was like, no, I'm going to give this stand-up thing a try. And this was like a year or two in. Obviously, I wasn't making any money. So he was very disappointed. He was hoping it was just a phase. He doesn't even know what stand-up was, old Chinese guy. He's just like a talk show. Like he just keeps calling it a talk show. Still till today, a talk show. Just never got it. So I was finishing my last year of school in San Diego. I got just random jobs. I worked at the used car lot during the day. I worked at that comedy palace collecting tickets and trade for like stage time in the evening. And then after that, I'll go put another shift as a DJ at a strip club. Just so I was like trying different things. And I didn't want to lock myself into something. And then eventually, the acting started to do a little better. My first job was two broke girls at two lines. And I was so proud. I was so proud of myself. I was finally making some money. I called my dad. I was like, dad, why don't you watch CBS tonight? I'm going to be on there and stuff. He was like, I don't have CBS. I was like, who doesn't fucking have CBS? Stick a piece of tin foil in the back of your TV, you get CBS. So he was just really not down. And then eventually, when I got on Silicon Valley, the old man understands what a contract is. A serious regular job on HBO. He's acting. He got it. So he was finally happy. I was financially secure. So instead of ever giving it up and say, hey, Jimmy, good job. I'm proud of you. Maybe I was wrong. Good for you. You know what he said. He was like, oh, if it's so easy, you can do it. I can probably do it. And he started becoming an actor. I was like, OK, dad, you know what? If you think it's so easy. Dude, I was like, dad, if you think it's so easy, I was with a very small agency at the same time. I'm like, you know what? I'm going to sign you up with her, see if she needs an older Asian guy. There's not a lot of older Asian guys out there competing. So she signed him. And then I was like, good, good, good. Now you're going to go to auditions and understand how fucking hard my life is. All the rejections I face, all the nerves I got to deal with. But then the plane completely backfired because he went to those auditions and killed it. He booked his first six out of 10 jobs, which is like an unheard of ratio. You know what I mean? You'd be lucky to book like 5% of his jobs, but he was killing it. A lot of non-union gigs. He even got on this show. I talk about this a little bit in my standup. He even got on the show that shot in San Francisco as a Chinese show. We thought it was no big deal, low budget Chinese show. Became the biggest show in China. Became like the fucking modern family of China. And then my aunt from Shanghai would call the house. I was like, Richard, you're such a good actor. Your son must have taken after you. I was like, what the fuck? Ah! Right? But now I've accepted it. That's who he is. I'm happy that me and my dad's in the same business, in a way. That's crazy. And it's a fun story to tell people, right? So I was jokingly saying that story to John Malkovich Ben Schwartz on Space Force. Everybody gets a kick out of this little story. Episode nine of Space Force comes around. We're doing a table read. And it's a China versus America thing in this episode. And they needed a couple older Chinese scientists that are authentic Mandarin speaking Chinese people. After the table read, Greg Daniels, the showrunner, he's like, hmm, you know, just, I don't know. It's always the same guys, you know, just whatever. And John Malkovich was the one that said, hey, what about Jimmy's dad? Have you thought about Jimmy's dad? And I didn't have thick enough skin to volunteer my dad. And then that night I went home, I cut together an acting reel for my dad. And I sent it to Greg. All I said was like, Greg, maybe give the old man a chance. He's got a good look. I think he fits this older scientist in China. Just let him come in and audition. But I guess Greg was so impressed with the tape. He just hired him. Wow. Episode nine of Space Force. My dad is in it. He's great. He comes in, no fear. And the scene is toe to toe with John Malkovich. Wow. And how long has he been acting? I mean, two years, if that. Two years. Never taken no classes. That's so crazy. Wow. I practiced with him on Skype for that scene. Because I was like, don't make me look bad. Don't fuck this up. Make sure you remember your lines. And then he was practicing with me. He's like, can you screen grab me, record me, so I can see my own performance. And actors were all very self-conscious. I hate to watch myself. So I recorded him. I sent him that tape. And then he looked at it. He was just like, wow. I'm really good. Look at me. I'm listening to every, I'm good at this. I was like, sure, go for it. But it's that blind sense of confidence and also the fact that he never thought to be an actor. So there's no fear. I was nervous as hell my first day with John Malkovich and Steve Carell. My dad came in with just chilling. That's so funny. It's so funny that he totally backfired. Yeah. But now it's fine. It's a fun father and son story. That's a great story. It's so funny that he saw you doing it. He's like, I can do that. You know, he's definitely. And he could do it. He's a talented guy, you know? Well. He wants to do stand-up now. Really? He was like. How old was he? He's 70 something. 72, three. Wow. And he was like, well, Jimmy, you think I can do some stand-up? I was like, sure. Just go sign up for an open mic at the Laugh Factory. I'll put your name in the hat. How about that? He was like, oh, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not doing open mics. Can I do some theater or something? I was like, that, no. Theater? He was like, no, I'm not doing front five people. I need to do it. If I do it, I need like 500 people. Oh my God. I was like, that's not how it works. But who knows? Maybe when he does it in front of 500 people, he fucking kills. What if your dad gets a fucking Netflix special next year? What if your dad just starts murdering, puts together some whole routine? Can you imagine how crazy that would be? If your dad's just a murderer, just up on stage crushing, punchline, bang, bang, bang. I want to say I would be happy for him, but there's probably a part of me that's like, oh, God. Just. How could it not be? He's always been the funny one in the family though. He's always a ball buster and everything. So it kind of came naturally to him. Wow, there he is. Yeah, I don't know if you can find that space force scene in episode nine, but completely fearless, very natural. Has he written standup? Does he have any ideas of stuff he would talk about? You know what? He would have him write a set to see what the materials would be. Yeah. I don't know. That I got offended. The acting stuff, because I always felt like I snuck into acting. I wasn't trained at Juilliard or whatever, right? So that was, so it's kind of like a similar path. He snuck into acting, I snuck into acting, whatever. But the standup thing kind of offended me. I'm like, I fucking put in 10 years, dude. You can't just go do a goddamn theater. What if he does? I mean, maybe he can open for me one day, or my next special, that'll be fine. I don't know if it's a lack of respect for the arts, or is it overconfident in his own ability? But is it overconfident if he pulled it off? And so much about acting is, it is confidence. Yeah, so it's not over. Not being shaken, being yourself, it's... It's the correct amount of confidence. It is a correct... Dude, he's so relaxed. I have a video I gotta find on my phone, I'll show you. So it's in the hallway between setups. Me and Malkovich is running lines, and I'm nervous. And Malkovich works hard. At his level, he still works hard. He's amazing. We're running lines in between takes. The camera pans, pans a bunch of empty chairs, and it pans to my dad, and then actor chair fell asleep. Just a debt of sleep. So relaxed, chillin'. And he's about to work with John Malkovich. That's hilarious. No nerves. Wow. Yeah. Does he know who John Malkovich is? He does, absolutely. Wow, and he still didn't give a fuck. No, I think maybe it comes with age. When you're 70-something, you kinda... You've seen so much. He is such a fanboy. He loves taking selfies with people. It's very... At first, it started off with just crazy rich Asians, or Patriots Day, this movie I did with Wahlberg. In the premiere, I'll take him to the premiere of My Parents, and just to finally get their approval. And he gets it. He was very emotional after Crazy Rich Asians, and all that. But his goal is not to celebrate with a son there. His goal is to get selfies. In the after party, you know those Chinese gromen theaters premieres at the Chinese theater? There he is. Right there! Mark Wahlberg. That's hilarious. He just keep doing selfies. And I was sitting at a table, and then Mark has this table, and his boys, and his security, and then my dad just leaned over to me, and was like, hey, you think we can go get a picture with Mark? I was like, no, I don't wanna ask him. Because I have fought so hard to not ask for pictures with people I work with. I want a picture with Mark. I want a picture with Malkovich. But at the same time, I wanna just be a colleague. I don't wanna be a fan. But then my dad forces me to do that. He's like, come on, just go ask him. I bet Wahlberg's used to that, though. He probably just... Exactly. If I ask, I think it's still kinda lame. But if it's like, hey, Mark, my parents are big fans. Can they get a picture? And they're just cute old Chinese people. So that was... Everybody kinda gets a kick outta him. He played my dad in Patriot today. Really? He has a very small scene. It's a, that's an interesting story. That's how he got his sad card. That's hilarious. Talk about nepotism in Hollywood, huh? That is nepotism. That's how it works. Well, but you know what? I was actively trying to improve that movie. Because the movie was very serious. It's about the Boston Marathon bombing. And I was playing a based on real life Chinese person. Very detailed stuff. He speaks with a Chinese accent, but it's a Sichuan Chinese accent where he mixes his Ls and Ts. I forget what it was. But I studied it for a long time. It's not just a generic Chinese accent, right? And then his parents, of course, speaks the Sichuan dialect, or at least just a very proper Mandarin. And the actor they first hired to play my dad, it's just a Skype scene, very simple. The actor they first hired to play my dad spoke Mandarin with a Cantonese accent. So I went up to Pete Burke to direct it. I was like, Pete, man, I gotta say something, man. The whole point of this movie is honoring these heroes and be authentic. And this guy, you guys might not be able to tell, I know, and the Chinese audience will know, this guy's from Hong Kong or from Guangdong or something. He's not from Sichuan or mainland China. So he's like, yeah, sure, we'll find another guy. And I was like, yeah, I was sitting with you on some auditions and stuff if you want. He was like, yeah, sure, well, we're already shooting in Boston, it might take a long time. I was like, Pete, why don't you just hire my dad? And that was it, they hired my dad. That's hilarious. Yeah, yeah. That's hilarious. But it's for the art, it's for the authenticity. Dude, I'm not so secretly hoping your dad kills. I was just thinking of the best story. I wanna have you back on after your dad has just murdered a few times on stage. And you're like, what the fuck? Oh my God, if he comes on this podcast and everything, he'll be a huge star. I don't know if I can handle that. Cause right now it's very much like I'm hooking him up, I'm still the star, he's just my dad. But what if I'm starting known as Richard's son like in acting, that would be kind of rough. That's gonna be hard. He's gonna have to really do something special, pull that off. We'll see, we'll see. Maybe he'd have his own Hannah Gatz BS special. And just only talk shit about me in the special? That would be funny if you and Tony or whoever, a bunch of great writers and great comedians start plotting against me for his success. And write for him and help him do it. Oh my God. With strategies for how to kill, oh my God. He loves it, man. That's great though, that's so cool. It's a good father and son bonding. What did your dad used to do for a living? What was his? He was always like a really successful salesman. He had his own medical device company that he sold. Salesman? Yes. That's a thing where you have to have personality and you have to know how to read a room. Yeah. Like we were talking about Alcoholics Anonymous is like a good gateway into comedy. I think maybe Salesman might be too. And then when he came to America, he became a financial advisor. So that's people to people, you gotta give presentations. So he was always a great public speaker and I think I took after him. I never really had much stage fright. So he's a natural. And you say bus balls, so he's always joking around. He's the funny one in the family table. Oh my God. Yeah. I think he's gonna kill. Richard. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ay yay yay. I hope he does, I really do. Yeah, well. You gotta hope he does. Maybe we'll do a two man show for Netflix. Bro, the odds of him being better than you are very slim. Ha ha ha. Let's just be honest. But don't you just want him to do well? Wouldn't it be great? I do, I really do. I think, it's really, I joke about the jealousy. I really don't care. He's an old man. Let him live his bucket list and act with John Malkovich. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. You know what I mean? Like I'm just being good son, trying to hook my dad up now. Oh man, I can't wait to see how this plays out. When is he gonna do stand up? Do you have a timeline? Was he gonna try it? No. Did he always get back open again? Well I think once I told him he can't just do theaters, he kinda became disinterested. Ha ha ha. He doesn't wanna do open mics. But you got to. Or maybe he doesn't got to. I mean it depends on how much of a perspective he has. If he has like real takes on things that he could just go on stage with. You never know man. Here's the thing. If he goes on stage without the context of this is Jimmy's dad, and he's just an old man doing a set. I don't know. That's a long road. But if I bring him up, and he's my dad, I think people just kinda eat it up, give him a little more slack. Maybe, but that might help you accept the fact that he kills. What if he goes on stage without any recognition of you whatsoever? He just, someone introduces him, he goes on stage and just fucking murders. That'll be hard to take. That would be hard. Yeah, because if you bring him up, and you give him a little training wheels, and you push him, you give him a little boost. Ready, go. It's like exactly what I was saying, how you can't immediately be good in stand up. You need to put in that five, 10 years. But if he's just good. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Yeah, I would question myself. Like I would be like, well fuck, I must be doing this tomorrow. Please tell me when he's gonna do it. Please. Okay, we're gonna. Tell me when he's gonna do it. And I wanna go. Don't encourage him. Heh heh heh heh. Heh heh heh. Heh heh. Heh heh heh. Heh heh heh. Heh heh heh.