By Erin Chew
After the success of Crazy Rich Asians last year and the major push for Asian representation and visibility in Hollywood, an array of “Crazy, Asians” spin-off events including comedy shows, web videos and even music have sprung up. I have taken an interest in the Asian American comedy scene, one which I am so delighted to see flourish. Why? Well, as an Asian Australian living in the world of Asian America, it is something I have hope for that Asian Australian comedy will soon follow suit.
Capitalizing on Crazy Rich Asians is pretty genius, and looking at the mission and the array of comedians on Crazy Woke Asians, it really is an awesome platform to showcase Asian American comedy talent. Comedy is an interesting creative art in that it is a way to communicate personal stories, serious issues, and social issues in a way which is digestible, funny and entertaining to the “regular person”, and that is the purpose of Crazy Woke Asians – to provide this platform for Asian American comedic talent to convey their stories, experiences and issues of concern in a lighthearted comedic way.
Looking through their website, one statement in their mission sticks out to me:
“Celebrating diversity through creating non-stereotypical, multi-dimensional characters that reflects truth in our community. “
I feel this is extremely important, because as Asians and more specifically as Asian Americans in entertainment it is time to stop playing stereotypical roles/characters and personas which Asians are expected to play by mainstream Western society. Authenticity and originality in stories is what is most important and by the looks of it the Crazy Woke Asians comedic platform aims to achieve this.
For folks who are in the Los Angeles or Southern California region, there is a Crazy Woke Asians comedy show on this Sunday, September 1 at the Comedy Store, West Hollywood. The array of Asian comedians are pretty awesome including Atsuko Okatsuka, Eshter Ku and Peter Kim. ( just to name a few). If you are interested, please click here to the Eventbrite to purchase your tickets!
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