Fed-up comic Ronny Chieng finds the funny in frustration
If you’re familiar with stand-up comedian Ronny Chieng’s loud, fed-up persona, you might be surprised to know that his actual voice is pensive, affable, and well-reasoned. that’s how he sounds, anyway, as he talks over the phone from new York, where he films his segments as a correspondent and periodic host on “the Daily show.”
Now on his “love to Hate It” tour, Chieng comes to the Wilbur theatre friday and saturday for four sold-out shows.
Chieng, 38, born into a Malaysian-Chinese family, primarily grew up in Malaysia and singapore, but his main exposure to comedy was through british shows like “Are You being served?” and “fawlty towers.” “In singapore at that time,” he says, “we were kind of more british than American. America was kind of like this hip, cool, other world.”
But it was a world he occupied for a time. As a child, Chieng lived in Manchester, n.H., for four years — long enough for him to have many pleasant memories of his time in new england. “I’ve always had an affinity for it since I was a kid,” he says. “Chinatown [in boston] is where we went to get all the food we were missing at home.”
It was also during that time that Chieng learned about his future trade. “I was watching a lot of ‘seinfeld,’ ” says Chieng. “He would do the stand-up in his interstitials. that’s how I figured out that [stand-up] was an art form. I didn’t even know you could do that.”
From there, Chieng became a fan of bill burr, a style that would inspire his own form of comedic anger. “When I watched him, what resonated with me was that a lot of my comedy comes from frustration. If something makes me angry, there’s a more than likely chance that it would make a good bit for me. [burr is] kind of like a longer storyteller. that’s something I naturally gravitated towards as well. that’s all I’ll dare to claim to have picked up from the great Mr. bill burr.”
burr also helped Chieng in a more literal sense, taking him under his wing as an opener after seeing his act online. “He actually reached out to me on facebook, completely out of the blue,” he says. “that really made me feel like I was going in the right direction.”
He adds, “but really, I kind of learned from everybody. My main thing was not so much trying to mimic other people — the whole reason I did comedy was that no one was talking about what I wanted to hear.”
In his 2022 netflix special, “speakeasy,” those topics range from Mr. bean (he’s really not a fan) to uneducated critics of CoVID vaccines (ditto). His character on “the Daily show,” as in his stand-up, has had it up to here. the difference is, he’s had it up to here on subjects like airdropping meals to refugees in gaza and anti-Asian discrimination.
When asked how Chieng’s character fits in with other personalities on “the Daily show,” fellow correspondent Michael Kosta says that he’s part of the show’s overall faux-serious dynamic while also staying true to his comedic voice. “In some ways, [his character] is angrier, more upset, less optimistic than ‘the Daily show.’ but he’s so unbelievably funny that it’s a wonderful addition. His voice can be so laser-focused.” Chieng says that while his correspondent work requires a different approach than his stand-up act, his role on the show has helped him fine-tune his onstage persona. “before I was on ‘the Daily show,’ it was kind of like, ‘What can I say to make people laugh? What can I say that someone else has not said?’ Which is kind of the core of stand-up comedy. then working at ‘the Daily show’ adds an additional layer, which is, ‘What are you trying to say with this joke that is unique?’ that was something that got hammered into us at the show lot — that kind of rigorous adherence to structure and having an overall point of view. And being very brutal with your edits.” As much as his fans are looking forward to seeing his volatile mix of anger and catharsis on the “love to Hate It” tour, Chieng is eager to come back to new england. “I always have a fun time in boston. I kind of feel like I grew up there a bit. It always feels a little bit of a homecoming.”
‘The whole reason I did comedy was that no one was talking about what I wanted to hear.’
RONNY CHIENG