With 20 years of experience in comedy and dozens of international tours under his belt, Ron Josol brings his witty observational stand-up to Shanghai, where he first performed as an opener for Russell Peters back in 2004. We caught up with Josol before his shows at Kung Fu Komedy Club to learn about the adrenaline rush of stand-up, his changing relationship with Asian jokes, and which countries get the biggest kick out of being mean.
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You wrote and starred in a TV film, Rolling Longaniza, and have done some comedy acting. What do you like about acting and TV work versus stand-up?
Stand-up is dangerous, but gratifying. Acting is not as dangerous. You can retake a scene three or four times. You don’t have to hit it every time. When you’re doing stand-up, you kind of have to hit everything. You only have the one shot. Stand-up is equivalent to anything that provides a high-level adrenaline rush, like bungee jumping or Formula 1 racing. It’s an extreme sport as opposed to a leisure sport.
And you enjoy the adrenaline rush?
Of course. I think everybody in life enjoys some kind of danger, some kind of risk, because you need that to know how far your mind and body can take you. In a weird way, you’re testing yourself. Because that’s what these high-level activities do, they reveal who you are. And once you find out who you are, you’re happy and you’re at peace with that.
"Stand up is dangerous, but gratifying"
How have the jokes you make about your Filipino background and culture changed since you first started stand-up?
In the 90s, maybe one percent of comedians were Asian. So, me getting into a club would be easier if I just said, “Hey, I’m an ethnic comic.” So I was just an “Asian comic” – my jokes were just generally based on being Asian, not specifically Filipino. In fact, if I said Filipino, they’d probably be confused. It was too specific. But now, there are so many black comedians, Asian comedians, brown comedians. So you can’t just say, “Hey, I’m different from you,” because the guy before you was probably Asian, too. Now you can just talk about who you are as a person, which can still relate to your ethnicity or your background.
Photo via promoter
You’ve toured around the world, from Australia to the Middle East. Do you make adjustments to your set depending on where you’re performing?
Every country has a combination lock. If you go to the Middle East, you can’t swear. You can’t talk about politics, you can’t talk about the rulers. You can’t talk about drugs. So you’ve got to be really specific and become this clean, corporate comedian. But then if you go to a club, you can’t be too clean. They need to hear some swearing, some sex jokes, some jokes that shock them, because they’re already drunk and the show’s been two and a half hours already. So you have to do a lot of these tricks to wake them up, like yelling a little bit more – that is survival; it’s not really art.
But then in LA or New York, you have to do shows that are very artistic, because the audiences and bookers and agents for television want to see the next best comedian and innovator. Big cities respond to stuff they haven’t felt or seen or related to yet. They like to embrace difference, because they’re so jaded and used to seeing the same stuff over and over again.
What are some trends you’ve observed regarding what people find funny in different countries?
I’ve learned that certain countries don’t like sarcasm, certain countries do. Certain countries don’t find being mean funny, but in the States, they find being mean really funny. And I can be racial in LA, Toronto, and New York, but if I do it in Australia, they kind of feel like they’re racist if they laugh. So there’s a different line of what’s harsh material, mean material, shocking material.
You’re never in easy waters. Stand-up comedy is sometimes a fun ride on a boat that has a little bit of waves. That’s the ideal. But maybe 60 percent of the time, you’re in a raft and you’re trying to maintain a standing position while there are waves, typhoons and a tsunami around you. And you’re trying to stand up there and smile and pretend nothing’s happening. That’s what it feels like.
August 17-18, 9pm, July 15 8pm & 10pm, RMB175 presale, RMB200 door. Kung Fu Komedy Club, see event listing. Purchase tickets here.
[Cover image via promoter]
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