Crazy Rich Asians continued their press tour with a visit to the Upright Citizens Brigade Sunset in Los Angeles tonight. Four members of the Crazy Rich Asians cast — comedians Nico Santos, Jimmy O. Yang, Ronny Chieng, and Ken Jeong — performed their stand-up routine to a lucky audience who were able to score tickets to the sold out show.
The show, Asian AF, hosted by Will Choi and Keiko Agena, collaborated with Warner Bros to bring the comedians to celebrate the release of the film. Many of the cast and creatives from the film were present to support their colleagues, including Awkwafina, Gemma Chan, Sonoya Mizuno, Chris Pang, director Jon M. Chu, author Kevin Kwan, and producers Brad Simpson and Nina Jacobson. Chu and Awkwafina opened the show with a sneak peek of the trailer before introducing Choi as the host for tonight.
Before each comedian performed, audiences were given a quick snippet of the character from the film. Santos came up first and shared some stories from the set, including his lack of knowledge of the Chinese language. Santos, who is of Filipino descent, was given lines to recite during the movie and practiced it many times. When he had to actually say it, his co-star Michelle Yeoh turned to him and asked him what he just said. He screamed, “I don’t know! I don’t speak Cantonese! I’m Filipino!”
Yang, who plays rich playboy Bernard in the film, came up next and proved to everyone he was his Twitter handle — Funny Asian Dude. He shared his stories from the Crazy Rich Asians press tour, including him asking his agent if he could audition for Henry Golding’s part, the handsome lead. Yang knew that he didn’t fit the part for Nick and that he was ‘really good-looking if you’re into anime.’ He also shared a clip during a Press Tour stop in Dallas at a TV news station. The news reporter thought he was Santos, but Yang jokingly told her he was ‘Ken Jeong.’ Little did Yang know, Kwan, who was on the press tour, told the reporter that Yang loved to break dance. At the end of the news segment, the reporter requested Yang to break dance. Yang, who has no idea how to break dance, got up and awkwardly danced.
Known for his comedy on The Daily Show, Chieng was introduced as the next performer. In the film, Chieng plays Eddie, Nick’s cocky rich cousin and family man. Chieng didn’t share any stories from the Crazy Rich Asians set, but being raised in Singapore, he did share about his life there. For those who didn’t know about Singaporean culture, Chieng convinced many that the stereotypes of Singapore were true, including if you chewed gum in Singapore, they’d beat their asses. He also shared about his life living in the United States with his lovely wife. He shared some stories about married life, including having to have three weddings, because ‘weddings for Asians parents is their [version of] Instagram. This is their time to brag.'”
The night ended with the last performer, Jeong, who wanted to test some new stuff for his upcoming Netflix special. We won’t reveal too much here, but Jeong’s set was extremely hilarious and including Hangover stories, Donald Trump, and online trolls.
Jeong concluded the night with a special shout out to Chu for making Crazy Rich Asians and the crowd for supporting it. He emotionally told the audience that it’s our time. “I believe there is something bigger than all of us.”
For more information on Asian AF and future shows, click here.
Crazy Rich Asians opens in theaters on August 15.
