Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
One of only two non-Americans on Netflix’s The Comedy Lineup showcases, English-born, Malaysian-raised Phil Wang debut his first hour of stand-up on the streaming giant, where he’s mulling over not just his role in the world as a product of two cultures, but also his changing body and philosophy as he enters his 30s.
PHIL WANG: PHILLY PHILLY WANG WANG: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: Of the 16 comedians to perform 15-minute sets on Netflix’s The Comedy Lineup in 2018, only two came from outside the United States. One was Aisling Bea, the Irish comedian whose sitcom with Shannon Horgan, This Way Up, recently arrived on Hulu. The other was Phil Wang.
Wang, born in England but raised in Malaysia until he returned to the U.K. at age 16, graduated from the University of Cambridge with an engineering degree and the prestige of serving as a president of the Footlights, the legendary campus comedy troupe whose other past presidents have included Peter Cook, Eric Idle, Hugh Laurie and Douglas Adams; more recently, Sue Perkins of The Great British Bake-Off, David Mitchell of That Mitchell and Webb Look, Richard Ayoade of The IT Crowd, and Simon Bird of The Inbetweeners. For his part, Wang’s credits have focused mostly on stand-up, releasing two previous specials for free on YouTube, making the rounds of the British comedy panel series, and guesting on series seven of Taskmaster.
Philly Philly Wang Wang broke ticket-selling records at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and he intended to film it for Netflix in May 2020. The pandemic changed all of that. And even parts of his hour, in which he now jokes about how his heritage and cultural upbringing plays into pandemic fears.
What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: There’s plenty in this hour that ring the familiar bell of comedians grappling with life as they hit their 30s, although there aren’t enough comedians with an Asian perspective on the pandemic and our fears toward it, nor comedians willing to tackle what comedians can talk about without falling into the predictable language traps. For those reasons, Wang particularly stands out.
Memorable Jokes: How much could’ve changed since May 2020, when Wang initially had scheduled this taping? “We’re finally doing it. I can’t wait to do the show. I hope it is all still relevant,” he said. “This show is about Brexit and how much I want to meet Prince Philip.”
Wang uses his mixed-race background to his advantage throughout the hour, from a quip about how he’s not a minority, but actually both of the world’s majorities, to several bits about what his UK audience (or you at home watching on Netflix) might be wondering or worrying regarding the origins and/or blame of COVID-19.
He categorizes the East as either “Cricket Asian” or “Eats-Weird-Shit Asian,” and puts himself in the latter. He jokes that Asians eating animals the West considers weird is part of the branding problem behind the pandemic (since early and persistent arguments focused on the selling and eating of bats at a Chinese wet market as the original source for it).
And he even joked about having traveled himself to China early in 2020. “Unrelated, it wasn’t me!”
At the end, he’s also willing to use his barber’s Japanese accent as an entry point into the do’s and don’ts of making fun of accents.
In between all of that, there’s still a big chunk devoted to how Wang, now 31, must grapple with changes to his body (insert fart jokes here) as well as his sexual relationships. He has a lot of fun playing with the made-up sound he envisions while putting a cork on his penis to stop sperm as a contraceptive option.
There, too, he pokes fun at himself as well as the general stereotype against East Asian men on dating apps, which apparently is as rough on them in the UK as it is here in the States. Which, of course, is ironic to Wang, as he has to remind us that only China has ever had to mandate population laws to prevent its people from having too much sex.
Our Take: As I mentioned above, turning 30 has always provided a lot of fodder for stand-up comedians, not only because they want to talk about what they’re going through physically and emotionally, but also because a large swath of their audiences can relate to said changes.
What I like about Wang is how he’ll manage to find some nuances that perhaps other stand-ups don’t want to talk about or own up to.
For instance, he jokes about how his politics had veered away just in the past couple of years from a previously socialist bent, but only because he didn’t have any money yet. “Turns out capitalism’s OK when you’ve got, um, capital.”
Similarly, as part of his closing bit, after impersonating his Japanese barber, Wang first playfully chastises the crowd for not playing along. “Far be it for me to expect you to take an unnecessary risk for my benefit” Then he uses that moment to explain his rules of thumb for imitating a cultural accent while maintaining moral acceptability. First things first: “If it’s a good accent, play ball.” Secondly, if the people you’re imitating ever had an empire or committed war crimes, they have no moral standing to lodge a complaint.
Coming on Netflix within a week of an Italian women’s soccer team somehow Tweeting out an offensive imitation of Asian culture, Wang’s lessons remain duly needed and should be heeded.
Our Call: STREAM IT. He’ll make you laugh with silly fart and sex jokes, and make you think with his jokes about the pandemic and our cultural differences.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.
