Just Write Communications
  • Home
  • Contact Us
  • News
  • Clients
  • Testimonials
  • Writing Tips
  • Weekly Chuckle
  • Meals We Steal
  • Bad Golf

Ali Wong

1/20/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
​Until recently, I was unaware of Ali Wong. I saw a review for her book, “Dear Girls,” a few months before Christmas and put it on my list of gifts for someone in my family to get for me.

The review intrigued me. She’s a comedian, and the review was positive, discussing the humor and insights on topics like the embarrassments of dating, the challenges of working on the road day after day and the difficulties in raising kids as a working mom.
 
She writes, “Dear Girls: You are prohibited from reading this book until you are 21-years-old. I write about some truly embarrassing sh…t I did in my youth, and I don’t want you to use these stories against me when you are teenagers. Thanks for understanding – now put this this damn book back on the shelf.”
 
How can you not read a book after that? I had to check it out.
 
She put it together as a series of humorous essays to her two daughters. She includes advice, tells multiple stories on the silly things she’s done throughout the years and then goes onto give fun-injected tips to avoid her mistakes. Told in an easy-to-read format, she keeps you chuckling, thinking and wondering why the heck you haven’t gone to see her on stage.
 
Buried inside though is more than humor. She takes shots at a number of topics, including stereotypes in general, and does a great job at forcing you to understand others and how easy it is to put people into categories rather than see those we meet as individuals first.
 
Two issues stood out to me. In her profession, she is often interviewed by journalists. Far too often, as she describes it, the questions become, “What’s it like to be an Asian American comedian?” She’s not asked, “What’s it like to be a comedian?”
 
While she recognizes the rationale for the question, she wants to be seen as a “comedian,” standing on stage and being funny because she makes people laugh and is talented and people want to watch her. Sure, she uses her Asian heritage in her schtick, she freely admits that. But when the first questions regard her ethnic background, she feels she’s being categorized rather than appreciated.

Similarly, she mentions frequently being approached by writers with questions about what it’s like to be a female comedian. Similar to the questions about her Asian American background, when she is asked this question, she feels the journalist is immediately placing her into a “female” box rather than a “comedian” box. And, again, she uses her sex in many of her skits to get laughs. But the humor is universal, whether you are male, female, or Norwegian.

I think that’s her point. She has to be funny. She has to be funny to a wide audience or she won’t be successful. Yes, she utilizes Asian and female perspectives to get the laughs, but if that doesn’t stand out to everyone in the audience, she fails. So, she is just another comedian on stage, utilizing material from her life to crack people up.
 
Her perspective is something, I believe, we all can grow from. Take people as individuals when you meet them. Appreciate them (or not) based on who they are, not your preconceived notions. We’d all make more friends that way. And journalists would get more respect from their interviewees if they approached stars that way.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013

    Categories

    All

Proudly powered by Weebly