So I reiterate here, the bill is dead.
The story of this great city is about the years before this
night. Hey everyone, this is Ho Ho Hong
Kong with me. Your host, Vivek Mulmani.
That's right. I said host, not Co host.
Because today actually Muhammad has decided to stay.
I believe he's still in Australia being with his little
lobby. Lobby.
Annie do. He's like, you know, Annie, I
want to spend more time with you.
Oh, responsibilities. I don't know what those are.
I'll just, you know, stay with you.
It's OK, Vivek. Who cares?
He has to be alone in podcast. I mean, whatever.
You know, he's only the other guy with all the technical
stuff. And my job was somebody to be a
Co host. But I couldn't even do that
'cause I need, I need love you. But don't worry, Muhammad
decided to be responsible for a change and got me a course
today. He is the OG of ogs of the
comedy scene in Hong Kong. Anyone who's been in the comedy
scene will definitely come across him.
And please welcome Chris Musni. Hey, what's up?
Thanks for having me, Vivek. Yes.
So basically Chris, music for anybody who doesn't know.
He has seen comedy with the full evolution of the beginning where
we were in the basement that take a comedy all the way to the
scene, changing the the times when it was split with comedy
dot, HK, all those things. He's been through it and you
will still catch him every now and then at different shows,
especially open mic nights. You'll definitely see him coming
on stage trying out different material.
So, Chris, you and myself have been doing comedy for, oh, wow,
I don't know, like 13. You're at 14.
Like, something like that, Something like that.
Yeah. It's been a long time.
I don't. Even want to say anymore?
Right. It's like over a decade.
Like man, I've been doing this since this.
Is. I don't want to say 'cause
people like, how come you're not funny after 10, even though it's
1010? Plus, hey.
Exactly. At this point that I saw seemed
more like. Yeah, one weeks.
Yeah, exactly. Right.
And then and then you kind of go like, well, don't don't worry,
it's comedy doesn't work that way.
It's not one of those, like the more time I do, the immediately
my next jokes. It's got to be better.
So you have that issue, but the good thing is that you have seen
the evolution of comedy in Hong Kong.
Slash Asia with. You also have done gigs outside
of Hong Kong as well. Yeah.
So can you just tell us a bit more about your story of comedy,
why you began just real quickly and a little bit about yourself?
Because you're the beginning of a comedy.
People always know you as the guy who's talking about the the
dad and the mother or how they met and all that stuff.
Could you give a listener just a little bit introduction about
that? Oh yeah.
Like, so Basically man, I've always wanted to do stand up.
When I was like a teen, I didn't know what stand up was before.
And then I got Seinfeld was on same, but I never watched the
show. I actually thought he looked
like a dork. And he doesn't look funny.
He looks like a normal. He looks like a guy who's like a
tax. Guy or something.
You would expect a comedian to have a certain look, a certain
style, and he's just like the guy off the street, like you're
the performer. Exactly.
So I start. I kind of got towards the end of
high school and I got Seinfeld when he finished his show or
near the round the time he finished his show, he did a
special called I'm telling you for the last time.
And I watched that whole thing end to end.
It was the funniest thing I've ever seen.
I couldn't believe someone could be that funny.
I like memorized like the whole thing and it still has some like
classic bits and I'm like, I have to do stand up.
And then I waited for like 10 years and then I started.
I always delay for some reason and then I moved out to Hong
Kong and kind of started it here.
Yeah, I mean, it's same for me as well.
Seinfeld was my only exposure to standard comedy because back
then, I mean, TV had no other channels.
So it was only the two English channels here.
And Seinfeld was one of the sitcoms when I was like, what's
this guy doing talk in the beginning before he does the
actual color show? And then I was confused because,
like, I mean, my teachers do the same thing at school, yet I
don't want to listen to them. But this guy, I don't know why I
bought shampoo. He's he's interesting to me, you
know, like talking my hair on the wall of the bathroom, why he
doesn't hang out, he'll go stay in his friends places when he
travels. I was like, how did he just turn
my hair on a wall into something I care about?
Oh, yeah. You know, that itself was like,
oh, this is good. This is I like this thing, you
know? And it was just so simple.
There's no, like, I would look a certain way.
I would have danced a certain thing.
I would have, you know, sing a certain way.
It's like, no, just. Talk, you know, that's, you know
what's crazy is that I'm glad I've it's just luck that you
happen to find the guy that you stick with.
And the more I learn about comedy, and I still think he's
like top of his game, not just in monetary success, but like
his approach to stand up is like so laser perfect.
And I I'm just happy, 'cause like you could pick the wrong
guy. Like you could have picked Bill
Cosby. That's the first special you
watching. So I gotta touch people after
the show. OK, I'll try that.
Yeah. But like, I picked Steinfeld and
he's still like my number one guy.
There's other guys I really, really like.
But yeah, he's like, still top. Now he's making movies.
Oh, he's got unfrosted, dude. I just watched it on the plane.
Coming back here. It's pretty good.
It's it's so Seinfeld. It's OK.
Put it this way, if you're not a Seinfeld fan, you're like, this
is stupid. Listen, what am I watching?
A comic book. What is this?
Right. But it's so him.
Whereas, like, over the top cartoony.
And it's like the acting is clearly, like, exaggerated.
The colors are saturated. And it's just talking about
breakfast cereal, dude. Like a whole movie about the Pop
Tart. I'm like that.
And Jim Gaffigan being like the Kellogg's boss.
I'm like that. So come on.
Pop Tart. Jim Gaffigan.
Really. This is fantastic.
Right. Exactly.
And oh, it was like all comics, man.
It was insane. So anybody, if you are into
comedy, go watch Unfrosted on Netflix.
Just came out, I think a couple of days ago in Hong Kong at
least. And the actors, they have on all
comedians. I mean, John F Kennedy was
played by Bill Burr. Yeah, that was so good.
I'm like, this is really good because I recognize all these
guys. What the hell?
And that's and I love seeing how comedians are happy to bring
comedians on, even if they know like, you're not the maybe the
best person for this role, but you're like, no, I want a
comedian. And you know why?
Why? They're real people.
They're real people, exactly. Well, I mean, they're kind of
messed up people. Too.
But they're real in that sense. Not like actors, right?
Yeah, I think you got to be fake and lucky a little.
Bit a little bit. Good looks and everything.
They didn't have Hugh Grant as the Tiger, Tony the Tiger, it's.
Also funny. He's good.
I think funny people are a little.
Quirky in that sense, I. Think they're a little more down
to Earth. I think I make fun of yourself.
I think it really helps. Yeah, because you have to get
two terms with it. You have to accept it to a
point. You're like, I'm OK with being
flawed. And why would you have to be
funny if you're attractive? Exactly.
And you probably didn't have. That offense, I'm not saying
you're not attractive. Annoying man.
Like I've looked in the mirror. Don't worry, man, Chris.
Like, we we both have the Super bag eye bags.
Yeah, we're good, dude. Yeah, we're going to be funny
for the rest of our lives with that, yeah.
People always ask me if I get enough sleep.
I'm like, this is me and my life.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, this question is not
something I haven't asked myself, so trust me, I don't
need to answer that. But okay.
So the thing that I've realized that comedians talking about
with comedians, we always end up talking about comedians as well,
right? And I think the fascination of
over time doing comedy, you're growing as a comedian as well.
Your admiration for different comedians also changes.
For example, I grew up Seinfeld. That was my guy.
Then was Bill Burr and Chris Rock.
Those two are big influences like they were the ones.
Then Russell Peters came in and I saw a special going like oh,
that's one of us. Hey, I could do that.
And now it is a lot like big influences Trevor Noah and and
Kevin Hart. Now I know these all big names,
obviously like they're many like smaller.
They're very different. They're very different, you
know. However, the one thing I love
about comedians that I admire is that I always want to read their
biographies. So if they have a biography,
I've read it. Like Steinfeld's got his book,
not he doesn't have a biography, but a lot of interviews and
everything. I've read a lot of those.
Kevin Hart has a book like I Can't Make the Shit Up.
Shreve Noah has a book Born in Crime.
What about you? How do you admire comedians that
you like in general? Other than watching their
specials and the comedy sets, is there anything else you do?
I tried to watch every video that they're in, so a ton of if
it's like a two, a 22nd interview or if it's a podcast,
I just watch those religiously. That's like my religion.
And the The funny thing is, the more you watch it and all these
different guys, they're so similar.
They have different interests, they have different hobbies, but
like the way they're down to earth and sort of they're trying
to shed all the BS of the world, they're so similar in that
regard. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I.
And that's the thing with comedy and makes you look at things
from so many angles. You can't bullshit because like,
they're going to see right through this.
They're going to know this bullshit.
I mean, let's be honest, a lot of the comedy that we do comes
from a real place. Obviously we exaggerate, add a
little bit, little bit of this, little bit of that.
But highly likely it's an observation that we thought,
there's a problem here, I can't understand the world and here's
my take on it. But it's not like you're wrong
and I'm right. It's more like, well, why is
this right, you know? And they they ask that because
they can't let go of it. Yeah, it it's normal.
People are like, just let it go. Yeah, yeah, it's fine.
I'm like, I can't. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It bothers me, man. And I think that's not.
In a good way, yeah. Angry.
Yeah. Angry.
We're. Not ignoring it, you know, we're
like, yeah, this is an issue. I'm gonna deal with this, right?
Yeah. One of my favorite is Bill Burr
talking about Brian Regan by the way, when they talk about each
other, yeah, I'm like in the best, it's the best.
And he's talking about Brian Regan and he's like, you know
people they obviously he's amazing, but people act like,
oh, he's so silly on stage the way.
But I bet you he wasn't feeling like that when that thing
happened in real life, he was furious.
Exactly. I know he was.
Exactly, I know he was. It's always comedy because of
tragedy plus time. It's always like at the moment,
like this is the poorest thing ever.
But hey, look at the coping mechanism comes in.
Yeah. Now the, the thing I'm very
curious is that we can see the two of us growing in comedy in
different ways. I just came back from Australia
and New Zealand. Yeah, you're succeeding.
Hey, yeah, let's not put it that way.
You know, I'm flourishing. Yeah.
No, that's. The same thing.
Succeeding implies that you have I am making ends meet and this
and that on a high level where like this is it we're done, I
mean. I meant more than that.
Yeah. I didn't mean like you're
hungry. Yeah, exactly.
I'm not that hungry. Yeah, maybe later I will.
We'll see. No, But I'll put this with that.
The one thing I think we can talk about is the original Hong
Kong comedy scene. The original original when it
was like us trying to do a 7 minute set going like, hey man,
I have one more minute. I can do 8 minutes.
I think I can do 8 minutes. You know, I remember like trying
to hit that 10 minute mark and go like, I don't know man, this
is this bit, it's pretty shit. But I'm going to squeeze it in
just to hit that 10 minute mark and try.
When you first started off, how annoying was it when you
initially told people you're a comedian?
And their reaction was like, no, wait, what?
I honestly I I I don't like that.
So I I even now I don't tell people and and not only that I
don't, I say I do stand up. So they have to like.
I don't. I never refer to myself as a
comedian because I always feel like like that's what you do.
You know what I mean? I'm, I'm a teacher.
You know what I'm saying? And I feel like you got a
there's a difference, You know what I mean?
However, however, if you do a set and you crush and to them,
you might as well be. That's fine.
But let the performance speak for that instead of like, oh,
hey, I I just did open mic for the first time this week.
And on my bio on IG, I'm a comedian now.
Oh, yeah. But yeah.
But you bombed. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No one thought you were a comedian.
Yeah, exactly. I didn't know if you didn't
mention it. Yeah, your 17 followers may not
may buy it, but everybody else who was there, the 20 people who
were actually in the room, Yeah, I thought the.
News were funny, Those families be funny.
And not only. Not only that, like here's and
also I don't think I'm hard on myself, but you have to have a
There's a difference, right? You can't just be funny.
Like, comedians are amazing. When you When I first saw Bill
Burr live, it's like I was on drugs.
Was your first billboard live in Hong Kong?
Yeah, dude, it was the Cyberport one, right?
Yes. Oh man, that.
One, what do you think? Oh my God.
Like when I was there, I was just in heaven.
Dude, you'll never forget that it's one of the the best laughs
in your life, right? Absolutely.
It's phenomenal. Like sitting especially.
I was on the I remember the stage right basically around the
if he will, Bilbo is looking. I was at the 2:00 mark, 2nd row
from the front, OK? And I was like the moment I saw
that art, the post that his show was coming immediately.
No question about three tickets straight up.
I never buy a ticket. Yeah, exactly.
I was like, yeah, I was like, maybe I'll get a comedy.
I might be able to connect with people.
I was like, I don't care. You take my money.
This one, you're getting it, you know?
It's Bill Burr. Oh, it's Bill Burr.
Exactly. Jesus has come back.
Like, yeah. Yeah, exactly like this is.
I believe in this, yeah. Yeah, you know so I think it's
OK So we can see that clearly our comedy initial interests
very similar set Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Burr, what about you like
was what about now who are your go to people that you like to
watch? Oh my.
My guy now has got to be Nate Bargatze.
Oh, Nate bargatze for. Sure.
OK, what about? What about him?
Is the the thing that gets you? Is it personality?
Is it the writing quality? Dude, his the way, his writing,
obviously his performance is amazing, but like, I think we
tend to look past that a little bit.
Yeah, we get it. Yeah, sometimes.
Because sometimes you could have a great shtick and the jokes
aren't there, right? But his promise is amazing.
But the way he manipulates the tension in a situation without
he's he doesn't use foul language.
He doesn't even have controversial topics and he's
able to really milk all of the tension into a situation.
And I just, I just find it unbelievable.
His whole bit. His closing bit on Starbucks
stuff. I haven't seen that one, the
Starbucks one. Dude, Yeah, that's like my
favorite special of his. Man.
The greatest average American on Netflix and it is phenomenal.
OK, OK. OK.
He. Closes on a bit about Starbucks
and who I don't think many people would do that.
Yeah, you wouldn't. He's talking about being
embarrassed. Yeah, that's it.
Drinking Starbucks like oh God, what have I done with my life?
Yeah, he's not. It's not some big story where
it's like, yeah, we went to Vegas and you know, we got some
hookers. It's like just he went to go to
Starbucks and that's his closer. Yeah, how funny it has to be to
be his closer. Yeah, yeah, it's phenomenal.
Oh man. OK.
I'll definitely check that out online later on tonight because
yeah, I'm half awake. Anyway, today after playing Red
Eye from I came came down from Perth this time.
So this is the thing. I've noticed that different
comedians from different regions, obviously different
sense of humor. Me being in Australia is kind of
it's it's OK. So every I did my Cantonese show
this time, my Cantonese tour and everything and on the last night
at Perth I could do a best of fest 5 minute spot, right?
And I've done that also like in Edinburgh when I was there last
year and this 5 minute spot, 10 minute spot, whatever just in
front of me. Not I just wanted to try it out
and so far I have found I can perform to English speaking
white people's hash whatever in Hong Kong or in Asia.
The moment I leave Asia, my English comedy falls completely
flat to white ears completely like to the point where it's a
golf clap at best. Like, I will give you an
example. My last show was in Perth, OK
And I'm in this room called the Retrobit.
OK, Rich a bit or or whatever It's called Rich a bit.
And it's a 300 seater, super awesome, grungy, heavy metal
kind of room. And I was like doing my
Cantonese show was sold like almost 300 people all sold out
and everything. I'm like, yeah, it's a great
room, man. That's a 630 show.
OK And then at 9:30, I have the, the English showcase show.
OK. So this is, as you can see over
here, right? It's right over there.
You have like 3 layers of people.
You have the ground floor and then the sides and sides.
So it's literally like, you can see it's clearly, it's like a
nightclub kind of feel. Right.
So the Kathy show, really good. Last show of my run.
I have my stuff solid. It's like, I'm like, this is on
autopilot. I'm just enjoying the field
right now. I know exactly what I'm going to
say next. Done, done, done great.
People clapping. I've been good.
OK 9:30 is the English show, right?
I go over there and they have like people like Dan Rath,
really good guy in in Australia. Lukeggi also veteran over there
and I'm after Luke Hegge, right. So Luke Hegge is up there doing
the stuff people after to them. And I go up there because like
right now I've noticed a few things.
I've tried saying my joke about my name, like my name is Vivek,
people call me Wick Wick, right? And it doesn't fall well because
they're like VIVK is not that difficult.
They cannot believe. People can't say that.
Like you're lying? Well.
Let me help you, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
They're like, how how would you get that wrong?
That's an easy name. I mean, I could say it.
And remember, this isn't the audience that probably has never
been to Asia. So they cannot believe the
absurdity that we have in Hong Kong.
Slash Asia. We're like, yeah, this actually
happens buddy. Like you have no idea how people
are swerving between gaps, trying to get on the train and
stuff. You have no clue.
People nuts. Nuts, right.
You have no clue, right. So now my go to thing is I go on
stage and from Hong Kong, the background, I go on stage and I
always like to, I try to open with that.
I know what you're thinking. I look at my face there.
Hong Kong. Hong Kong is in the Middle East,
right? I would do that, right.
And so far in Edinburgh and Perth as well people are like,
huh, like, wait, you're not making the connection like Hong
Kong Chinese this face. Not so Chinese.
No. And I was still trying to
understand. I did not make the connection
because I'm not Middle Eastern enough as when they see enough
Middle Eastern we're like, yeah, you're not that you're not that
Middle Eastern to us or is it like, oh, Middle East.
Oh, we don't we don't want to we let's not.
Let's not go there, because whenever I go to these places,
being the Asian comedian, you either fit into the Asian
picture that they think you should be.
You're Indian, you must be this. And if you don't, they're like,
I cannot laugh because I feel bad now.
Yeah, yeah, I I think they're also holding multiple concepts
like you might say it, but they're still thinking, but how
can that? Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
It's so horrible. Yeah.
You know, they're overly analyzing.
I'm like, well, no, that's what hung up.
People do like right here, like, that's on fire.
You know, I'm like, what's going on?
So that's the one bizarre thing I've always experienced whenever
I travel, where I'm like, I'm going to do an English set and I
know it's not gonna go well, but I'm like, let's do this, man.
But it's a short set. It's if I'm gonna set.
Yeah. So yeah, you got a pass.
I get a pass. Yeah, exactly.
And and look, honestly, this one is for me, just to get a feel
for it, 'cause I know this is not my crowd.
I can already tell you it's like.
A on AII 'cause I hit the my thing too is that it's.
So it's 5 minutes. Yeah, there's no, there's no
way. You know what I mean?
It's totally a new situation they know nothing about.
They know nothing about your situation.
It's all so hard. It's so, yeah, yeah.
Again, like I said. But the thing for me nowadays
with my evolution of comedy is that I want to be put in those
situations. Like doing the set in Hong Kong
for me now is like I, you know, it's like no big deal.
Yeah, I I'll do a good job, I'll do my best and everything.
But I'm not gonna, oh, I want to do a set in this room because I
want to try that. Like, I I'm pretty sure I've got
this down right. Whereas overseas I'm still like,
I can tell you I was nervous that night before going on
stage. I'm like, man, I remember
Edinburgh. That was terrible, man.
That was awkward. OK, let's just do this, whatever
it is, what it is, right? I go up and do the Middle Middle
East and like, there's like, there's like a that's it.
And I'm like, oh, we're back here now, let's do this now.
So I would try a little bit of this, a little bit of that.
I would get like, I even try to try to think about Australia
that I've done in Cantonese, loved it and everything.
It's basically about this idea that I'm on a taking it, the
free tram in Melbourne and I'm holding the handrail.
OK, so it's a vertical handrail pole.
My hand's in the middle. This couple comes on, they're in
love. They're looking at each other.
Don't look at anybody else. And the boyfriend's hands above
my hand. Girlfriend's hands above below
my hand. And I'm in between.
Right. Nobody's looking at whose hand
is who. And the boyfriend's tight
stroking my hand thinks it's the girlfriend's hand, Right.
All that kind of stuff. And I'm just funny.
Yeah, it's funny, right? And I'm like, how'd you feel my
hair? I'm like, you know, maybe
they're just, they started going out.
Today is the first day they're holding hands.
He has no idea how hairy she really is, these kinds of
things, right. Oh, it killed it.
I tried it in Hong Kong before this idea.
I'm like, really good. Australia's been killing strong.
Sure. They're kind of like why did.
Like I can see their eyes go like you should have said excuse
me, you you should have you should have done something like
why would you let that happen? And I'm like because it's
awkward. Like why would I just have to
say excuse me, right. And I realized I'm like it's
true because like over there people don't have the same thing
that we have over here where it's like, oh, I don't want to I
don't want to say anything. This is so weird.
I and why should I have to say you should been you should know
better. We're passive in that sense
where over there. Like, excuse me, that's my hand.
Yeah. Oh, that's another thing I never
realized. But they will actually tell you,
buddy. That's my hand.
Get your hand off of me. In Australia, they'll say that.
They'll do that, I mean. Or they'll say it nicer, like,
oh, that's not your girlfriend's hand, that's mine.
Right, right, right. You know the typical bridge kind
of like a passive aggressive like, oh, you know, I'm OK with
you, but just letting you know maybe you love me more.
I don't know. Right, right, right.
You know, and that's the thing. I was like, oh, I still have to
get a grasp of that where they are OK with saying out what
we're here in Hong Kong are thinking here we're passive
aggressive. We just won't say it.
They're they're passive aggressive and they'll say it.
Yeah, we like to pretend like we're polite, but totally.
No, we're totally not. Not at all.
Yeah, So I think that's what I'm still trying to get.
So that's my challenge Now for me as a comedian, the turn to
get past that kind of mentality where it's not like, oh, the
world is in Asia, the world is. This.
Well, that's what. Wasn't that the whole thing
about taking the act on the road, 'cause like, you can never
really know until, like, there. Have you?
We've all heard about guys. Oh yeah, this guy kills in this
town. Oh, and dies over there.
Absolutely. He can't go to another town.
And he has killer bits about that one mall that has that
weird parking lot or whatever. Yeah, yeah.
But how are you going to tell that in another city?
Exactly. And there was that you, I'm, I'm
sure you know, the Louis CK story about when he was a New
York comic and staying in New York and Chris Rock was below
them. And then he started touring.
Oh. He got better.
He came back after touring and they're all at Caroline's.
And he destroyed in a way he couldn't believe.
And he said all of the comics sat in the back like we were the
losing team on the World Series. Like this guy?
We're all just like, we're New York comics, and then this guy's
on the road coming back and like, this is how it's done.
And who's Chris Rock now? You know what I mean?
Like that's. Who he is.
Yeah, I think that's. The thing though, So that's what
happened to me in 2015 when I went to Australia, First time I
came back, I'm like, oh, and I I'm a firm belief of Kobe Bryant
saying of while they're playing checkers, I'm playing chess.
Yeah, that was 2015. I'm trying to do a bit.
On that, by the way. Really.
If it makes him sound. Smart.
But I'm like, dude, just fucking play checkers.
Yeah, we're playing. Yeah, like, why would you even
get those pieces? Yeah, exactly.
Like, don't. You know the game like, how dare
you, I'm smarter. Than you I won't use these.
Little flat pieces. Yeah, I got better pieces.
That 3D is like, dude, that's not how this works.
It's like saying. Yeah, everyone's playing
basketball while I'm playing football.
It doesn't sound so smart now. Doesn't exactly.
Like, yeah, why would you defeat like like and you know it's
like, but you can't use hands. I don't need to.
It's like, OK, OK, no, but you are right.
He was like 20 steps ahead of everybody.
Yeah, actually and that. Was the thing for me, and I
think that was the different. That was the tipping point for
me. When I came back, I'm like, oh,
OK, I see what I'm saying, what I'm doing and I'm in the same,
we're on the same board. We're playing on the same board.
But I'm not going to come here with just checkered pieces and
play this game. I'm going to play with chess
pieces somehow. It's going to still work.
I could, you know, metaphorically, whatever.
And that was the thing. And ever since that, that was a
change. Was there a tipping point in
your career or something that changed you or maybe even pushed
pulled you back? Anything like that, like family
or or maybe certain people didn't allow you to do certain
things. Not really.
You know, from, I mean, from the very beginning I was already
thinking like, don't try to do too many things about Hong Kong,
'cause, I mean, when I watched people do The Tonight Show and
everything, I'm like, well, they won't know what I'm talking
about. You know, like try to.
Make it as generic as possible and a lot of Seinfeld's jokes I
thought were just so accessible to anyone you know and.
Now I'm. Even more to the point, like,
all right, get into as many personal observations that
people can relate to everyone. You could talk about MTR because
everyone can relate to being on the same way.
You don't have to say MTR, whatever the local thing is.
Yeah, it was the hand reel thing, relationships.
But if it's gonna be super specific like and this having
locals material is great. But just to know that if you
ever go anywhere else, you can't, you won't do it in New
York, you won't do it in wherever you go.
So I was always thinking like, try to get some stuff that you
could say that has no Hong Kong reference in it, you know, and
try to maybe stuff like I could talk about my mom and my dad and
my family every oh, dad will love.
It, yeah, you know what I mean? That makes.
Sense anywhere, Yeah, Yeah. And I think.
That's a really good introduction to you as well.
That I oh, this guy's cool. I never thought about this.
Could be but when I. Talked about being Filipino in
San Francisco. They were kind of like, I was
offense. They were offended and I'm like,
but you guys did those things. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But. Then, but over there, a lot of
Filipinos over there, right there are, but.
This. They're not the ones offended.
They actually like it the most. Dude, it's same.
It's. Always the white guy, Yeah,
yeah, yeah, same dude. When I was like guys are
actually. Fine.
It's their girlfriends. Oh, the Filipino.
Girlfriends. Are you saying that the white,
white, the white girls. Oh, wow, That's weird.
She's like, you should be laughing at those people.
It's like, what? What?
So yeah, yeah, yeah, it's the police.
They like to control whatever people are, but that just means
that I haven't learned how to step around.
I think the. Same with me same deal like I
had that issue where I'm like I'm OK like I I even tried
Muhammad did I tried it over there I I was like it was all
right they there you go they liked the the the police calling
me Muhammad instead of Mahboobani.
They didn't like the Muhammad did that the pack cause OK so
the bid is basically I guess I'll by the police getting my ID
card checked and then my surname is Mahbbani.
The police is trying to guess my name here in Hong Kong clearly
cannot pronounce Mahbbani C the letter M best guess is Muhammad.
And because in Hong Kong pronunciation isn't the the best
strength we have in the city so the guys like Muhammad did like
past tense and I think the Muhammad did past tense thing.
They're like why is it did I don't get it, you know so they
like in Australia, they were just not getting the Muhammad
did part. They get the Muhammad 'cause
they do that with. Everything.
Every word. Yeah, that they know.
Yeah, exactly. They're probably.
Did everything Strong did. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.
All that kind of stuff. Yeah.
So that was the thing. I think.
So you have also noticed the same thing where you went there.
You're like, this is a bit about me, which I'm OK with, and yet
you are not OK with because you're not even me.
But you're like, that's not right.
You should not be saying. And that was the thing we
experienced in 2015 when we did comedies on Asia, a bunch of
like 5 or 6 comedians from Asia all over us coming there and
doing the showcase show. And every night when we see like
majority white audience, we're like, oh man, this is gonna be
tough, 'cause they're gonna sit there and go like, can we laugh?
I don't know. That's not right.
I'm like, we are all laughing. We are all OK, do you see this
line up? Do you see how we're making fun
of each other and we're doing the same show together?
That's actually means it's so hard.
'Cause, I mean it's this is this is the challenge, so I accept
it, but it's also like funny funniness is relative and like
people get offended, right? Which Which it'll happen.
I and we have to be aware of that.
But at the same time, I, I, I would never say this in a show,
but I always think it like, you know that we're just trying to
make you guys happy, right? All we're trying to do is make
you guys happy. So when you get offended, that's
just because we messed up, Yeah. Yeah, yeah, like you.
Sound like such a bitch, Yeah, yeah.
Fair enough. Yeah.
I mean, you did come in here and say, like, let's give it a
chance to see if these guys can make us happy.
If they don't, they don't, you know, I mean, there's many ways
to look at it. The funny thing is that people
will come in with a certain mentality of like, oh, but I'm
beneath us. For example, when people curse
online and they don't put like FUCK, they put like F **** K
let's say F ** K You're like dude.
It's like it's like Louis CK saying say don't say the N word.
You're making me think the N word now making me say to me.
Making me yeah because. I'm not the bad guy.
Take credit for your. Own work?
Yeah, exactly. And that was.
So brilliant because, like, it's true.
Because it's like you're trying to be better than me, but you're
like, you're the one in Sydney instigating the whole idea of
this word. It's like, why are you doing
that? You know, trying to be like a
joke, by the way. That's brilliant.
The best thing was like. His, his, like, his joke about
that. His joke about like, you know,
faggot, I'm like, you see, you have to have someone that's
strong enough for that belief where he's like, look, I'm way
past the whole, like, insulting. I'm not saying, yeah, you know,
say this and insult anybody or like hurt someone's, like, dude,
can we come back to the basics of let's put aside all the PC
and really look at the actual thing?
They're just words. They're just words, you know?
And sure, they can have a lot of symbolism and everything, but at
the end of the day, dude, it is your mind that's creating the
symbolism for that word that you just heard.
So it's really that kind of you deciding whether or not that's
offensive or not. Yeah, it's like.
Grow up, right? Exactly.
Grow up. Yeah.
Come on, man, there, there has been a.
Real travesty in the world. Are you like, watching The
History Channel, being offended? I just talked to Schindler's
List. How could?
Like, yeah, that, yeah, that was the real situation.
That's why I I love talking to. I feel like I could say things
to you that I wouldn't say to someone that doesn't do.
Stand up and 'cause you will get it.
You get it and you won't be offended.
You're like, what about this? And especially, what was it?
That's why I like hanging out with comics, 'cause you can make
what people would think are horrible jokes, but we're just
testing them out, you know? We're.
Not going to be offended. And that's why when we do a show
and we hang out after, it's so much fun, but when audience
joins us, I hate it so much and I want to go home.
So there's OK, so. There's two types of audience
interaction after the show. There's the type where they're
genuine. Fans just want to hang out and
you know, enjoy and everything. They loved it.
They had a good time. They don't want to hang.
Out. They want to try to make us
laugh or try to be down. See that's.
The other type, the type where they don't need it.
Yeah, yeah. And that's the one I don't, I
don't appreciate because I'm like guys like this is our job.
Just let it go, you know, like we don't not need you to
entertain us back. We're not impressed whether
you're funny or not. Yeah, and you won't be.
You won't be. Promised you won't.
Probably 100 percent, 99% You won't be funny.
Yeah, yeah, oddly. Enough though.
Like what I do enjoy after comedy shows.
Hanging out with comedians is like not even talking about bits
and ideas. It's just talking about life,
you know, just like, hey, man, like, you know what's what?
What have you been dealing with? You know, what's your tour like?
What? You know, what was tonight's
show? Yeah.
And then I'll mock. You relentlessly.
Yeah about it. Won't take it personally.
Yeah. I'm like, it's so fun.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly 'cause you.
Know, it's like, it's like office banter.
You know, when you're in a good relationship with your
colleagues, you're willing to make the, like the The office,
the TV series when you make fun of each other.
So yeah, exactly. You're like, we're at the level.
Like, I know this guy's doing that.
The pure fun. Like you only roast the ones you
love kind of a deal. It's the best.
Yeah, it's the best over there. Alright, OK, OK, let's change
gears again because like, we're getting a bit too technical.
Again, this is a problem we always do with this podcast.
When we get comedians on, we get into like super technical
comedian territory and people are like, but why am I doing the
Conan? O'Brien needs a friend, yeah.
He keeps it real. Yeah, exactly.
That's. Much better, man.
At least he's at least he's funny.
The two of you 22 funnies are not funnier.
The hell is wrong with this. Sounds like they already.
Have a friend? Yeah, we don't need that.
I'm turning. This one off?
Yeah. Yeah.
OK, so again, I want to go back to our career that.
I mean, the comedy world that we're now living in is very
different now. I'm not saying again, I'm not
trying to see like, oh, who's doing this thing successfully,
whatever. But it's like the the situation
you're in, the type of personality.
Like would you be the type of comedian who thoroughly enjoys
after show meet and greets if you did your solo show?
That's one thing I would do it. Because I I, I like.
I like the work aspect of it. I wouldn't necessarily enjoy it,
but I would try to do it to the I I pretend like I'm having a
good time. Yeah, so you're doing.
It because it's part of the job kind of a deal, right?
Like this is the whole package. I got to do the meet and greets
and everything. That's what I found out this
time is that I actually thoroughly enjoyed the meet and
greets. That's great because I get to
see my audience now be like, oh, these are the people coming.
Like the best part of my show, honestly, is when I finish the
show and we do like a group photos together with with the
audience, they turn up the lights of the room and that's
when I get to see the room actually full.
That's cool. And that dude, like, is such a
different level. You see the MTCS, like, I'll be
full of people and everything, but you can't really see because
it's all dark, right? And then when you turn up the
lights, like, whoa. And I remember precisely certain
nights when I'm like, oh, the numbers are, you know, half
full, whatever. And then each other nice.
Like, whoa, wait, hold on a second.
The whoa, This is not what I thought it was gonna be.
This is, this feels fuller, or at least feels fuller in a
sense, you know? And ultimately, what I really
like is that at the end, when the lights are on, that's when
the audience gets to see themselves as well.
And then that's where the true colors come in.
If you had a good show, they're happy to be in your video.
Whatever. Like, yeah, man, I'm happy to be
over here. I'm glad we had a good time.
If you have a bad show, they'll be like a hostage situation, but
you don't have to worry about that.
Meet and greet. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yeah. They're like, yeah, don't worry,
we'll we'll be gone. It's more like buy and.
Fly. Yeah, exactly.
Exactly. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
So I don't know, like, over time, doing these solo shows
overseas especially, it's really made me realize that even here
in Hong Kong, yeah, you do a set and you leave.
Now, you know me. Like, I don't really hang out
much after the shows anyway. Not so much because I'm not a
hangout guy, 'cause, like, I'm not a big drinking guy.
I'd rather, yeah, you know, I'd rather have have food and
dessert, snacks or whatever. And secondly, like, yeah, my
life is only just too busy when I'm like, I got shit to do
anyway. But what I do realize is that
with festivals, Chris, the one thing you get to enjoy is, let's
say you have a you have a show, right?
You're doing a show, and your show's at 8:00.
Comedians will probably hang out on that seat till six.
I got to show my 6:30. You have show at 7:30, you got
to show at 8:00. And then somehow we'll just have
a group text. But I just wanted my show.
What are you guys watching? And I'll go watch the same show
with you. And then afterwards I'm going to
go to the festival club, which is basically the after show club
where comedians hang out. And then we'll see each other
over there. Yeah, whatever.
We'll see each other there, you know?
And then after the club, if you're hungry, like, who wants
to go eat some food after this? And then that's where you just
talk smack and everything. And I think that's the thing.
That's what I appreciate because, like, you've got
comedians where not just doing a set, they're doing their show.
And they have to own that show in the sense that when their
crowd sucks, they eat it. Have to eat the whole show.
When the crowd is good, you're like, oh dude, I Oh my God, body
man. And I think that is such a
different thing compared to Hong Kong where we're doing a set.
You do a 10 minute set, whatever, and then you hang out
after the show just and I'm like, I feel that you haven't
earned that hang out yet. Yeah, it's not the.
Same, yeah, you're just. Going for a quick workout?
Yeah, you didn't do a marathon. Well, how would you feel if?
You had like four sets. Back-to-back over the whole
night, yeah, yeah. Then you've done the full,
proper workout. Then you feel.
Right. Yeah.
OK. Yeah.
Like the thing for me? Is that a lot of times I find
that you're basically doing like a bicep curl and thinking like,
yeah, I did a bicep curl. Yeah, let's all hang out now.
I'm like, well, you just did a bicep curl.
That really isn't a real proper workout.
I love the way. You mention this cuz it's about
time on stage, right? Yeah.
And so I always tell people like, why it's hard to get
better in Hong Kong. Yeah, I'm like, Max, average
comedian. What's the Max they could do in
Hong Kong? And it's going to include open
mics, which aren't ideal. An ideal, yeah.
Yeah, so what's? It 3-4 per week Max and that's
already a lot, right? And it's like if you wanted to
get healthy and work out, would you tell someone to work out
three, four times a week, 5 to 15 minutes for workout session?
Yeah. Yeah, what?
Results you would have, yeah, you maintain.
You won't exactly grow. I think you would.
Eat yourself out of the whatever reduction you got.
If you worked out, you should do 30 minutes every day or
something like that, right? But are you?
Able to okay. So for me my whole thing is that
I'll go to open mic and I'll be a bit cheeky and I'm like, hey,
at the end of the open mic can I do another 10?
Can I do another? And usually of course with my
little status I get a little privilege.
I'm like, OK fine, you can do whatever you want.
And I'm willing to go on the open mic at the end and wait
till the end and do an extra 10 just to run that stuff by
myself. And then same set, same set and
no, no, we new stuff that I didn't do in the in the open mic
earlier on because the open mic you get like 5 minutes, right?
I'm like, there's no way 'cause if I'm doing an hour show, I'm
not writing 5 minutes and going up there and OK, that's a week
we come back next week. I'm like no, no no, I need to
work 15 minutes per week. Also depends if.
The open mic suck. Like sometimes they could suck.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they can suck. Such a waste, Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, true. True.
But I don't know. Like, I've built.
Maybe. Again I'm telling you man like
having the festival deadline having to do the solo show.
You're on your own. You die up there by yourself
man. Like something nice.
You're like man, I'm gonna be struggling all night long here
you know and you do that enough where you go to open mic.
You're like buddy if this open mic hurts me I'll be dead when
I'm. I do the the whole hour by
myself Because don't don't forget like you might have a
small crowd The crowd's not laughing you're there by
yourself you have no oh oh by the way you don't get opening
act. You're self introducing cold
crowd. No host, no nothing.
You go up there and that's it. That's legit.
You're legit, man. You finish it and you clean up
and you pick up and you walk out.
So if you're on your own, literally like you are the one
picking up your camera at the corner of the room and going
outside afterwards, you go in there like let's say of course
you have a manager and all that shit, they'll do it for you.
But I'm. I'm saying the beginnings, OK,
Like I'll give you an example. OK, so every show would be
whatever time of night 4:30 with my tech check.
I'll go into the room. Sound like everything, and to
the point that let's try the sound out.
That sounds pretty straightforward.
Easy going? No problem.
The monitors on stage 1 monitors or not?
Whatever. All good.
Then the lights? Okay.
Then you have to have Showtime lights while you're performing.
How much is the wash on your face?
As in, how wide is the spotlight?
Then what about the backlights? In other words, what I notice
over there, like they will appreciate that your shadow
should not be black. They'll give you some lights
just to light up the shadows so you get a little tint on it so
it's not so boring and flat. Secondly, what about the walk on
lighting? Do they flick around?
Do they do they flash? What's going on?
Then you got the end of show lighting, you got the audience
walk in lighting all that stuff you're like oh this is pretty
cool to have to worry about to the point that literally my one
hour set is like, I will worry about that 5 minutes for the
show. Let me get all this shit done
because once the show's when people coming in, I can't do it
under this right And then you have all that stuff going.
Then if you self introduce yourself where you got to get
them going. And the cool thing is that you
can hear them when they coming in.
You can hear the vibe already. You're backstage like oh people
are talking and I'm like all right then that's a good show.
Some nights are like sitting there like waiting for the show
to start. You're like shit, they're cold
dude you know And then yeah like museum.
And the good thing is that when you do back-to-back night after
night, same hour dude, by the 4th show you're solid dude.
That's. So cool.
That's what I mean, man. And that was what I learned when
I did my first solo show. I did like 2015, I did one hour
show once, whatever 2016 did one hour show, 2017 we were doing
back-to-back night after night, same set.
OK, same exact set. So you got three nights to kind
of refine a little bit here, maybe throw that away, add this
one over there. So by the 4th night that's your
set that you do the whole run. And when you do like a tour,
dude, like I did Melbourne 12 shows in Melbourne by the 4th
night I'm like alright, this, this is the set.
We've got it down right you and you feel the confidence where
you're like they're not laughing.
Okay. Wait, wait, that's.
I could only. Imagine.
Yeah, right. I could only.
Imagine. Being confident going into a set
like that, Yeah, yeah, you know, so.
Awesome. Yeah, you know that.
And then different cities as well, and you can feel the
difference. For example, when I went to
Sydney, I did two nights, right? I did like 2 shows back-to-back,
'cause we sell pretty well. So I added an extra show.
And the first show, you could see people came in, they were a
bit reserved. They're like, OK, he's gonna be
funny. He's speaking Cantonese.
Sure. But you know, we'll give him a
chance. And just seeing them go from, I
wonder if he's funny into like, huh.
He seems to be consistently funny.
And then, like, by the end, they're like losing it, man.
They're like whole. What the hell just happened
here, man? Right.
And then you see people leaving the first show.
OK, so I'll tell you 830 was my sorry. 7:00 was my first show in
Sydney, and I'm doing an hour. OK, so by around 7:00 was my
first show. So by around 8:00, I'm done. 830
is my next show, All right, so 845, whatever, Right, So you
have people coming into the next show.
I'm outside taking photos with the first show and the next
show. People are watching people,
like, taking photos happily, like, oh shit, this this seems
like a good show. And then they're warmed up.
Yeah, they see the. The previous audience was so
happy and they want to meet you and you people like.
Smiling. Taking photos.
Is that like, oh, it was really fun.
They're like shit, man, My Oh my God, I'm excited now.
And 2nd show is fire. They walked in, they sat down
and they're like, oh, this is going to be a good show.
I need whatever they had, man. We're going to get some of that.
This would be so good. I feel like with me the. 2nd
audience would be like, I wonder what was wrong with that first
time. Yeah.
I mean, yeah. He's hate them.
Was that real? No way, man.
It. Must be actors.
Yeah. Right.
And that's to me, like, this is the thing on the reaction, I
think is that as comedians, we always doubt we're like, I don't
know, man, they're going to think it's pretentious, what the
hell. But it is.
When I finally gotten over that, like for example, I'll print
phone boards with like the city's name and like, oh, the
show was funny and with a date on it.
When they take photos to hold on the phone board just for
branding reasons, number one. And to remember what show it was
Because you remember after 10 years, right?
And then just that itself, maybe.
Kind of like, this is so pretentious, man, I'm printing
my own board saying this, guys. Funny.
Yeah, you know, I love how you think it's pretentious first.
Yeah, it is. That's what comics.
Yeah, that's what comics things. Oh God, I can't believe this is
for lame people. Like marketing people to do
right? Like dude.
I designed my own poster. I Photoshopped it myself.
I took my own photos, man, like the room you're in right now.
Everything exactly where I was sitting to take my own photos,
right? With lights and everything,
right? One man show. 01 Man on totally,
totally on, right? And I loved it.
I loved it. But The thing is, I'm just like
this is. I can't believe I'm retouching
my face. This is this is painful, dude,
you know, 'cause I know every floor and I'm like, God damn,
yeah, so. But the good thing is that I
always remind myself that the audience are here just for a
show. That's all they see.
They're not noticing the lights, they're not noticing the the mic
brand, they're not noticing your your pacing, they're not
noticing your shirt. But somehow if you don't do it
that way, they're going to notice the error.
For example, just for an experiment on, I believe, my
fourth night in Melbourne, I decided not to wear my black
blazer, white T-shirt. That's it.
I was like, you know what this is?
Try. And that night I could sense the
audience going like, hmm, they were not convinced initially
because this guy in the T-shirt and pants, like, it's just some
guy talking with the blazer. Like this guy's got authority.
And I'm like, that's exactly what I was guessing.
I was like, I wonder if really this has an impact.
Like it straight up has just coming out.
They're like, all right this this looks legit here.
I think you'd be. Fine.
Yeah. If everyone knows you, but they
don't know you as well. Correct.
So they, they know you from the picture, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
So that's what you're saying.
Exactly. Yeah.
And then?
When you come out with a T-shirt like, OK, it's this guy.
Let's watch the show, right. But here they're like, oh, this
is the legend this we've heard him a newspaper whatever.
Like Oh my God, he OK, whatever. We're here to see him.
Like you're not looking at Dave Schipelgo like he's looking a
Who's taking a wife beater at the fuck you know, like paid for
a blazer. Yeah, exactly.
I was promised a blazer. What the hell are the this short
sleeve bullshit? Yeah, exactly.
Come on show. Some respect, man.
Show some respect. Yeah.
So there's none of that. I mean, so that was the thing,
man. That's what I mean by, again,
whoever is aspired to be a comedian who's listening to this
now or has been to comedy shows, like, I highly recommend if
you're able to one day, if you love comedy, you need to go to
one of these festivals and just be in the vibe.
I went to Edinburgh last year just to watch shows and like
this is insane, like I went to Edinburgh. 2009, I think, Yeah,
yeah, way back, man. That's way different, man.
It was crazy. It was crazy.
And the best thing is, Edinburgh was my first experience of like
a hot room with no ventilation. Yeah, they have those rooms and
I'm like, what the fuck is going on?
They're like, yeah, I loved. It it was so cool.
It's such a cool city. Yeah.
And you could you're right. You go from one show to 1 show
and you could just you're it's like you're it's like you're in
a hurry to get to the next thing.
Oh, I want to get it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Watch some movies. You get 10 minutes.
To go yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's insane.
And your hours just go by. Yeah, I was there.
With Paulo Gotta and we were sitting.
We got tickets to watch Margaret show.
It's so cool you're sitting with Paulo Gotta watching Margaret
show. It's bizarre.
It's so cool, right at the same
time. So I know I.
Know like that's my next thing, man.
Like right now, again, this is all comics talking and
everything, but like right now, the host show hanging out with
comics, the Asian comics, that's done.
We know each other well enough. We respect each other well
enough. Like, I use your show all you do
my show, we'll see each other later on.
Right to the point that it's like the the show is just like I
just it's just basically a little obstacle between us
hanging out. I still think people.
Could be. I think we.
I think people could be better. I think we could raise the bar.
Yeah, a little bit. Even in a even in a solid
lineup. Yeah, I think, I think like if
someone, if if all of us were to be told to do 5 minutes, for
example, would we have the killer 5?
I don't think so. And now I'm not.
I'm not dissing us because one of the reasons I mentioned that
when Nate Bargatze went back to do Saturday Night Live, he'd
only been doing hours. And he said, so he's like, I got
to get back into like 810 minutes and he's like it was not
great, a couple of them not great and he's great and he's
like a couple of them weren't great.
Wasn't used to it. And I feel like with us, because
it's so easy to get on stage, yeah, that you get, We get a
little sloppy sometimes. We go into the crowd.
Work a little too quick. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Where are you? Where are you from?
No laugh. What do you do?
No laugh. And you keep going.
Yeah. Yeah.
But when you see guys do that in the in the States or wherever
you get those laughs, yeah, so. Fast, yeah, yeah.
They know what to do with that. There's no downtime.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. For those guys.
Yeah. And.
That's the one thing I tell people is that I always and it's
for me as it like just Jerry Seinfeld said the same thing
he's like I'm not here to see you do crowd work.
I'm here to see your set like do your set.
I'm here to see you been watching crowd work.
It's different. I'll I'll put it.
I mean you know we you've seen me before like when I was at the
takeout and stuff I'll do a lot of crowd work as well just
because oh let's try out this crowd you know.
But as I, as I overtime grew I was like crowd work is generic
for a lot of comedians. OK.
Any comedian can do crowd work. And if an audience came to watch
crowd work and they watched a previous show where I had crowd
work. They come to your shows crowd
work. They're like, come on, man.
Like I saw crowd work. We get it.
Yeah. It's like me doing Indian,
Indian bits, you know, like Indian people, you know, we have
it. Like we we saw the previous
comedian. He talks about being Indian.
We get it. Yeah, unless you.
Could do it. That takes me to a place like
it'll never be like that. I know it's a high bar, but like
that Bill Burr show we talked about like that took me to a
place I'll never forget. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know. Yeah.
It'll never be like that. It's always like, oh, he made
some clever pun out of her job and you related it back to this
other group of people who had, like, an equally awkward job.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was a little call back.
Yeah. You know any any other comedian
could have probably done that. Anyway, so there's nothing
signature to you for doing that. Yeah.
And hence why it's like after a while you're like, you know I've
seen this connection of like what do you do Oh, OK you don't
want to be telling be more specific what you do some like
CIA shit. It's like OK, but you getting.
Stopped by the police, for example.
That's unique. I'm already interested.
It's already a good topic. You just say, stop by the police
and I'll be like, huh. Yeah, Get going.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you have all these.
Great. Lines about it, like that's what
I want to hear. Like a bit, yeah.
Exactly. And then that's the one will
that will get people to again, this brings us to the current
world of social media, where you have a lot of comedians who will
post videos of them doing crowd work, which again, is a quick
easy because basically it's it's stuff you can throw away easily,
put it online and get the likes and everything.
Which again, I'm not, I'm not saying, oh, this is terrible,
this is shit. It's just like what I've learned
over time is that I really took a lot of time to think about
myself and like, oh, would I want to put bits like that now?
I can. But if you notice now I really
do any crowd work, mostly because my time on stage is so
precious. I'm like, I don't want to waste
it asking you what you do. I have this idea I'm trying to
work on and I want to make that work and I'm going to, if I have
only 5 minutes, I'm going to practice that idea another 5
minutes rather than like, you know what?
I think I got it down. Let me talk to you.
No, no, no, I can refine it even a bit more.
So therefore, crowd work is I've lost the appeal to it again.
Really. Yeah, 'cause like, I mean, you
remember right before, I would remember when way back we were
doing shows to take out and like, I would do like, crowd
work and everything in between. And there's always that guy,
doesn't be Cantonese and this. Now I'm off that.
And it was fun. It was really fun, 'cause I saw
Paulo. Gotta do it.
And I'm like, whoa, that's so cool, you know, making shit on
the spot. Wah, wah, wah, right.
And it was fun. It was fun.
But as a artist, as a person of doing this craft, I feel it
doesn't really. It's like, kind of, OK, you're a
bodybuilder, OK, you can just randomly lift heavy shit.
You'll get buff. Fair.
But if you're trying to be a bodybuilder, you need to have
targeted training where you're like, I need to move my arm this
specific way to work on the muscle from this angle, Not I'm
pushing forward, you know, like doing a push up, but you're not
thinking about just just raising up from the floor.
No, no, no, no. I'm putting my hand at this
angle, cuz I know that's gonna pull this muscle in this way
because this muscle bit off from that muscle.
And I need to work on this particular fiber over here.
And I think that's what I've learned over time, is that I'm
trying to train myself where I'm literally picking that specific
machine. It's the.
I think the bigger picture, and I think that's such a much
better approach. I I remember you being very good
at crowd work, but I remember you doing it because we'll be in
a weird venue and then. I'll.
I remember like, I'll just, I'm I'm like, I'm going to do my
set. I don't care.
And I just did it and it was like, all right, yeah, yeah,
yeah. And then you would have like 15,
but you'd end up doing 30, 'cause you're like getting
everyone into the show. And I'm like, this guy is
fucking working. God damn man, this guy.
He's sweating. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Puts that he's. Plastered that smile on his
face. I know he hates these people,
but he's like, it's going, yeah, you relate back to the guy.
Yeah, together and. Then by the end, you're.
Like getting an applause break. And every time I knew you'd do
it. Every time I was like, damn.
But I didn't know that you didn't wanna do that.
Yeah, yeah. No.
I mean at that time I did cuz it was so cool, but I was at that
stage in my comedy career. I'm like, I just wanna get
laughs. Yeah.
And I tell people now I'm still at that stage.
OK, there you go. How to do it?
Oh yeah, I'm still. Trying to get a laughs, right?
Yeah, I just. I like.
Steve Barn. I just get up there and I enjoy
the silence. Yeah.
I mean, hey, everyone, Each two of their own, you know?
Yeah, yeah. The audience doesn't understand.
But it's OK. We get it.
Yeah, the comics. Laugh.
Kind of, Yeah. Yeah, that we don't.
They're, they're not particular bias.
Who gives a shit about them? Yeah.
No. OK, Yeah.
And that's what I mean. I think that's what I've learned
over time and again. Maybe people who listen to
podcasts will know that. How the evolution between me and
Muhammad. I'm sure when he comes back
after after Australia, he will have another angle on the world
of comedy. Which is why coming back to what
I told you in the beginning, Chris, like just as a comedian,
to a comedian who's been in this kind of scene long enough, the
one thing that has broken the bottleneck slash been the
tipping point is to be in the Comedy Festival and doing it
night after night. That is a complete change.
It's like it's one of those things where you can go to the
gym three times a week, every week for the next 10 years, but
to be able to go to the gym every single day, it's not so
much about doing the same doing the workout.
Like you could actually do the same kind of workouts over time.
In other words, if I don't need to do 3 bicep curls on Monday
and three tricep extensions on Tuesday, I could have done three
bicycles and three tricep extensions on Tuesday.
And it's been the same. Mathematically and
scientifically, it's exactly the same, right?
However, to do the bicep curl tricep curls is that every day
of the week for like the next three weeks or four weeks,
you're building a mental discipline, a mental muscle
where now you can talk to your bicep to a level that you can
talk to your tricep while you're talking to bicep at the same
time. Well, to.
Extend this metaphor even further.
Yeah, imagine you doing that workout, But you're at Gold's
Gym. Yeah, in Los Angeles in the 70s.
And who are you working out next to?
Arnold Schwarzenegger? Who are those other guys?
Monie Coleman. All those the guy that this
short guy, Joe. I forget now, but yeah.
Short guy, but Jake. Cutler.
No, but. Those are that you're not
working out? Next to those guys and not like
pushing extra Rep. Like.
How do I do that? And if you're in Melbourne,
yeah. Or if you're in like some Comedy
City, you're seeing these greats come in and you're not going to
be half ass in it. You're going to be like, shit, I
suck, dude. I gotta up my game, dude.
I'm. Telling you, man, like this is,
and I'll tell you this, when your own peers raise the bar,
like for example, Jason Leung, So cool dude.
He was doing the full festival run.
That's like 20 something shows each night. 150 seater sold out,
all sold out. Just do the math, man.
And then he added like, I think 4, four more shows of five
minute seats per night. OK.
Really. Yeah.
He's coming to Hong Kong, 8th of June 1000 Seater.
Oh, oh, you mean. For here, Yeah, I think I saw
that, yeah. But he He.
In Melbourne he added four shows, 5 minute seat room per
show. That's another 2000 seats he's
added. And the thing you can see is, is
the honest hustle and willingness to really go in and
really do his thing. He will take on sets of
anything. He's like I'm going to go there,
do a 5 minute set, I don't care. And when you see your own pure
doing that, you're like, man, I better be at the level.
If I want to call my peer, we better be doing that.
And I think that's the one thing that I really don't know.
Hence the when the while they're playing checkers, I'm playing
chesting. It really clicked in my head
where I was like, OK, you know what?
I'm not saying who's better or worse.
I'm literally playing a different game from everyone.
I'm not here to do a 5 minute set and have a drink.
I don't care about the drink coupon.
I'm here to work on that 5 minutes because that 5 minutes
is going to eventually be added up to my one hour.
Then I'm going to be taking all over the world to do shows, you
know. So that's the whole strategy,
not just the quick laughs up here.
And when that laugh doesn't come, I'm like, that's OK, I got
my workout in. Coming back to the Judge
Steinfeld thing of like, it's kind of the tonnage thing.
Everyone's got the workout in. You got to get the workout in.
Yeah. And I think people like you and
myself, like we are willing to keep it consistent.
The only difference I would say is that maybe because of my this
being my full time thing, I'm able to direct it into an actual
performance where I have to take it around the world because I
have to do that. It's not like I this other way
to pay my bills. Like this is it.
I have to make it happen and I think it's a it's a kind of like
a double edged sword where I can either like fall completely like
die in The Cave where I might go overseas spend all this money.
I'm like man, I'm not selling tickets I'm losing money over
here. Shit, I'm in trouble or hey man,
I we've established that it's the next step.
So coming back to Hong Kong like if you told me now can you take
the cat that that that one hour show that I did in Australia.
I come back to Hong Kong. I'm like, dude, I will
confidently tell you that's a solid hour that I can like too
heavy here without even having. Yeah.
So that's why. I mean, that's why I tell all
the comedians I'm like, man, go to the festivals, man, Go do the
just experience it and then like, see what the next step is
for yourself. Yeah.
Well, that's great, man. This is crazy.
I mean it it's, it's bizarre, like just talking to you, like
after all these years talking comedy because it's different
talking to, let's say, someone like yourself who's been the
pure since day one versus someone who's like been in the
scene like, Oh yeah, Hong Kong's like this.
I'm like, it's very different over there.
Yeah. But OK, Chris, how do people get
to know your next step in comedy or follow you or whatever?
Oh. Like my Instagram?
Instagram. Yeah, what?
Is it? It's Chris.
Moosny, Chris. under score. Moosny.
So, CHRI. S under score MUSNI.
Yeah, that's right. Instagram over there.
Exactly right. And what about your If you want
to know when you're performing next, will you be posting it
over there as well? Yeah.
I'll be you'll find it on there because the backstage will post
there and everyone else tends tends to post there.
So it'll be on my stories and all that stuff.
Yeah. So if you just.
Follow the backstage HK. You probably see the lineup and
Chris Music is one of the regulars over there.
If you go to an open mic night especially, I believe Aftermath
is one I definitely see the most because that's when I go to
anyway. Yeah, so you see at the
Aftermath on Tuesday nights, are you doing the Monday nights as
well at bar 109? Not really not.
So much, right? Yeah, me neither.
Yeah, What about carbon bruises? Still on.
I did that. Once I kind of want to wait and
see if it'll survive. OK, OK, OK, fair enough.
Yeah, but you guys should definitely check it out.
OK, well. Either way, Chris under score
Muse Knee goes on Instagram to go check it out.
Follow him and you can see what's happening over here.
And who knows man, maybe this time next year something will
click, some opportunity will happen, and then you will take
your thing, do your own solo show over here.
And like honestly man, I would say the one thing I would tell
people who have been in Hong Kong comedy scene long enough to
see the scene grow and evolve. It is like you are at the you're
The Pioneers. So it is also kind of your
responsibility to say, you know what, I need to have that that
maybe solo show just under your belt.
Just say I I I did it right, right, right.
And that'll be really. Cool to just say I'm like, wow,
that'll be such a cool thing to see where like reverse to where
I'm like, you're right, man, something.
Have like a target. Yeah, you have to, Yeah.
Yeah, and make that hour whether.
And honestly, dude, like whether it's like 10 people, 10,000
people, it doesn't really matter.
The point is having that hour under your belts, that I have
that with me, whether I ever take it out and use it for
anything, it doesn't matter. I have that.
And you have that credibility to keep going on with.
That's cool, man. Yeah.
All right, Well, anyway. Well, for anybody else who still
wants to hear a bit more, we have the Patreon episodes.
You got patreon.com/hoho pod if you want to support us.
It's just $5 a month. You get to listen to some
special content, usually better because I speak clearer and
slower. Yeah, you see that.
But it's always the little special stuff that we discussed.
We go to a topic that we like and we dig deep into it and
discuss it. I can already predict that this
will be still very calmly heavy for any of you who thought, oh,
where's the entertainment look, This is what happens is that
when two comments get into it, this is the actual technical
nitty gritty of the the the scene that we're in, the things
that we're doing. And the best thing you can do
really is just go watch comedians and watching them
involve. It's just a fun thing where like
me seeing Chris, whether it was a scandal of before being banned
and this and that, which we'll talk about.
Well, I made you on $5 a month, everybody.
We can discuss on how it had an influence on the scene, not just
your own career as well. But again, Chris, do you know
when your next show is? Your next?
On Saturday, This Saturday. Hold on, hold on.
Yeah. Elevens.
Yeah. OK, so.
It's literally this episode's coming out on Monday, and then
he will be performing on the 11th Saturday night.
I believe you should be performing in backstage.
All right, so we'll check out backstage.
JHK, go watch Chris music, go support different comedy.
And if you're in Australia, go support other comedians who are
flying in because we pay our own bills, man, it's tough.
Thank you so much, everyone. And Muhammad, stop touching
Annie. She's tired of it.
We've been together long enough. It's not love anymore.