ALOHA AND CASTING ALL THE WHITE PEOPLE AS ASIANS
Labels: aapi, Asian American, asian american tv, asian comedians, asian comics, AZN, casting, colonial theory, culture, hapa, racism
Asian American Culture, Politics, Issues. Politipop, humor and observations. Road Stories from tour dates of Amerasian legends Slanty Eyed Mama. The comedy of Asian American Comedy Star Kate Rigg. Interacting with different Asian American groups from colleges and community organizations, as well as people involved in feminist/multicultural/socio-political/ and groups interested in fostering understanding between diverse communities in America and beyond.
Labels: aapi, Asian American, asian american tv, asian comedians, asian comics, AZN, casting, colonial theory, culture, hapa, racism
So Wellesley College is a women's college, (except for the M born F who are now straddling the gender divide and creating space for themselves there) Hilary Rodham Clinton went there and Madeline Albright and Nora Ephron and lots of rad people went there. And it's a private college. These are all important context for the story of the naked white guy sleepwalking in tighty whities on the side of the road on the way to the Pendelton building where we played a concert the other night. Tony Matelli who created the piece, was surprised by the stir it caused. Tears, girls protesting, angry letters the whole I'M OFFENDED as a core identifier amongst the emotional throngs of undergrads who told me their reactions were "frightened, triggered, offended, angry" and a host of other negatory feelings of infringement.
Labels: art, colonial theory, culture, feminism, nudity, politics, race, slanty eyed mama, sleepwalker, wellesley college, whiteness
Labels: api, apt, Asian American, asian comedians, asian comics, asian heroes, asian media, asian stand up comedy, kate rigg, race, racism, slant eyed mama, tokenism
I am still wearing my Jeremy Lin jersey (actually I have two NBA Knicks Lin Jerseys and one tshirt) all over town with the insane pride that against all odds Jeremy Lin just stuck at what he does and kept doing it and doing it and kicked so much butt last season on the Knicks. (somewhere his asian mom is saying "why didn't you kick TWO butts?") You gotta wear the colors when someone from an under-represented demographic proves all the stereotypes and the predjudices and the exlusionary politics wrong. In case you need a lexicon:
Well what can I tell ya. I went to Sundance with a movie I was in.My first time at the festival and it was delicious and gorgeous. After a year trapped in a cubicle (ok 6 months but it feels like ten fucking years) I was gratified to be in an artistic environment where new thoughts are encouraged, independent spirit applauded, badasses given a voice and people open to sharing ideas and their work. Everyone was very vulnerable and very confident at the same time which is how art really flourishes.
Labels: arts culture, Asian American racism, directors, Dr Phil Kate Rigg comedy politics, hapa, japanese, sundance
I dunno about star. Well maybe a little. It is getting pretty exciting out there on the University Touring and club scene. Dr Phil even told me "IF last year was hard for you, then I want to be YOU." I remember when Dr. Ken was moonlighting at Laugh Factory with his guitar and singing crazy asian tunes. He is in the movies now, bigtime, usually some kind of naked involved. I think I will stick to my stints on Law and Order, Dr Phil and the indie films to go "legit". Our gig at Harvard was hilarious. I had to change the lyrics to medical school from "all you geeks can go to hell" to "I"ll wear that lab coat in hell". I think it is permanent. Although I still maintain there is no reason for Asians to be in Wisconsin. Crab Rangoon notwithstanding. (these are all inside jokes. you need to see the act to de-code.)
Labels: asian comedians, asian comics, Dr Phil Kate Rigg comedy asian american culture rudeness pranks
At De Paul University in Chicago today, for the mixed heritage conference, the 1st annual. They expected 50 people and 400 turned up for this event. They said that my comedy was a perfect way to end a weekend that was rife with crying, identity crises and talking about the VERY REAL issues that are STILL hitting kids hard 37 years after the Woman Warrior was written, namely, that parents who immigrated have a very specific idea of the kind of life they want their kids to have (for which they sacrificed home and a sense of familiarity) which, of course, throws their young adult kids into an identity crises because the american landscape and multiculural cities expect and dictate something very different in terms of a sense of personal freedom, success and control. Slanty Eyed Mama did a more activist set than usual (representing the conference) and we spoke to mixed race issues.
Labels: asian comedians, asian stand up comedy college shows
the rudeness episode and the liars episode i did on dr phil were actually MORE important than even that race one. It is important for asian americans to just be able to participate and see themselves in "regular" american situations not just by asian for asian about asian stuff. Which is important from an educational and historical point of view for sure, but the work is also to make Asians welcome and particularly asian AMERICANS be acknowledged and recognized as americans-- tax paying pop culture buying proctor and gamble supporting voting americans. The "other" thing is the hidden bias. Foreigners in our own country NO. That is why I am VERY VERY proud to have been part of Dr. Phil's shows this year. Plus his books are GREAT. GREAT GREAT.
Labels: Dr Phil Kate Rigg comedy asian american culture rudeness pranks
yeah for those of you who didn't see the Dr. Phil episode on hidden bias I am gonna try to clip and post here. CLICK HERE TO WATCH the discussion on Asian Americans on Dr. Phil...In the meantime the major theme of discussion was if it is hidden is it racist and how hidden are our biases. My fave quote by me is that "hidden bias is the hallmark of racism against asian americans in this country" It is hidden in the model minority myth, in the aversion to integration on both asian and non asian sides in the inter asian racism and in the self hatred of asian elders bringing up their kids to either be "white" and despertely seek assimilation OR to be only asian and thereby cause an incredible cross cultural despair that manifests in suicidial young adults who are welcome in neither culture. We had a rousing conversation about dog eating with michigan or minnesota ladies who perhaps had seen hmong people eating a dog OR jsut got hysterical at a barbque, and we talked to amy joe the line producer from Texas who sounds like a Bush but looks like a Lee. not general.
I'm down on the left next to Paul Mooney.
Labels: Dr. Phil asian american comedy race racism bias culture paul mooney predjudice hidden bias
hey click on this link to see a pretty good dialogue on the use of the word chink in comedy and some people criticizing me for my politicomedy while others celebrate. DIG IT!
Labels: race asian americans kate rigg racism politics culture comedy chink jap
Out crowd at Smithsonian was really enthused we got the standing o and at the end of the show before we performed Rice Rice baby I shouted out some of my favorite Asian American heroes (see last blog for relevance)
Soon I will blog some of the most common questions asked in q and a, but this was a very prestigious and super fun gig and I hope we keep going back...
At the last minute, I was asked to present a new poem at the Los Angeles KCET Local Heros Awards which the Union Bank of California has created for Asian Americans. NOW WE'RE TALKING.
On tour one of the questions I always ask young asian americans is: Who are your asian American Heros? Do you have a/pi role models. And after an uncomfortable silence someone blurts out "Bruce Lee" and then maybe a "Jackie Chan" and then there is some relief. And someone might say My mom. Which is nice. But is avoiding the question a little bit. The lack of role models for A/PI Americans is more than an academic debate. It is more than a college class on race and representation or minorities in the media or some essay on how multiculturalism is affected by the 2nd 3rd and 4th waves of Asian immigration. It is more than an article for a culture paper, it is more than a grant proposal. It is one of the main reasons that we lost AZN TV before it even started. It is why I am confronted over and over with suicide stories from interviewees who consistently cite cultural alienation as their source of despair: Traditional asian values from home which they cannot relate to (dont date outside the race, dont assimilate, dont do as the white kids do, racism etc) clashing with their image at school (nerd geek, oriental, foreginer) which is perpetuated by the lack of Asians in American pop culture and the stereotypes that persist in our popular media.
Of COURSE we are making progress. But we are far from there my friends. Here is the poem I read at the KCET ceremony. I encourage you to all look up the award winners and nominate some in your own communities so we can get this shit started and take our place as American Asians who not only pay with our taxes and our consumer dollars for the media we consume, but who learn to participate by encouraging our leaders in sciences and arts and business to inspire future generations of Americasians. George Takei didn't make it to the awards, but he is a beacon of activism and hope and served as the anchor for this poem.
(Where we are going, and where we have been.
Our heroes voices resonate within:
The heart of every A/PI Desi Hapa
East Meets West meets
Accidental Occidental Oriental Americasian.
The heroes Speak the text
For Generasian-Next.)
Atmospheric Sound Waves from Takei 7307
As interpreted by the honorees
At KCET’s 5th Annual Local Hero of the Year Awards.
In a new translation by kate rigg
2008
Beau Sia
See Beau, beautiful poet
Deftly def with words with rhymes
Sign of the times
Like a beacon of hope,
Speaking loud speaking strong
In a sea of black and white
All his mighty Amerasian might
The light
Sounds of a young man speaking
A young man teaching
A voice so clear it woke up the DEF
Beau Sia said
DECLARE YOURSELF
And we might.
Coz he did.
Tony Yip
Fast and Fearless
Steering us to takea ride inside
The mechanics of
Of possibility
See
How to make wheels turn
How to push the form
And from within
Tony Yip said what If I flipped
This door this frame this idea
This passion that ties us all to our
Ride. Our Pride.
Tony Yip Said
DARE TO EVOLVE
And we could.
Because he did.
Curtis chin
Knew Vincent chin
Knew that from within
The writers and the artists and the
Filmmakers and the poets
And the voters and the singers
And the thinkers and the painters
And the Keepers of History
And the speakers of our story,
Would lead us out of the parking lot
And into the future.
At the workshop at the committee
In the lens of a documentary.
He gave us places he gave us names
He gives us pictures, He built the frames
AAWW, APIMNY, DNC, APAP
Curtis Chin
Said
PROGRESS
And we can
Because he named it.
Bill Seki
Holding the law inside
The pride of a fight
That tore us apart
Tore the American heart
Out of so many who tried
To believe in a country
That had lost its faith in them.
And with 100 battalions by his side
And his diplomas and his degrees
The sansei reaches one hand to the Nisei
One hand to the Issei and holds fast
Says we will not forget the past
We will speak it all
Till it has all been spoke
Bill Seki
Said
GO FOR BROKE
And we will
Because he showed us.
Hemlata Momaya
Or you might call her Aunty
If you are one of tomorrows children
Who needed someone’s love today
She refuses to say
“Less desirable too hard to place
Abandoned, unwanted, the wrong color
The wrong face”
And the strength of the world
Found in the heart of a child
Found its channel its potential
Its butterfly
In Aunty Hemlata
Who did not forget
That we are all caterpillars
And we have angels wings
Through her teaching through her
Agency, through her so many things
Hemlata Momaya said
WE ARE FOREVER FAMILY
And we are
Because we can be.
George Takei
Has an asteroid named after him
7307 Takei.
It is between mars
Planet of Passion
And Jupiter
Planet of Luck.
It is 5 miles in diameter
And it is approved and recognized by the
International Astronomical Union.
If you can see it in your mind’s eye
7307
(named after actor activist
writer historian role model speaker
leader survivor politician partner)
7307
may lead you all the way home.
And if you listen for the cosmic universal sound
The echoes of 7307 Takei
Crossing the universe
You might hear it seem to say
From your Asian American Heros
To tomorrow’s heroes, today :
DECLARE YOURSELF
DARE TO EVOLVE
PROGRESS
GO FOR BROKE
WE ARE FOREVER FAMILY.
And we might
And we can
And we will
And we are.
Labels: asian heroes, beau sia, curtis chin, george takei, hemlata momaya, kcet, role models heritage month Amerasian
I had the enormous pleasure of hosting the TAACC Star of Asia Awards and New Year Gala this year and presenting the Star of Asia Awards for Entertainment and Science. The Star ones went to to Broadway Producer PUN BANDHU who is a gorgeous as he is smart (look out all ye emasculating stereotypes of A/A males, Pun is gonna slick back his hair, keep making Tony Award winning plays and knock you OUT). The other recipient was CHLOE DAO, creator of Lot 8 boutique in Houston, and winner of Project runway season 2 and member of a giant family of girls 7 sisters were in attendance, all wearing Dao dresses and looking like a beautiful cluster of silky birds on stage as she received her glass trophy and made her speech. She said the most memorable thing of the night which was that she thought "Asian parents should support their children's dreams. Especially parents who emigrated here because they were seeking a better life. My parents , my mother always supported my desire to be an artist and a clothing designer. She believed in me and encouraged me to draw and think big. Dream big. She helped me sew dresses on the kitchen table, and she encouraged all of her daughters to find happiness in America with no one rigid idea of what that meant, or one career foisted upon me. And look what happens when you support you Asian American kids' dreams. They become Stars of Asia." There were also awards for science ( apparently Asians are good at Science, who knew?) and some high school kids got awards too.
Labels: chloe dao, heroes role models heritage month Amerasian, kate rigg, pun bandhu, texas asian american chamber of commerce star of asia awards
Have you guys seen THIS CRAZY RACIST SHIT? Click on that link to see an article From the paper at the University of Colorado Boulder a one of a kind racist diatribe that was published then defended by the school's lawyers.
Labels: Asian American racism, campus, chinks, colorado, hate speech, kate rigg a/pi activism
I can't believe we never even had a chance. The article from December 2005 in the SF Gate called "Asian Pop/AZN R.I.P" sent a shudder through the hearts of Asian American Artists who only a few months before had thrilled to the announcement that comcast was launching a special network JUST FOR Asian Americans with original programming as well as feeds from around the world. I like, many other A.D.D. multimedia multicultural AZN artists came up with 300 good ideas for programming, cheap cool ones at that. And I interviewed hundreds of college and high school students while on tour with Slanty Eyed Mama about what kinds of things they would like to see on an AZN network. Here is an excerpt from the SF Gate article in case you don't want to read the whole thing. Bottom line my friends. Money talks and bullshit walks. I am so mad mad mad because the shut down of AZN sends the wrong message to the media. It says that there is no audience for cool A/PI programming which is BULLSHIT!! There is no audience for whack old school K-dramas sandwiched between endless repeats of the same Yao Ming documentary and one off stand up comedy shows half assed shot in a basement with no decent graphics package and no publicity. We got sold out for a half billion dollars in the pockets of the real power players who put this deal together and whose name you will not find in this article or anywhere on line. We had our asses handed to us by shit brains who wanted us to fail and who laid off the entire staff, cancelled production and pulled budgets out, waiting for 2008 so they could say "Well, gee whiz we tried! I guess there is no audiences for this kind of station." Lemme in that board room! Next time round we're gonna do it right.
Labels: asian american tv, asian media, AZN, kate rigg, representation
I aint hatin on eminem or danny hoch or anyone else who has made part of their career by "talkin' black" or "talkin hip hop". I know Paul Mooney would have something to say to me about this and I realize that it pretty much is a matter of case by case scenarios. I don't necessarily think that eminem makes the world dismissive of black artists although his meteoric rise to popularity in a medium created out of social unrest and racial pride-slash-rebellion did certainly highlight and chafe the wound of racism in the entertainment industry and the audience. However. As a mixed race artist I am certainly never going to support nationalistic or ethno centric proprietal rights to language and arts in our society. I dont think that once art, especially popular art is put out there, that you can segregate the audience or the artist by claiming THIS IS OURS ONLY. Otherwise I would be banished to the margins as an actor of playing an Indonesian Australian ONLY and I would be banished in language to say eh? after anything and pronounce house like hoose as homage to my canadian nationality and what the hell is that. Art transforms society. Hip Hop transformed society and we are all a part of hip hop either as fans, detractors, indifferent bystanders, artists etc. I think that applies to all pop culture. We are given democratic access to it and as artists, we are influenced or not by what is happening in art around us. Having said that, now to the matter at hand. I saw this play. It was called Clay. It was produced by a big ass theater out here with all hoopla and publicity that theaters can muster. It was lauded in the program by the artistic director as important and vital theater. It was a one person show with many monologues set to tracks with a hip hoppy type of beat, and written in ryhmes. And the lil white dude that was in the play had created a very very loose story about a jewish kid in brooklyn whose parents get divorced and he ends up banging his dad's new wife when he is 13 and resenting his business boring white guy dad and writing lots and lots of angry ryhmes about it along with his mentor, a disfigured black rapper called Brother john who decides his life mission is to take this emotionally fragile lil white boy and teach him the glory of beatboxing and freestyle to express his teen angst. Lame story, unfortunately lame ryhmes, so so beats, good enough beat boxing, so so characters. An artist definitely needs room to find his or her voice no doubt. An artist is allowed to emotionally relate to a language of protest and social unrest in an attempt to express big feelings. I dont even care if the kid cuts an album. But. When the big honcho white guys in charge start lauding a lame ass dramaturgy, ryhmes that are monotonous and lyrically challenged ("on and on till the break of dawn"..."when I say hip hip you say MUSIC!") I and tells me it is vital and important theater...in other words when the construction of a play sucks and the only "interesting" thing about it is that a white guy is talking black-- so in essence i am being told that blackface=an important theatrical moment, I WIG OUT. There are so many vital writers unheard, so many artists of color trying to express feelings of being left out and unseen, so many white kids writing emotionally challenging and complext plays that ARENT being heard that this kind of fearful programming by untrained ears (well it SOUNDS kinda like hip hop so I guess it's good) is insulting and hurtful and another nail in the coffin of the emerging artist driven in by the hammer of a liberal white kid who thinks cross cultural understanding means puttin on a hoodie and saying hey my struggles are just like yours! As a human being, his searing post divorce confusion and feelings of abandonment are valid and cannot be quantified. But as theater, the history of hip hop, good dramatic writing, language and form as cultural rebellion, and social context must not and cannot be ignored in a kind of backward affirmative action that actually upholds white privilege.
Get our songs one by one here. In 2007 we recorded CRAZY and NAUGHTY SCHOOL GIRL which have some pretty rad lyrics.-- preview on myspae but you can download em here
For my latest projects "Urban Tao" and "Americasiana" I have been interviewing kids in every single city Slanty Eyed Mama visits on tour and so far that is 11 major cities and growing. This in addition to the hours of feedback sessions on both my concerts comedy shows etc went into the following which was designed to tell the people who make decisions about how we are portrayed in the media, as well as those who make decisions about how to market to different demographics, a thing or two. Do I speak for all asian americans? NO. Are we underrepresented and NEED people to be asking these questions to asian americans of all walks of life. YES. Am I afraid of you bloggers who know better than me? NO. Not because I think I am right, but because I think the blatant disregrard for asian americans in making decisions about American culture especially popular culture is an insult and WE NEED TO get the issues on the table. Another issue this is making me think about is that because we are so tragically underrepresented, stuff like this sometimes can start a shitstorm that has nothing to do with either the validity of the statements or the services snapdragon can offer. Because AAA (angry asian americans) are absolutely starved for anyone listening to us as a group and will take any opening as an opportunity to soapbox and rant which unfortunately simultaneously is the spirit we are wanting to tap AND a HUGE turnoff to the people who NEED to start considering Asian Americans in their marketing and media decisions. Nothing scares a white person afraid of being called racist than a person screaming racist. So guess what. No asians on TV in commercials in fashion etc. The screaming emotional political activist who cant see the forest for the trees gets everyone all riled up and we all get ignored. So,