by CARL KOZLOWSKI
It’s all too easy to try and lock comics into a category and limit their points of view to a specific angle based on their obvious attributes. There are fat comics, black comics, Latino comics, angry comics and physical comics, to name just a few.
But Helen Hong is a Korean American female comic who refuses to be boxed into a corner or category. Along with Egyptian American comic Maria Shehata, Hong co-hosts Little Ethnic Girls, a comedic podcast heard weekly on the station Radio Titans, in which the women hit on all aspects of life from refreshingly distinctive points of view, not afraid to confront stereotypes or turn them on their heads.
Hong has been on a tear this year, with her late-night talk show debut on The Arsenio Hall Show, which built upon her work as a star of TV Guide Network’s Count It Down series and Logo Channel’s reality dating series Setup Squad. She’s also a recurring character on the Nickelodeon series The Thundermans and has a unique side gig as the host and creator of the popular comedy-matchmaking event “Laugh Match.”
But while she’s burning up TV screens and appearing in festivals and contests, including the NYC Underground Comedy Festival and California’s Funniest Female competition, Hong makes it clear that she’s happy to play against the “sweet Asian girl” image she projects to surprise audiences with naughty and irreverent material.
Helen Hong, co-host of Little Ethnic Girls. Photo courtesy of Helen Hong.
“I think my ethnicity has mostly helped my career,” Hong says. “There are only a handful of ethnic women doing stand-up, so people are curious about me, and that has opened doors and opportunities. It’s such a saturated business that any little thing that can set you apart gives you an edge, I think.”
Surprisingly, Hong was not a stand-up comedy fan while she was growing up, and didn’t even know that stand-up was a real profession. She signed up “on a lark” to take stand-up classes at Caroline’s on Broadway in New York City after hearing that a friend of a friend had taken a class there.
“It was a Sunday afternoon, and I was so nervous, I thought I would die,” Hong recalls. “But as soon as I got my first laugh, I knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life!”
She met Shehata about a decade ago at a comedy club in New York City. “We’ve known each other for nine years, and have been calling each other out on our bullsh-t for eight-and-a-half years,” says the Ohio-born Shehata, who blends a unique mix of Middle East and Midwest influences that help make her act hilarious and unique while also being universal. She has been seen performing on Comedy Central’s The Watch List and Showtime’s special Bridging the Gap.
Maria Shehata, co-host of Little Ethnic Girls. Photo courtesy of Maria Shehata.
“We did the same awful shows together, and I always loved watching her perform,” continues Shehata. “We are both super-short, and people came up to us with the same condescending remarks, and we bonded over that.”
“Others always commented on our visual appearance together,” adds Hong. “So I think we were like, ‘OK, well, let’s work it!’”
And so they have been working it on Radio Titans, a podcast station with 20 humor-tinged shows operating out of downtown L.A., for the past two years. Hong credits “mutual respect” as the main ingredient that makes the show work, adding that being personal friends for a decade helps a lot with the chemistry as well.
“The theme is us navigating our lives independent of the expectations of our parents,” says Shehata.
That means the pair isn’t afraid to delve into some personal material on their podcast—including making light of their dating escapades as single, ethnic women. In Episode 3 of Little Ethnic Girls, Hong shares with Shehata how she got hit on by a “raging Asian fetishist” on OkCupid. When Hong asks the man, who is Caucasian, to explain why he only dates Asian women, as he claims, Shehata can hardly wait for her co-host to relate his answer.
“Can we do guesses first?” she asks with a hint of glee in her voice. “I have two guesses: ‘One, I have a small penis, and I don’t have much to follow with Asian men.’ Or, ‘I don’t have a lot of self-esteem and, in my mind, Asian women are submissive.’”
“Those are really good guesses, and one of them is right on point,” says Hong. “[He said,] ‘I date mostly Asian women because I find them more genuine than most other cultures. They’re caring, nurturing and easier to get along with. That said, would you like to get to know one another?’” [Laughs.]
“Yeah, he clearly does not know you,” Shehata says, laughing. “What Asian women [does he] know? Just like [from] the massage parlor …”
“Korean women will f-cking kick your ass!” Hong says.
“I don’t think anybody’s ever said that about Middle Eastern women,” adds Shehata, “I just find them to be so caring …”
Obviously, the duo isn’t afraid to ruffle some feathers with comments that call out fetishists or play on stereotypes of their own communities. They say they have learned over the years not to worry about what kind of criticism they might receive from their respective ethnic communities.
Hong says she just does the best she can with material that comes naturally to her and hopes that Korean Americans take pride in her success. “But because Asians hated on Margaret Cho so much, I’m cautious about relying on their support,” she adds. “Your own people will always be more critical.”
As much admiration as the comic has for a veteran in the business like Cho, Hong notes that it gets her pretty riled up when people call her “the new Margaret Cho.”
“I hate that,” she says. “Margaret is one of my heroes and our subject matter are similar in some ways, but our styles are very different. There’s room for both of us, so don’t try to get me to say I’m going to knock off Margaret to become successful. Margaret is not going anywhere, and I’d love for one day to be as well known as her. There doesn’t have to be only one!”
Indeed, Hong and Shehata, by putting themselves out there on stage, TV and their podcast, are showing individuals from their communities that comedy is a possible path for them, too—that there’s room for many, not just one. Shehata has had people approach her after her Arab American shows saying they wish they could be comics like her.
When it comes to her own people’s support, perhaps the biggest surprise for Hong has come from the fact that her Korean immigrant parents have been “shockingly supportive” of her dreams. She finds that, after nine years in the game and her rising success, they see how passionate she is about comedy and how happy it makes her, and have put aside their reservations to cheer her on.
“They’re so supportive it’s starting to get annoying, actually,” says Hong, laughing. “They’re retired dry cleaners, so the punchline writes itself! I think they figured out I’m not going to get married or have kids, so do what you want. Who am I going to bitch about now?”
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Featured photo courtesy of Maria Shehata.
Carl Kozlowski is the founder of Radio Titans. He is also the arts editor of the Pasadena Weekly, and a film critic for Movieguide and the Catholic News Agency, in addition to being a professional stand-up comic.
This article was published in the December 2014/January 2015 issue of KoreAm. Subscribe today! To purchase a single issue copy of the December/January issue, click the “Buy Now” button below. (U.S. customers only. Expect delivery in 5-7 business days).
