Comedian Ronny Chieng Is A Big Fan Of Mediacorp's Unbeatables: "I Watched All Of Them!"

Even though I’ve interviewed Ronny Chieng three times before (one was done via e-mail, though), I still get a bit nervous about speaking to him. (For the record, there could’ve been a fourth interview if 8 DAYS weren’t banned from the set of Crazy Rich Asians — that’s another story for another time.)

If you’ve seen the JB-born, US-based Malaysian comedian on stage or The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, then you know he’s kinda an angsty, grumpy dude. I always get this feeling that if you ask him a silly question, you might end up as his jokes on his shows. (That’s why I’m terrified of speaking to comedians in general — you're potential material.)

The truth is, Ronny, 33, is a lot more personable than his onscreen persona lets on. As long as you don’t’ ask him questions like what it’s like to do stand-up ( if you do, “I’ll hang up on you,” he warns us over the phone), you'll be fine. Ronny is in town for two shows at the Esplanade Theatre tonight (Nov 29). If you didn't get the tickets, don't fret: He also has a Netflix special dropping on Dec 17.

8 DAYS: I read that your fondest memories in Singapore were going out at night to play basketball in the neighbourhood and hanging out with friends to play video games. But what about your favourite TV shows then?

RONNY CHIENG: Damn, you want to test me? I got you, I got you. Remember Hossan Leong’s The Donny Lee Show? It was like a parody of a Saturday Night Live-type variety show. It’s about the behind-the-scenes characters who wrote and perform the show. It’s basically a 30 Rock before 30 Rock. That show was ahead of its time.

There was also a cool show called Money and it starred Pierre Png. Do you remember this one? It was shot beautifully and it was a very sophisticated drama about everyday life in Singapore and the kind of stress this guy [played by Pierre] faced while trying to get rich. Man, it looked beautiful. They shot it like it was a movie; they used film stock. You know what? They never film anything like that again. I asked Pierre about it and he said, “People just couldn’t replicate it.”

Obviously, Under One Roof [was another favourite]. I also watched a lot of Ch 8 dramas. The Unbeatables 1, 2, 3…I don’t know how many they made but I watched all of them. In 1993, when I first move to Singapore, there was a show starring Chew Chor Meng where he played a vampire hunter. Chew Chor Meng is one of my favourite actors.

In one interview you, you were referred to as the “Singaporean Son we wish had”. Hainanese chicken rice, chilli crab and now we want to lay claim to Ronny Chieng. As a Malaysian, how does it feel?

I don’t mind. It’s nice to be wanted. You know what’s causing a lot of confusion? I am a Johore Bahru guy; I’m not a KL guy. I’m a border town dude. I lived between JB and Singapore. I really woke up at 4am to take the bus into Singapore to go to [Fuchun Primary School in Woodlands]. I literally lived in both countries at the same time.

In a recent episode of The Daily Show, you addressed the NBA-China feud partly in Mandarin. Have you done a stand-up routine entirely in Mandarin?

I did it in Beijing and I do in New York sometimes. It’s horrible. Because a lot of my stuff doesn’t translate [well in Mandarin], so I have to write them from scratch. In fact, I recently met up with [British stand-up comic] Eddie Izzard who’s famous for doing comedy in German, French and Italian. He he told me just do it and do a whole hour in Chinese.

Because his theory is: Funny is funny. I think it’s actually easier to [switch between] the Anglo languages and the Latin-based languages as opposed to going from English to Chinese, which is completely different — different structure, different sense of humour. I think it’s harder, anyway.

You also have a Netflix Comedy Special coming out on Dec 17, Asian Comedian Destroys America. Is that a sign that you’ve finally made it big time?

(Long pause) I mean, I don’t know if I made it anywhere. But it’s definitely a milestone for modern comedians who wanted to be on that platform. There is a history of Netflix Comedy Specials featuring high-profile legends, so to be able to be on the same platform as them is flattering. I don’t know if it’s any indication of anything. I’m really happy to be on Netflix, don’t get me wrong. It’s definitely not easy to get your own comedy special. I think the speculation as to what it means, I’ll leave it to other people.

What can we look out for on Asian Comedian Destroy America?

I worked on the special for two years. What is really special about it is its visual presentation. I put extra effort into the production design, in terms of how it looks. I worked with my director Sebastian DiNatale a lot on it. The visual theme [we were going for] is like classic American show business because historically, Asian performers weren’t given that platform to perform. So I was trying to recreate that vibe.