Comedian Sheng Wang is ‘trying to capture magic in the everyday and the mundane’

Shortly after the release of his hit 2022 Netflix special, “Sweet & Juicy,” comedian Sheng Wang was featured on Vulture’s list of Comedians You Should and Will Know.

When asked what story from childhood explains why he ended up being a comedian, the Houston native replied: “As a toddler, I had a reputation for slamming my head into the ground when things didn’t go my way. I think that explains everything up until now.” Then again, maybe there was something in the water back there in middle school.

“I’m originally from Texas. I grew up in Houston. I went to the same middle school as Beyoncé. That’s crazy. Right?” he says in his special. “Beyoncé alone is a pretty big deal, but then you find out Sheng Wang also came from the same part of town – it’s like, Wow, that’s a lot of talent. Must have been something in that water, y’all.”

Now Sheng Wang is coming home. He’s playing two shows in Austin this month, looping back to San Antonio and his hometown in December. He joined the Standard to talk what brought him to standup, his current tour and the success he’s found since his Netflix special.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: I understand you actually didn’t have any plans to do stand-up initially. You were at UC Berkeley getting a business degree, something like 25 years ago – what happened?

Sheng Wang: That’s correct. I guess it’s been that long. Yeah, you know, I was a young kid in college. I was definitely not exposed to stand-up. That part of the entertainment culture was not something I knew much about as a kid.

We didn’t have cable TV or anything like that. And I just didn’t watch much. I didn’t consume a whole lot as a kid besides, like, public access and nature shows. I didn’t even watch a lot of popular sitcoms back then.

But basically, I was in college. I was kind of lost. I was sort of scared to commit to any kind of creative pursuits because it just didn’t seem like something that was possible for a young Asian kid. And I ended up getting a business degree. But just for fun, I kind of dabbled in some extracurriculars that involved some – whether it was some poetry or some photography and comedy, and I loved doing all three of those things. And comedy somehow became the easier one to follow through on.

Your comedy, you know, you’re nothing like Bob Newhart. Don’t get me wrong; I used to love what he did. And a lot of it was based on the way that he delivered it.

But he also focused a lot on the everyday and the things that we don’t notice – you know, that on further reflection, sort of make us laugh out loud. And you kind of bring a lot of that out. I mean, like buying jeans at Costco as a way of letting go of your ego. Is this something that you intentionally went for – that sort of approach to everyday life? Or how did your style come about there?

I think, when you first start out, you’re trying all kinds of different things. You have different idols that you emulate.

Who are your idols?

One of the biggest ones was Mitch Hedberg, and he was about everyday stuff. But I was also a big fan of many other comics like Dave Chappelle and Bill Hicks, Patton Oswalt and Maria Bamford.

It was just kind of like trying to figure things out at these open mics, which is a very interesting place to do – I mean, everyone starts to do comedy at open mics. But you keep doing it and find your style and the areas that you feel most comfortable in.

I think it’s partly my interest I also had in photography and poetry. It’s all kind of just taking a look around you, around yourself, around your environment and noticing things and trying to capture magic in the everyday and the mundane. So, I guess it’s just something I naturally was drawn to, just trying to create – trying to find a joke was just, the easiest thing for me to do was just look around my life and look at my own personal experiences.

Let’s talk a little bit more about your personal experiences. You talk about your parents in the Netflix special and how they emigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan:

 

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 What do your parents think of your success? I mean, they didn’t see it coming, I would think.

I think they’re proud of me. I’m really grateful –

They haven’t told you yet or what?

Not in so many words. You know, Asian-American parents or Asian parents tend to be pretty stoic when it comes to expressing affection or things of that nature, but I don’t know. I’m grateful for my parents. I know they’re very loving folks.

And contrary to the stereotypical tiger mom or dad or whatever, I feel like my folks were very much hands off in a way that was like, as long as you’re not getting into trouble and you’re doing well in school, then you can just do whatever you want. Like, they weren’t very pushy about anything one way or another.

I kind of self-imposed some – like I said, I chose to apply for the business major, and when I got accepted, that’s the route I took. But my parents, I don’t know how they became this way, but they were very much like, “you make the decisions in your life.” I guess they didn’t want to be responsible for any regrets I had later.

So, in a way they were somewhat supportive. They weren’t against me doing what I wanted to do. They would sometimes – my mom especially – suggest alternatives to stand-up that are sort of related. She’s like, “if you want to be on TV, then maybe a news reporter or something.” You know, I guess she was inspired by Connie Chung. But yeah, they were pretty hands off and not pushy one way or the other.

If you had not discovered comedy or if comedy hadn’t discovered you, what do you think you would be doing today?

I don’t really know. I don’t think I would have been happy if I’d followed through with the business track. Like I said, I was also into poetry and photography, and maybe I would be some kind of photographer perhaps. I’m not really sure. I still like to dabble in that. I still shoot pictures all the time.

And sometime in the future, I might be trying to, like, combine the two. And I have done this in the past where I did a show where it was just a plant slideshow. The whole show was pictures of plants that I took paired with some commentary and some, funny insights and reasons why I took that photo. So, that might be something we can look forward to in the future. But, yeah, I still really enjoy photos and comedy.

A reporter once asked you, what’s the best and worst comedy advice you ever received? You said the best advice was write every day, perform as much as possible and record it so you can listen back to it, which sounded like really solid advice.

And the worst advice, you said, was you should do more Asian jokes. Could you say a little bit more about what you’re thinking there?

I don’t know if things have changed or things are changing, but I think it’s something that you come up against when you perform for the general public. I feel like there is, especially if you’re somewhat of an ethnic minority or just some kind of minority in general, in our society, you feel pressure to do certain jokes, to address certain issues, to be a certain way.

And I think that advice comes from that phenomenon, like people want – when they see an Asian person go on stage, they just assume these are the types of jokes they should be saying. And so, I think whoever gave me that advice had that mentality. I think that’s terrible advice because it’s not in my nature to do those types of jokes. And I grew up hearing jokes, stereotypical stereotypes and stuff like that, that I find to be very inhibit, you know…

You almost said inhibiting. I was wondering if you were thinking limiting or something?

Yeah, it’s very limiting. I find that advice to be very limiting because it doesn’t allow you to be who you really are, to be a whole person. And it’s hard to say for sure, but I felt like I’ve been in front of audiences where the first thing I say is not a joke about being Asian, and I felt like I was just doing jokes that I liked that spoke to who I am, but they couldn’t seem to get past it.

They just kind of stared at me because I didn’t make a joke about being Asian or having Asian parents who have Asian accents or anything like that. But ultimately, I think it’s much more freeing to do the jokes that you that you really want to do. And I think it’s bad advice to limit yourself in such a way.

You know, I’ve heard a lot of comedians say that the past five, 10 years have been a really rough period for comedy and for comedians. But it seems like everyone’s kind of dying to laugh again. Would you agree with that? I’m wondering how it’s feeling on tour right now.

I’m enjoying my tour. I have heard that sentiment from some comics where they feel like it’s hard to do standup or it’s hard to be funny and you can’t say certain things. I don’t know, maybe it’s my style of comedy; I don’t have any issues. I feel like the crowds that come out to my shows are really having a good time.

The Netflix special was my first big hour that I put out. So, this is kind of all new to me in terms of the level of touring that I’m doing and the level of fan base that I have found. And so, I’m learning a lot, and I’m learning what it means to have a fan base.

And it’s interesting because every comedian that comes through town, like your local comedy club or the theaters that do comedy, there’s a new act every week or so, right? And so, every time a new comic comes to town, there’s a different demographic of people that come and watch the shows. And I’m learning who those people are for me.

I’ll talk to the staff afterwards and they’ll say that they don’t drink as much. They’re not as crazy or rowdy, but they tip well and they’re respectful and nice people. And I’m really grateful for that – I’m somewhat proud of my fan base.

That Netflix special must have been a real big springboard for your career.

Yes, that was huge. Before I put that out – I mean, I’ve done a handful of TV appearances. I did a half hour comedy special on Comedy Central, and I did an album, but none of it really moved the needle that much. Everything’s been a slow, slow build and grind.

And then I kind of stepped away from comedy for a little bit to write for television. I was writing on the ABC show “Fresh Off the Boat” for a few years. And so that was a great experience, but ultimately, I felt like I owed it to myself to really push comedy to some level, at least to where I could put out an hour on a platform that was accessible to a lot of people and then see how things shook out after that, because I just felt like every opportunity that I had received in my career came from me doing standup, including that TV writing job.

So after a few years of doing that, I said I want to at least put out an hour. And that was the Netflix special “Sweet & Juicy,” and it’s sort of changed everything for me.

Do you plan to do more television? Either through standup or through your writing or anything like that?

I’m open. I’m not super intent on doing anything specific in terms of acting or writing in TV. But I’m open to the idea. Right now, I’m just trying to enjoy this new level of touring and doing standup.

Sheng, you have some friends in very high places. Ali Wong executive produced your special, is that right?

Yeah, Ali Wong, she’s a friend of mine. She and I met in the early days of doing stand-up. We were both in the open mic scene in San Francisco in the early 2000s. And we’ve been friends ever since. I mean, we got closer, later on, we both moved to New York together around the same time, and she moved to L.A. to be a writer for “Fresh Off the Boat.” And I followed her there the next season.

And so, I’ve been sort of following her footsteps and just kind of following her playbook in a way, so to speak. I mean, I kind of live in the ghost of Ali’s past. I have her old furniture, her old couch, her old nightstand. And I might even tape my second special where she taped her second special. So, I’m just kind of following the Ali Wong playbook in a weird way, because it works. No, but I’m very grateful for our friendship and for all the support she’s given me.

It’s pretty incredible to have a friend like that. I mean, she’s an incredibly talented person, but it’s also really helpful to have a friend succeed to that level where you get a sense of like, this is a friend. This person also kind of looks like me. She’s an Asian American, and it just makes it feel a little bit more accessible, like these things are possible. Of course, it helps when she produces and directs your comedy special.

As you think about your own career trajectory, where would you like to ultimately see yourself, or are you totally content with where you are right now? I mean, you’re experiencing a lot of success at present. You’re on this tour currently, and you’ve had this Netflix special.

What would be the thing for you? I mean, what would make you feel like, you know – I don’t want to say you’ve made it; you’ve already made it – “yeah, I’ve hit the top. This is what I’ve dreamed.”

I do feel pretty happy with where I’m at. I mean, ultimately, right now, I don’t have any big long-term goals beyond just kind of what I’m doing right now. My goal right now is to just enjoy the ride.

I feel like, you know, even with this level of success, I’m dealing with more things than I had to in the past in terms of just simple things like marketing or taxes and tax withholdings from different countries, or things that I never had to think about too much beforehand. And so, I really just want to do what I’m doing and enjoy it the whole time, you know, and not get too caught up with the business end of these things.

Well, it’s cool that you take your audiences along for that ride, too, because I think that pacing it the way that you have sort of gives you a chance to savor those moments and find the humor in it. And that’s a big part of what you do these days, is those little things that we just overlook that you pick up on and show the absurdity of.

Yeah, I mean, ultimately what I find to be the most satisfying is just writing a new joke. You know, touring, having a fan base, that’s all great. And it’s fun to do a killer show, to just really, you know, rock it for a whole hour in front of an adoring fan base.

But the most fulfilling thing for me, and the most satisfying thing is still, to just write a new joke, to come up with a new bit, to have some new insight about something.

Sheng Wang performs at the Paramount Theatre in Austin on Sept. 27, at the Aztec Theatre in San Antonio on Dec. 27 and at the Bayou Music Center in Houston on Dec. 28. Ticket information is available on his website.

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