Interview #145 — Aaron Chen
by Vidya Rajan
Aaron Chen is Australia’s foremost crazy guy and worked at Thornleigh McDonalds for two shifts and got to keep all the merch.
Vidya Rajan talked to Aaron Chen about resisting labels in comedy, sincerity and truth, avoiding boring diversity, and powerhouse ethnics.
How did you get started in comedy?
I did a program called Class Clowns through the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, which is an elite scouting program for children with funny bones. After that I was sent to the comedy clubs as an industry plant.
Your style of work, which is mostly stand-up, is often described as awkward and off-beat, basically seen as alt-comedy. What do you think of those descriptors?
I don’t believe in ‘alt’ or ‘not alt’ comedy. It’s just all comedy. Everything is actually comedy, if you laugh. Even the saddest drama when someone laughs at it. Funny or not funny to me are the categories not alternative or mainstream. But the crazier the better perhaps. I guess you should always try to do something new because everything else is taken. Any risk is counted joy when you are doing something worthwhile and in the purest form of creative vision. There is no pain when the risk comes from love.
How does your work position an audience? People have labelled it as pissing people off—like with your ABC soccer coverage, but I think it’s more interesting than that.
I mean I only try to be weird, I don’t try to piss people off. With that coverage I was just trying to be strange. I guess people were pissed off in the process but you can’t help it. It is flattering that they see that I try to piss people off, but it’s not nearly that thought out. I just wrote four jokes to do in one minute and did all of them.
You’ve travelled a lot with your shows. Do you find reception changes depending where you are?
I like doing comedy in India, it was fun and funny and people respected me there. In Australia, sometimes people respect me and sometimes they are chatting to one another about work and are caught up in the minutiae of day to day business. It is sad to see.
How do you feel about the Australian scene? Are there any changes you’d like to see?
I like the Australian scene, it’s new enough that you can do new things and established enough that you can latch onto existing things. There should be better food at comedy venues. One time in America I did a comedy gig at a chinese restaurant and the food was really yummy. In Sydney, there are very few gigs with good food at them.
How do you approach developing/writing your shows? And how has that changed over the course of your shows?
It has just become easier and less stressful. I just write lots of jokes and the ones that get laughs make it into the show. I try to film some videos to put in the show to surprise and shock people. I hope that people like it more and more each time and I hope to work hard every time and put my soul and effort into the shows so that others may be happy.
You’ve sometimes included material in your work that’s personal - like stuff about your dad or growing up Chinese. Is there a different level of responsibility in writing about personal topics?
Yes. I don’t want to piss off my dad. You should see him when he is pissed off, actually you don’t want to… trust me.
Everything is actually comedy, if you laugh.
Speaking of the personal, I enjoy the way your persona or your work ((like reading fan-fiction about yourself) uses material that is very autobiographical/confessional yet wraps it in an ironic remove that somehow makes it both more earnest and more funny.
I love sincerity to the point that every lie I tell has got to be so sincere. You want to be telling lies that are so true to yourself you know. More true than the truth. Sometimes what happens is just not that funny and you can see something funnier that exists and that’s what I want to do. Be the funniest and silliest guy in the world. I wish they had some sort of gun thermometer like they use in COVID times but for funniness just so I could see where I really chart you know. In terms of autobiography, I like work like Rachel Cusk, that is some good subversion of the autobiography.
Do you feel resistance to being labelled for your Asian-ness in comedy?
I haven’t thought about it in a while. I guess you don’t want to be labelled differently, ever. Just the same. So that you’re on a level and equal playing field. But just that people are different. That’s kind of inevitable, differences and what not. You catch my drift? Sometimes I feel like I have to navigate it in certain environments. Places where there are less Asians, it is more novel and has to be addressed and places where there are more Asians, you can kinda go ham on whatever thing. But I like to talk about whatever - whether that be Chinese stuff or not.
After working on Nazeem Hussein’s recent show, you said it was cool to work with “powerhouse ethnics” which made me laugh. But working with powerhouse ethnics is still a fairly new thing in the industry, though that’s changing.
I want to see it change but naturally. I think the way Australian TV (and maybe TV in general) goes about diversity is unhealthy. I think more risk taking in TV will allow for more diversity. But even basic risks aren’t being had in the industry. I mean at the end of the day even if you have tonnes of aesthetic diversity a boring story is a boring story. And I definitely don’t want that to be the case - a more ethnically diverse slate of boring TV shows. But you also want to give people a leg up. So there’s a balance and nuance like everything in the world. That’s all I’ll say but if u want to know my true opinions give me a call on my private number or Wickr.
Do you have any advice for emerging comedians?
Please just work hard at it and you will work out whether this world is for you.
Who are you inspired by?
The lady who works at Leung Tim Choppers in Burwood.
What are you listening to?
My dad’s advice podcast that he makes for me every week and Jesus Is King by Kanye West.
What are you reading?
A REALLY LONG text message someone sent in 2017.
How do you practice self-care?
Leave the ego at the door and to practice care for others. Thank you.
What does being Asian-Australian mean to you?
Ordering dishes to share at the restaurants every time.
I love sincerity to the point that every lie I tell has got to be so sincere.
Find out more
Interview by Vidya Rajan
Drawings by Hum Mahhbub