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Defender 110 learn more at Land Rover usa.com slender this isn’t your average business podcast and he’s not your average Host this is the James aler show on the Choose Yourself Network today on the James aliter show you graduate with his economics degree you go from strip club DJ to Uber driver
To standup comedy what gave you the kind of ability to say nope I’m not going to do what my parents want me to do I think it’s fear and Desperation what were you afraid of I mean just picturing myself sitting behind a desk until I was 65 a
Lot of people say okay I’ll do this for a few years while I pursue another dream you didn’t do that I just I couldn’t I couldn’t after 2 months at this internship I literally want to kill myself I can’t do it physically it was impossible what veered you into comedy
Look it it takes a lot of desperation especially for me who never really grew up with standup I wasn’t like oh I saw Eddie Murphy on stage I need to do stand up at some point it wasn’t that it was just like well [ __ ] what am I doing with
My life nothing so Googling local open mics is the last step before you Google what’s the best way to kill myself so I did that I Google local open mics I wasn’t that funny but I think I found a community pretty immediately of comedians who are bumbling around just
Like me there was a sense of purpose there you know if you get good at this there might be a future at Something so uh I’ve got Jimmy Yang in the house today welcome to the podcast thanks for having me so two two credits I want to mention but there’s many of course one is you’re one of the main stars of my favorite or one of my favorite TV shows
Top five TV show for me Silicon Valley uh on HBO uh it’s great show you’re going into what is it the fourth season I for Fifth Season we’re just finished shooting the fifth one yeah and um and then also just out and I just read it
How to American by Jimmy Yang thank you so much and just to mention on on Silicon Valley you play Gan Yang yeah so and people would be probably not surprised but your voice is obviously you’re the only person whose voice is probably very different from the show as
It is in real life a lot of people come up to me like say they’re a fan of the show and they’re surprised and they like oh my God you actually speak English and they get surprised which at first I thought it was kind of an insult and I’m
Like well maybe I should take as a compliment for acting you know but it’s interesting cuz nobody’s ever say one up to Johnny Depp and it was like I I I didn’t know you weren’t actually a pirate you know so it well I guess then
Okay so why do you think that is cuz obviously asan thing or maybe it’s maybe because I’m Asian maybe I’m a better actor than Johnny Deb who knows I don’t know I’m the jury’s out and also you’re the only one in the show yeah whose voice is different in real yeah yeah who
Plays more of a character than just S I mean when you first came on the show I mean even from this book it was unclear how much they at first you really were quote unquote just a character you were like this this I had two lines yeah you
You were you were this odd person that TJ Miller who played ER Bachman was incubating in his incubator along with the main cast yeah and then you were just so hilarious you became part of the main cast yeah I was really fortunate and you know that was my big break
Before that I was like driving to Uber you know so I kind of snuck in on the show like it started off two lines and it gave me another two lines with the I eat the fish scene and I think we saw there’s some really fun Dynamic with me
And TJ and then in the offseason between season one and two we didn’t know if first of all Silicon Valley is going to come back and second of all if my character is going to come back cuz I was just a guest star I got paid $900 a
Day you know and um and then I got an offer to do Yahoo series cuz Yahoo was going into original Pro is one of their first ever shows and I got like a serious regular part but the thing was each HBO and Yahoo need exclusivity so I
Can either do one or the other so I’m like oh my God I would love to be serious regular for the first time in my life on Yahoo but I can’t just not do this HBO show if it comes back so it was like one of the most nerve-wracking like
Mour in my in my life I was waiting for my agent call and then I was drinking at the Farmers Market at the Grove in LA at like 11:00 a.m. you know you know drinking what drinking beer yeah like alcoholic beverages at 11:00 a.m. at a farmers market I didn’t even know they
Had bunch of local drunks you know yeah the Farms are there one bar in there and um yeah and then finally I got the call from the from my agent she she was like yeah we’re going to see if HBO can match the offer to make you series regular and
I’m like you’re crazy they’re never going to do that and uh and then they did and here I am so you know because obviously I don’t even know what happened to that Yahoo I don’t even know what to Yahoo Originals in general I think that just was an idea flash in the
Pan and disappeared they had two shows uh called um other space that was a Paul F show I heard it’s very funny but just nobody watched it cuz nobody who has a Yahoo app right and then the other show that I was going to do was called um Sin
City Saints about like an expansion basketball team I I loved that idea by the way you mentioned it in the book I thought that was a brilliant idea the idea of having like this basketball team in Las Vegas and the stories behind it I I assume um you almost think like an
Idea like that could succeed on a Netflix or an Amazon or something like that yeah but everything is just such a crapshoot now like I’m so lucky the first show that I’m a series regular on became like a hit cuz so many like you hear stories what George Clooney got
Like 17 Pilots that never aired or something like that and then so many Comics that’s been around forever that’s super funny and they get on shows good shows and then never make it past the first season well this kind of you know I want to get into the Silicon Valley
Stuff your career uh the book and everything um but I’m curious what your what your thoughts are on on TV in general because like you said there’s so many new shows out there it’s not like there’s three channels anymore and then HBO um Netflix has like is going to
Spend 11 billion on original content Amazon is going to spend 10 billion and while that seems like a great thing for actors writers directors producers it could be a bad thing too in that kind of the day of five season shows is going to be over because they’re just going to
Keep pouring money they’re going to just eliminate last year’s everything except the top yeah and just make new shows and there’s no more syndication Netflix is not syndicating to TBS um so media has turned upside down like we had one really well-known guy on who had a show
On uh Netflix Amazon and Hulu and I can guarantee you I’ll name all if I named all three you would not have heard of two of them even though everybody on all three shows is a big name yeah it it it’s good and bad right cuz I think back
In the day when you have like four network channels when you when you’re on a show you’ve made it like big time cuz everybody’s watching you now the eyeb balls are like more spread out but at least these people have a job at least people that’s working on a Hulu show
That you never heard of is getting paid a a salary you know what I mean so so it’s good bad true like let’s say there’s 5,000 working comedians then another 100,000 working actors you know at least now they have have a chance for a year two years to make a salary have a
Chance to stand out and break out yes um whereas before they might not have yeah whereas before we just was struggling driving Uber well let’s talk about for that for a second you you use word struggle it’s like your most interesting IMDb credit is you’re in a film about
Driving Uber oh yeah well that was a short film me and my buddy did there’s actually this upcoming film um uh I I didn’t end up uh getting the part but it it’s about it’s it’s called stuber that they’re developing a Sony it’s about an Uber driver that gets into some trouble
So I think that’s becoming more and more mainstream and uh I’m not ashamed of driving Uber it was fun when it last why should you be like it you make your own hours did you make did you make money how much money did you make a week at an
Uber it was that was when you can make a little more money now Uber is so cheap now so it’s hard right cuz back in the day I think I made like maybe podcast sponsored by Uber $25 an hour or something back in a day which wasn’t bad and I drove a Prius
I did that actually between season 1 and two of Silicon Valley I used whatever $3,000 to pay me from season one to like put in as a down payment on a use Prius and that’s how I survived for a little longer so how much did you make per day
As as as an Uber driver how much can I make per day yeah I don’t know like 200 bucks 300 bucks and if it’s Halloween on New Year’s Eve you can make like you know $600 and what was the craziest Uber experience you had you know people ask
Me that and I’m not original are you saying I’m not original no no you’re fine you’re fine it just I I I’m saying me problem I don’t really have a great answer for that it’s nothing nuts there’s like drunk people and like really self-entitled uh Club goers those are
Horrible people you know so I lost a little faith in humanity afterwards but nothing nuts what was like an example from a clubgoer considering you were a strip club DJ DJ what did you see it from the kind of night you know the the club hopping drunk Uber experience that
Really made you lose faith in Humanity after being a strip club DJ like being a strip there’s I’ve seen a lot right being a strip club DJ it was at a really seedy uh strip club too in San Diego and I’ve seen a lot of interacted with with
With those girls I interacted with you know the gangsters that own the place that ran the place but they’re at the end of the day they’re kind of genuine people you know they just end up in this situation and I always empathize with that but these Club goers sometimes they
Don’t even treat the Uber driver like a human being and and that’s the issue with it what was an example like like people just leaving drinks and like open bottles everywhere they they make you wait like 15 minutes and and I think Uber has done some things to you know
Make it better I used to actually wish people would throw up in my car because I had a shitty old car old Prius like a 2006 Prius so if they threw up in my car Uber would pay me like a $300 cleaning fee so I was wishing people would throw
Them in my car but that never happened so okay so you’re you’re in between season 1 and season 2 of silic Valley you were making $900 a day doing like a couple lines here there s actor minimum Y and and you get this opportunity at at Yahoo which it would
Be unclear whether is this going to be a Netflix or is this going to be nothing yeah but HBO has such cache yeah and by the way Silicon Valley even after season one I think there was this great sense there already some Buzz yeah yeah and uh
It’s Mike Judge yeah it’s Mike Judge Alec ber uh who was you know not only Curby Your Enthusiasm but Seinfeld you know so there’s this Rich history in in in Silicon Valley and also you get this sense with HBO they’ve mastered the kind of Entourage concept like let’s take a
Real world environment and throw some superstars in it and see what happens so they did it with Entourage and Hollywood I feel Silicon Valley was their version of doing that in a funny Mike Judge sort of way in Silicon Valley and really they have an All-Star Comedy team I mean
Those main five guys and then you had first season you have Christopher Evan Walch you know of course Amanda KW everyone Matt Ross amazing actors you know I think Alec sent a recent interview it’s like we got a deep bench you know and then when I came in I came
Off the bench you know I was able to hit some threes so like it it just kind of worked out you know no I mean right from the beginning you were funny and so I would say it’s different than from the beginning we see TJ Miller is playing
Almost this comedic role you’re playing more of a character that’s extremely funny but you evolved obviously to having depth and and you know being consistently you know having a um motivation that was consistently funny like the other actors so so you grew into the into the role but I mean did
You get the sense that this was somehow special that’s why you wanted to do keep on doing Silicon Valley I mean first of all Mike Judge was my commencement speaker in my college at UCSD yeah at UCSD he he was talking about he was a physics major and then he didn’t like
That so he end up eventually finding his passion animation which spoke to me at the time cuz I was an economics major and I I wanted nothing to do with that I didn’t want to go into Finance whoever does like who in your class became an economist it’s who or Finance like
Nobody goes into it because they love it like you love money maybe right so I I I didn’t want to do that and I was kind of lost and then eventually I found standup so that speech like kind of really spoke to me but let me ask you about that so
Mike Judge you know first off did obviously he did office space um but like what inspired me most with Mike Judge was back in the day beus and Butthead was just brilliant Y and it’s not even sophisticated comedy it’s not like he’s making I think deep down it is
You can see the sophistication but on the surface it’s like two bumbling idiots right yeah I mean I think the humor is brilliant the actual drawings and the the the the his budget for animation was probably not very high at that time well that’s just yeah his right hand basically and and that’s
Funny and uh uh but it was brilliant in terms of like every everybody in the country started talking like beas and Butthead once that show started airing so he had this like really great comedic sense do you think what what veered you into comedy uh you know was in part Mike
Judge kind of showing hey anything’s possible or it see even in the book suddenly you’re going up for standup comedy it was a little unclear what the bridge was okay yeah I’m glad you asked it I think it’s growing up I was the youngest in the family well an older
Brother and whenever there was like uh any type of argument or disagreement I have to be the funny one to kind of diffuse the situation and also coming here from Hong Kong when I was 13 not even like knowing the language very well I have to I can’t fight you know I’m
Little so like I have to use humor to kind of deflect and defend myself and when people like started talking [ __ ] I have to come up with some comebacks so I think that’s when I developed the sense of humor um instead of you know uh
Fighting you know I I was able to joke my way around a lot of situations so I think standup comedy when I cuz I tried a bunch of different things when I told you I didn’t want to do Finance economics I tried Jiu-Jitsu I tried boxing I try whatever hon I was horrible
At those two things obviously and then stand up spoke to me did you try I mean I read about you trying Jiu-Jitsu it was funny in the book the book by the way I I just want I’m going to recommend it over and over but you your your your
Stories in the book are hilarious it’s it’s a it’s a great book uh I’ll comment more about it later but I didn’t get the sense you’re trying Jiu-Jitsu as a career in the buck I was so lost I just wanted to find a community of anything
It might not have been I not maybe not being a UFC fighter but maybe a jiu-jitsu instructor or finding somebody there uh a community there that would hook me up with a job at somewhere else you know I was just lost I needed to find like new people that I can hang out
With or else my life seemed like a dead end to me even right after I graduated college it was very scary I was like 22 but my life I was like either I’m going to go to finance and sit behind a desk forever or I’m just going to meander around
Forever like I had no idea what the hell I wanted to do and what were your uh like best college friends doing uh one of them was engineering major and then someone went to grad school someone was Premed went to medical school a lot of them continued just working and then one
Of my best friends from high school he just started working construction for his family so it’s either family business that they fell into because they needed a job or you continue they continue the education but not any of them I don’t think ended up you know pursuing their passion especially not
Right after college but but what’s interesting though is and this is a conflict that goes throughout your throughout the book and throughout your story is it sounds like all your best friends were pursuing things their parents would still love right would still love them for their job and you
Mention how it’s like you know family money and forget passion it’s like Chinese foreign culture yeah it’s you make money be safe cuz my dad came from a place like he had to live through the Communist Revolution when he was young so he didn’t even get the chance to go
To a university even though he wanted to and he was very smart so he wanted nothing but the best for me he wanted me to go to the university and like find a safe job because I have the opportunity now that they have given me and I still
Don’t want to do that so you can see how disappointed he would be and I understand that but you know in the book I wrote like I felt like I had to disappoint my parents for a few years instead of disappointing myself for the rest of my life that’s a hard thing
Because again all your friends are not disappointing their parents probably maybe a lot of other asian-americans that you knew that were your age were not disappointing their their parents what gave you kind of the the the the few neurons that went on instead of off
What gave you the kind of ability to say nope I’m not going to do what my parents want me to do I I I I don’t think it’s like confidence or that I think it’s fear and Desperation what were you afraid of I mean just picturing myself
Sitting behind a desk until I was 65 on that’s really mature to project that far out into the future at that age like a lot of people say okay I’ll do this for a few years while I pursue another dream right you know you didn’t do that I just
I couldn’t I couldn’t after like two months at this internship like I literally want to kill myself like I can’t do it you know like physically it was impossible for me that was the Smith Barney yeah Smith Barney it was a very prestigious Financial firm it’s an
Internship that my dad hooked me up with and I just could they even offer me a job and I just couldn’t do it so I think part of it it’s got to be a genetic makeup where maybe I’m more risk taken and literally I wouldn’t allow myself to
Do something like that I just couldn’t do it was it a rebellion I don’t know if it’s a maybe it’s a quiet Rebellion I didn’t do it on purpose maybe subconscious but a lot of it I think it’s a desperation of like I wasn’t really getting laid either so like I
Needed to go get laid somehow like sitting behind a desk Des ain’t going to help me so right so let’s let’s analyze this cuz it’s very interesting so sitting behind a desk you’re thinking to yourself okay there’s 6,000 or or a million other people in the surrounding
20 miles that are sitting behind desks and all of them either make more money than me or in in your mind you think they have some other status over me that I’m not going to achieve for several years at least until I’m like made partner or make more money or whatever
And you figured okay I had built up this for field of Comedy to defend myself growing up in school you know maybe you were insulting the bullies back or having the bullies lay off of you because you were funny so they thought you were cool or whatever so you figured
You had this skill you didn’t know what it was but you figured out at the very least it could potentially be a status enough skill that if you worked harder at it you would meet a girl maybe I’m I’m being your psycho analyst if I charge $600 an hour that’s not a bad
Analysis I mean it’s pretty on point point and I think a lot of stand-ups feel that way and and a lot of us we do what we do is because we are not content with what we already have I mean if you look at people I got friends that you
Know uh say grew up in Ohio and they got married when they’re 18 and they have three kids by the time they 20 very content I wish I could be more like that right but I can’t I just I don’t know why but it just I’m not I wanted to live
Life and I get antsy and I panic when I’m not constantly doing stuff so uh do you think that’s because and this is not judgmental on I mean I also often wish boy why couldn’t I be one of those you know right now just to mention to the
Listeners this is the first time I’m doing a podcast we’re on the stage at standup New York which is a club that I as a comedy club I uh partially own and often and I’m just mentioning to often uh uh in the audience here when I’m on
Stage I’ll ask them how long have you been together a couple yeah sometimes there’s these couples that have been together 25 years and I’ll say well if you ever had any major difficulties and they’ll look at each other like no no not really and so I wonder about this
And I and I wonder if just some people are not and this is not judgmental but some people are just not so complex and they’re just happy being regular and I wish I’m more like that and and I don’t know if it’s not complex and if if you
Want to really go like Dr Drew on this you know which I listen to like growing up on love wrot a blurb by the back of your book he he’s he’s a friend he’s awesome so I always you know think about stuff in that kind of love line analysis
Sense maybe I grew up around a little more chaos because of the immigration because my family maybe that’s why I’m used to a more unstable you know risk-taking life maybe it’s genetics or maybe those people that you say are possibly less complex and more comfortable they grw up in a you know
They’re used to a more calming environment back home so they can just go on be happy and find a family when they’re 18 and settle down yeah so it could be like the the immigration was obviously a big upheaval in life turning stuff upside down yeah that kind of
Stuff and Trauma usually people narrowly Define but if you’re broadly defining as like a jolt like that it was clear it was a traumatic event moving from a one country where to another country where you didn’t really speak the language right that’s traumatic at at the age of
13 which is the the age for rest of your life you’re going to identify your your ID with is going to be you’re always that 13 year old boy who’s gets kind of stuck in that age yeah and I never went going through it I never thought it was
Traumatic I still don’t think it’s traumatic I think it’s what made me who I am whatever that might be you know traumatic doesn’t have to be bad yeah right right I was I’m just saying like I never looked at it as like I’m a victim
Why did this have to happen to me I don’t think that’s positive at all and uh you know um um but it but then then then there was the the bullies then there’s the the fact that uh these jobs seemed horribly boring to you so at some
Point you said okay I’m I’m funny I’m G to I I want to meet a girl I need some it’s all part of this calculation of how can I get higher status in my life given the variables that already exist I think maybe that’s always in the back of my
Mind I want this how do I get that right I think that’s everybody has that mechanism but it wasn’t a very conscious decision I was seriously just like bumbling around trying to find something that will make me feel a little better about myself and to find a new group of
Friends right you know um but yeah it was it was more in the back of my mind it was it wasn’t like okay I want to get girls so I’m going to go go do standup and do this that was part of it but it was never because of that necessarily
You know and so so you so what happened like how did you what what what was the first standup experience like I I I signed up for an open mic well I Googled local open mics and I think that was like chuckle monkey.com that I think
It’s still around um and one of the most consistent Open Mic I could find at an actual comedy club was the haha comedy club in North Hollywood you got to pay $5 for five minutes of open mics in front of five pissed off Comics that’s waiting for their own turn so yeah I
Googled it and then I was look it it takes a lot of desperation especially for me who never really grew up with standup I wasn’t like oh I saw Eddie Murphy on stage I need to do standup at some point it wasn’t that it was just
Like well [ __ ] what am I doing my life nothing so it’s I was like in the book I think I said like um Googling local open mics is the last step before you Google what’s the best way to kill myself right so I did that I Google local open mics
And I went to haha comedy club and uh it was fun I wasn’t that funny but I think I found a community like pretty immediate medely of just these comedians who are bumbling around just like me these open micers but there was a sense of purpose there you know if you get
Good at this there might be a future at something so did you start how how regularly were you were you doing these I start doing it every daying day seven days a week they have an open mic right before the Regular Show so I had nothing
Better to do I was just playing video games my dad’s house so I I just went up every day that was during the summer uh junior year I think when I was in college so I still had to go back to San Diego and when I went back to San Diego
That’s when I really kind of polished my ACT I got a job at the comedy Palace down there and uh really got some St real stage time what does it mean polish act just um I guess doing open mics polishing my act too but you know building my ACT building from a FIV
Minute Open Mic set where you have maybe one good bit to a solid five minutes to 10 minutes to 15 minutes right and then I think I spent maybe a year and a half in s go doing that uh and then I got pretty regular stage time on real shows
On the weekends even on showcases which is I guess pretty rare especially for an LA comedian to get in you know a year but luckily I was in San Diego so there’s less competition more stage time in a way or less competition for the stage time and uh eventually I got
Fairly good I think I got like a really solid 20 minutes um that people are like really starting to respond to looking back some of the stuff was hacked you know I was like a year two years in of course it was hack but I was comfortable
On stage you know I developed enough where I was getting laughs and that’s when I moved back to LA well because of other circumstances too because the strip club DJ job I had also got a little too dangerous so I had to move to
LA that forced me to go to LA in one interview you basically say and it’s kind of the the funniest thing you basically say at some point you had a fork in the road about whether they continue as a strip club DJ they were you know moved to LA I don’t think many
People have that kind of fork in the road in their lives like you know maybe maybe describe a little uh just what was the strip club DJing like so I think when you’re 22 working in a strip club is like a lot of kids’ dreams you know
What I mean like it’s awesome right like you you think you’re going to go like have sex with like cool strippers hang out with like cool gangster people at least I thought that was cool but really you soon realized it was a really SD strip club also it’s not like a nice
Like whatever Spearman Rhino or anything it’s a really seedy Club ran by like this gangster um but he was always really nice to me he’s always you know uh taken a liking to me and um it was you soon realize none of these people that work there wanted to work there I
Was the only idiot that wanted to work there those people has been in prison and that they have no choice but to work there right who’s who’s they like who are the okay so uh the bouncer his name I I changed the name of the book but in
The book his name is Beast because he looked like a beast like honestly like um and his real name’s not too far from that and these all nicknames they earn in prison and he was in the Arian Brotherhood in prison I’m sure he didn’t like me working there you know and then
There’s a bar shift manager named Chef uh the the the owner’s name was shooter and they just actual people that went to prison not just jail but like prison like gangsters and um all the strippers like I I was really nice with the strippers I you know I’m not an [ __ ]
Like to anyone really so I was bring trying to bring professionalism into a strip club which was great for like the business right but then I started getting like friendzoned by the strippers like I was too nice I couldn’t even get laid with the strippers they would literally sit in the DJ booth
Naked next to me telling me Pro about problems with their boyfriends and I’m like this is the most miserable thing ever I’m like trying to cross my legs hiding my boner with this like beautiful naked woman next to me and I have to listen to her boyfriend like are you are
You kidding me and then eventually it got like kind of crazy cuz uh shooter really liked me and um he was like oh hey kid you know strip club uh I mean the um lap Dan sales went up 44% the first week you were here I didn’t know
He was keeping numbers like that but I guess the thing was I was pretty good on the microphone already cuz I had training as a standup and I was pretty good as a Salesman cuz I was selling used cars also back in San Diego so I combined the two skills and I became
Like a pretty good like lap dance salesman right and um yeah he really liked me and he offered he was like I just came into some money and I want to open up a strip club for you to run so think about it let me know which it’s
Not an easy decision especially for someone who like me who thinks that kind of stuff is cool and also like 22 or 23 uh you’re showing aptitude and uh potentially you can make who knows 3 4 500,000 a year running one of these clubs yeah exactly and sitting next to
Naked women you know uh which yeah you combine those skills like oh yeah Car Sales well because I think combining the skills it’s it’s you when you’re a strip club DJ your job is first of all to keep the girls on time make sure they get on
Stage so I was nice to them so they no problem doing that and your main job is to sell lap dances you want everybody like that’s sitting in the uh regular area go into the VIP so I’ll basically high pressure sales them but I know how
To talk on a microphone because I’m a standup so I was able to combine the two like so you able to combine kind of the sales techniques of used car salesman with let’s say kind of the audience control you learn I can read the crowd like all right ladies and gentlemen uh
Two for one Latin going on right now get get two girls for the price of one in the same room or get two Latin for the price of one don’t don’t be shy with you wallet don’t be tight and then I’ll literally do crowd work and point people
Out you gentleman over there with a nice polo shirt I see Jade is looking over you you know you should get two lap dances to Earth for the price one right now and then I seriously just like high pressure sales them and it will kind of work that’s so
Funny so so okay fork in the road how did I sell a car I brought strippers to car lock no no I didn’t no I didn’t so so so okay fork in the road how did you decide it actually something kind of happened uh where I had to spend
Christmas at the strip club I worked on Christmas Day on the strip club that was just so miserable in itself and then we closed early cuz fortunately there weren’t a lot of customers in there that night and then these two drunk college kids came in they were like oh hey man
On your yel page it says you guys Clos at two like what’s up it’s 12:00 we want to see some titties you know and I’m like uh no we’re closed and then Beast the bounc was like yeah just leave we’re closed he was like man that’s not cool
That’s not fair so then they left but they were still like talking [ __ ] outside of the club like cussing us out and then Beast would just wouldn’t have it and and then he went up to Chef the Barm manager like all right let’s go and then they went outside Chef grabbed like
A 2×4 table leg that he had ready as a weapon and then I follow him outside the next thing I know like you know Beast got the dude and choke hold and like Chef was like beating them in the ribs and and that picture in
Itself was like a Ju Just Like an alert for me you know because I was the age I should be in those college students shoes because was their age you know I want to party I want to hang out I was them but I have crossed over to the
Other side I’m now the employee of this gangster side and I could have totally went to jail that night you know and then the next day I remember I was at the comedy club like bragging to my buddies I’m like dude like yesterday man it was [ __ ] cool dude we beat up
These two kids blah blah blah and um and then my buddy who’s uh who’s always been a mentor of mine uh Sean Kelly he’s a comedian in San Diego um who eventually made it as a reality show star in England great great guy really smart guy
And he called me he was like dude like I heard you telling those stories The Comedy Club it’s not cool you’re a funny dude you need to get the [ __ ] out of there as soon as possible and move to LA and and try to make it as a standup and
And I did you know I quit like the next day and I moved to LA I think the next Week so you arrive in La uh I guess you start doing stand up there but you’re also starting to go on auditions um what was what I mean obviously you must have had a lot of rejection but the first question I have is what did you see as the difference
Between your experiences doing standup in LA versus San Diego because now there’s much more competition for stage time yeah uh La it’s it’s like turning on your Netflix when you do stand up an LA it’s unfocused there’s so many venues people got so much to do and you have to
Compete with Stage time with Chris Rock popping in like how how do you do that so I was struggling to get stage time just like everybody else but at least I grinded out my material so at least if I did get the stage time I was able to be
Funny where San Diego it’s a smaller Community not everybody’s trying to get on TV I mean maybe they are in the back of their minds but you know we’re just having fun and it’s cool it’s like more like a fraternity whereas here it’s more like I mean not here when New York but
In La it’s more like a business um and so I was struggling and I needed to just make ends meet at first cuz I rented out this dude’s apartment for like $300 his living room and I need to come up with the rent I need to eat
You know I didn’t want to go back to liveing my dad and be a complete failure so um I wanted a couple of my buddies at The Comedy Store told me like dude go get on some commercials they’re easy acting you maybe just reaction you don’t
Have any lines and one dude like did a v commercial that got paid like 60 Grand in residuals and the other like you know that’s like a lottery ticket that I I was like oh [ __ ] so this is great all I need is one commercial a year and I can
Do it it sound doable but it’s like how do you find an agent in the first place like nobody knows who you are so I went on like all the casting sites you know LA Casting whatever Casting Frontier actor access signed up paid all the money cuz you got it’s a [ __ ] racket
You got to pay 35 bucks to upload a head shot you know and then uh uh like $22 per minute to upload like a real or I didn’t have any I have like a shitty head shot that my friend took from me and I don’t have any acting real so I
Just put my stand up in as my real and on the bottom in the comment box I just wrote new in town good comedic timing looking for representation and luckily I got like two calls maybe from like really really small agencies uh in a couple of months
The first one the agency was in an apartment rental office and he had me read like a Staples commercial like a size like Staples where like blah blah blah and I was so bad I was rejected by that agency that was in an apartment rental office how
How I remember reading about that but describe how were you bad at reading a Staples commercial I didn’t even know what an audition was like they’re like slate your name I’m like what the [ __ ] is that right really that just means say your name like why didn’t you just tell
Me that just tell me say my name why do you have to say slate what is that so it’s like I just looked like a rookie that was very nervous I it’s nerves you know I don’t think you can really [ __ ] up a stapor commercial but it just
Nerves and and you you’re not even acting like a human being at that point um yeah and then eventually I found my agent uh Jane who was uh in a small agency and she took me to kind of yeah she sent me out to all these auditions
Like I think one of my favorite part of the book is um this audition log I kept it is 101 auditions all of the 101 auditions that led up to my 102nd audition which was Silicon Valley and and you know I talked to a lot of different actors and actresses and
Rejection is basically a part of it and the ones who survive have been rejected you know 101 times or more and how do you uh you know what’s the mentality you have to get to sort of survive all this rejection is it partly Community I think yeah like acting classes seeing sharing
The other people’s struggles like were you taking acting classes I was I was spending like $600 in acting classes every month when my rent was only $300 you know and um like every penny I made like I put it into acting classes were they useful what were you learn
Absolutely I mean just I took a class that was literally just like audition skills they don’t they don’t teach that in acting school but that was very important you know it’s a diff it’s a different sport than standup it’s a different audition is a different sport
Than acting in a way and eventually you know I got better and and and you know I found my own voice it’s like finding your own voice and stand up you got to find your own voice who you are in acting you know and be truthful I think
That’s the main thing that I learned um and that just takes time it takes acting classes it takes time of you finding yourself also um and once that clicked it became better and I became more confident but yeah the rejection part that never goes away I still go to a lot
Of auditions that I get rejected for and you still get pissed but it’s like but but that’s just a nature of the business and I I still have it better I think than 99% of the people out there you know well and particularly particularly now you know post Silicon Valley I’m
Sure a lot of people are now the calls are incoming people want say we want someone like you know Jimmy Yang to play this role it’s great I mean yeah hopefully Silicon Valley would go I don’t know how many more seasons but we’re just done with the fifth one and
Um yeah especially since my role has expanded um um it’s a great show because the industry watches it people like you people like casting directors uh movie studio uh producers whatever they watch that show so they they start to know who I am but a part of it gets lost in
Translations um because they think I am that guy some people even the industry people so I have to prove to them like I’m I’m actually more than just that character you know I’m a different person what what kind of uh role would you like to play outside obviously you
Like to play the Silicon Valley role but outside of that what would you like to play well I think Patriots Day was a very rewarding role uh I played it based on real life also Chinese immigrant but it was based on a real life guy in a drama that was very serious recounting
The Boston Marathon bombing and like it was Mark wallberg JK Simmons like like the gods of like acting you know and it was really really rewarding it was tough so I want to do more of that not necessarily just Chinese immigrant roles although I do love those roles uh
Especially when they have a lot of meat and a lot of di menion to him um but just something maybe like a drama like M like um something that’s more based on real life and uh more meaningful than just being funny I mean I love being
Funny it’s great but well I mean Silicon Valley is an interesting show because obviously there’s a couple things interesting I think obviously it’s a sitcom but almost all the actors are either hardcore standup comedians like TJ Miller was up until this you know he’s not in the next season but up until
This he’s a his background is also stand comedian you have Martin star who’s been doing comedic acting since Freaks and Geeks um who’s just brilliant um Camal obviously is uh you know standup uh so it’s there’s like more and HBO seems good at this put throw a lot of standup
Comedians in the show this dates back all the way to the Larry Sanders show put a bunch of standup comedians in the show let them go and they’re going to be better than regular actors I don’t know if that’s true or not like there’s a difference between actors and like you
Could see the difference you know on many shows where even shows that are about comedy or sitcoms if you don’t have stand-ups in the show they’re they’re missing some comedic element and I think s Valley there’s is there a lot of improv in the show there is a lot and
They’re great improvisers some of the best in the world like Zack WTS and Thomas right and Kum and all all those guys but I I think um they’re also very good actors Beyond just being good standup standup was like their training but they also became good actors and I
Think can say that for all of us on the show and a lot of times stand-ups don’t know how to transition to acting and I had trouble doing that when I was first auditioning because what’s the hardest part we don’t listen we don’t listen we listen to ourselves we might be able to
Listen to the audience but we don’t know how to listen we just run our mouths and and do our material but the most important thing in acting and improv is to listen to play with the other person a lot of stand-ups don’t know how to play with the other person they just
Thinking how am I going to make this funny how am I going to make this funny in their own head so once you kind of let go trust the other person and and let them in and listen to them pay attention to them then it’s it’s I think that’s when
It clicks for a lot of stand-ups or actors in general did learning that ability translate into better standup skills as well I think I think it made me a better person in general I think to become a a better actor I literally I had to go to therapy because I was so
Like all my emotions was so blocked being like you know from a Chinese culture we don’t really talk about that stuff so I had to kind of open up more as a person person you know I I I cry every now and then now like just in real
Life just when I’m watching a movie I cry doing La La Land you know whereas I used to never do that cuz you know we hold our emotions back but that that allows you to be more truthful as a performer as an actor and so with with
Silicon Valley again I feel like there’s this Rich tradition from Seinfeld all the way up to Silicon Valley where you there’s all this Talent it’s it’s comedic Talent it’s directing Talent it’s writing talent and this is almost like the the next generation of the k your enthusiasms and when people look
Back cuz like say Seinfeld or um you know say the wire when people look back to that show he’s like yo these guys are like stars now like Michael B Jordan you know Idris Elba and all those guys like I hope people look back to Silicon
Valley and be like oh my God this group of people like they were all on one show that’s unbelievable you know what I mean it was like um the okas uh the OKC Thunders like uh OKC Thunder in the NBA they had Kevin Durant Russell Westbrook
And James Harden on the same team and now they’re individually some of the best players in the league so I hope people look back and be like wow that was something special yeah or for HBO shows you look at the Larry Sanders show everybody I mean Jud abau even was a
Writer on that show right or Freaks and Geeks and Geeks was amazing that’s was unbelievable including Martin star was on Silicon Valley yeah exactly James Franco all those guys and uh on Silicon Valley every now and then you get a guest appearance from a real Silicon
Valley person are those uh I mean there is some intersection between the experien of Silicon Valley and real life I mean it is kind of a remniscent of real life Silicon Valley stories like that is the experience of being in a startup yeah I think the writers and
Consultants know that our audience is very picky they will literally look at the code on a computer and go on Reddit and say that’s [ __ ] right they’ll call [ __ ] so we do a ton of work writers and the consultants and Dick Costello’s a consultant last year I
Think yeah I saw him on one of the episodes yeah yeah he was a CEO of Twitter and uh he wrote the forward to one of my books oh really that’s awesome I know dick for a long time that’s great and and and I mean once you have people
Like that then you you get a really accurate depiction of of the valley and of the people the only maybe negative thing but really it’s a compliment that people from Silicon Valle have said to me it’s like I can’t watch this show because it reminds me me too much in my
Life and it stresses me out right it is Str if you’re from that background it’s a stressful show yeah so just the uh The Angst of how how financings fall through and acquisition deals fall through and the kind of high stakes million dooll decisions you have to make and you often
Make wrong decisions yeah and and I mean the writers do such a good job that it’s relatable on a human level like a failure success something right in front of you getting taken away so it’s not just people in silic Valley that understand you know and I think that’s
What all good writing is now now you in order to shoot first off when you finally made the decision to be uh series regular or when the decis they made a decision they made the decision was made for you you called up Yahoo said no going to go with HBO with the
HBO did they offer you like a deal it’s going to be more than it was like a six-year deal uh it wasn’t like a lot of money but I was just so happy it was a massive race from one I from $900 a day you know and to be a serious regular I
Mean I I knew that day when I was sitting at that farmers market like my life was going to change it was amazing and then uh I I also read somewhere I forget if it was in the book or an interview did that while you’re shooting the series you don’t do standup
Um or you don’t do it as much basically take a break from standup does that do you miss it during those periods or like do you go right back to it when the show stopped shooting uh I don’t think it’s the show or not I just haven’t been
Doing too much standup lately I’m I’m I’m I’ve recently found the juice again to do it but one of the reasons why I wrote the book was because I kind of want to step away from stand up a little bit why is that because I kept doing the
Same [ __ ] and I wasn’t writing too much right I feel like standup it’s people people like I had like ex-girlfriends be like you don’t do anything all day you just go on stage 10 minutes whatever an hour a night and like that’s it and I
Have to work hard and you don’t do [ __ ] I’m like wait a minute no cuz I’m thinking all day like people don’t see that thinking process that goes through right cuz they think you’re just sitting on your couch playing video games but I’m thinking about jokes about bits
Observing people so I think standup is a very life encompassing job if you want to really be good at it you got to really look at the world a different way and I wasn’t doing that I was just going on stage because somebody asked me to or
I want to keep my axe sharp or I’m doing a college to make some money but I was doing the same old [ __ ] that I didn’t want to keep doing anymore it’s not even truthful to me but you were you were thinking of new bits though uh but I
Didn’t have the time when I’m shooting or like to think of new bits so what I did like that’s why I want to write the book cuz there’s so many stuff like um the strip club DJ stuff that I never figure out how to make it into like a
Concise bit that can get a laugh every few seconds or like whatever you know that’s more of like the setup punchline format so I wrote it down long form that I’ve been telling my buddies and hopefully in the future I can now grab material from the book and turn that
Into more of a standup thing or even like a oneman show thing yeah cuz the stories are humorous but you mentioned also in an interview that standup where you need to make a you know people laugh every let’s say you say 4 seconds every some number of seconds and
The book you don’t have to or public speaking say you don’t have to um but it does seem like you can you know there’s certainly a lot of premises you just said like about you know working in a strip club that were funny uh you know
The naked girl sitting next to you but you were friend- zoned and there’s some premises there that are that are you know funny right but if I would like like I think you were chuckling when I was telling some of that stuff but if I would have done that I would have set
The exact same thing in front of a standup crowd where they had just saw say another standup or expecting me to make them laugh they might not laugh that hard they might just chuckle and that’s kind of not okay in standup right what what would be your approach if you
Were going to try to punch that up I know it’s a it’s editing demand challenge but no I mean for for me it’s standup is all trial and erand editing right you start off rambling a story and then you cut it down you cut it down and
You you chisel away on that piece of marble until it’s something and it you turn like a 2minute bit into like 30 seconds of punchlines and that’s standup and a lot of people like when they’re new they’re like oh yeah I can do an hour I’m like yeah but there’s like
Maybe two minutes of good stuff in that hour you know you have five minutes of material you don’t have an hour you can talk for an hour but that’s not standup you know um so to me I I I don’t know and also I want to explore some stuff that’s
More like it’s funny cuz I think standups so cynical like uh if somebody’s really bombing on stage we’ll make fun of him like you know in the back like what is he doing a [ __ ] Ted talk right but now I actually think TED Talks are amazing right and and and and
It moves people and makes people think so there is a time and place for that maybe not in a stand-up comedy club but maybe in a oneman show format or something like that I went to Edinburgh for the first time uh this past year and
I was watching five shows a day and they have standup onean shows hypnosis plays and that was really inspiring to know that not everything needs to be in a standup format where you you’re expecting you know a punch line every 5 seconds or whatever so that was pretty
Deliberating and I might do a oneman show I don’t know based on this book you think I I I hope so um and then now you’re also in a few months or I don’t know if you’ve shot it already but you’re coming out with crazy Rich a
Asians a movie um whereas all Asian cast basically first Studio Movie in 25 years since Joy Luck Club with a with a full Asian cast that’s amazing why do you think there hasn’t been an all Asian cast movie since then I mean there’s like all everything El even there’s an
You know my big Greek Wedding was an all Greek cast uh I I honestly I I I don’t know and uh I’m used to being on set as the only Asian person every said and and that was an amazing experience to just be an actor instead of an Asian actor in
That movie cuz everybody’s so talented beautiful and whatever you just feel so proud to be Asian right and hopefully if this movie does well that’ll lead to more doors opening for movies like that so is that where you see the career going as more acting and maybe more
Dramatic acting I think for now I mean crazy ration I play a very comedic role it’s a romantic comedy but it’s it it’s a interesting thing it takes you to this different world and I think people find it very interesting it’s a really good film I saw a screening for it um but
Yeah I think just building characters I really like that cuz I play this cuz crazy ration based on a book of the same name and uh the character I play is supposed to be the biggest [ __ ] he’s supposed to be obese and um he’s just really loud and
Obnoxious and it’s I mean Jing Yang’s an [ __ ] but it’s a different type of [ __ ] and just in person you don’t come across as an an obese annoying person you’re you’re you’re a thin fun about right cuz I so how did you get into role like what was the pro
Mental process of getting into that role I think there’s a part of me that really wants to be that person but I I can’t because I think there’s part of us that always want to be certain that we we want to pull the guy out of the car to
Cut us off and beat his ass maybe it’s just me but I think all of us has a little part of that and I just love letting that kind of stuff out because you can’t you can’t do it in real life and but really building like a three-dimensional character and and be
Kind of naked and and let that part out and be naked so so uh what I like about this book so how do America Again by Jimmy Yang what I like about it is that it shows anything is possible you kind of graduate with his economics degree
You go from strip club DJ to Uber driver to standup comedy starring in you know one of the best shows on television right now to movies to writing this book and still everything is open in front of you and and you kind of take it’s like
You said before you were able to take skills and combine them to build new skills and I think that’s a very valuable lesson for people to learn they don’t have to stick to just learning one skill and improving that all their lives you could be unique by combining all
These skills to create your own set of unique you know Jimmy Yang skills right and I I think it’s an inspirational story I think people should get this book and uh uh give us some insight what’s going to happen on the next silicon season of Silicon Valley oh uh I
Think it’s going to be really exciting at first I was kind of worried even just for my own character that TJ’s gone and he’s a good friend you know um but it turned out I think to be a blessing and disguise I can maybe talk about my part
I don’t want to you know step on anybody else’s toes but for my part like I I get to end up interacting with more different characters so kind of expand my character’s World a little bit and uh I take over a little bit of er’s role of
Being like the [ __ ] more of that so it’s really fun I and I think you guys are going to be excited to watch it and there’s a lot of current stuff that’s happening in the tech world in the world that you know we also address that’s
Good good and then um well look how to American Jimmy Yang get on Amazon or anywhere it’s it’s today today’s the day what what do this podcast come out today Steve when’s this podcast going to come out can we get it out in a few
Days besteller yes we we want this to be a consistent bestseller not just the first week exactly hopefully yeah so yeah by the time this podcast is out you guys can order it and uh it’s hopefully I’ll be a bestseller by then who knows well excellent thank thanks so much for
Coming on the podcast Jimmy this is this is really great I’m a I’m a huge fan of the show your character on the show and now this this book thank you sir thanks and uh you know what’s funny TJ Miller once uh stopped by here and was on the
Stage and he was wearing a cast this is like a I don’t know six months ago maybe seven months ago and um he just tells this story he just came on um on the flight cuz he was on a podcast upstairs came out on the fight and he just told
This this story of being in the doctor’s office with getting this cast and he was just so funny just simply relay relaying that story and it was all timing combined with just the slightest bit of punching punching up the story yeah and so you can see how different uh
Characters form in a standup Persona ah yeah I mean he he’s a genius he just a he’s just naturally funny he’s able to make things funny and I think when you get to point I think Louis CK said that he’s like I can make anything funny like
I’m a good standup so I think when you get to that point it’s amazing but also you got find what you really actually want to talk about yeah what do you think you want to talk about I mean you’ve obviously been talking about it but I guess the stuff in the book and
And there things that are relatable I I don’t know what I want to talk about in standup yet that’s why I’m still just kind of dabbling a little bit but uh I got a tour coming up so we we’ll see all right well thanks again thanks AI might be the most important new
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