Ronny Chieng in Toronto: This Is Not A Review
Written by: Jimmy Yu
My day begin with delicious Pho for lunch, then on to exciting wedding planning activities, which eventually brought me to Nordstrom for some suit shopping. After an hour of unsuccessful consulting, I found myself rummaging through the ready to wear clearance section hoping to find some gems. I end up next to another frantic asian man – I could tell behind the black mask based on the slightly sweaty forehead and furrowed brows, and of course the pace of his browsing from hanger to hanger. I instantly had a hunch, wow, is this RONNY CHIENG? He asked a question to the associate helping him and I knew it had to be him based on his distinct Asian-Australian accent. Then, finally it was confirmed; I caught a glimpse of his cyan blue printed Ronny Chieng socks and there was no mistake!
The Ronny Chieng X Bruce Goose Sock Collab. socks | From Ronny CHIENG OFFICIAL WEBSITE
The socks were stylishly paired with tapered joggers, a relaxed fitting mustard corduroy jacket, and a baseball cap.
Seeing the 13 pairs of pants slung over his forearm and glossy forehead, I decided to be a considerate Canadian citizen and represent Toronto properly by not harassing him immediately – plus I had to let my heart rate slow down anyway. After pretending to browse the same few racks for another 15 minutes, I waited until he was done at the register to approach him.
To my relief, he was super friendly and receptive. I always have a fear of celebrities I respect being jerks so then I can no longer like them, this was not the case. I let him know how excited I was for his show, and he was extremely appreciative, and thanked me multiple times for attending. The 30-second walking interaction ended with a fist bump (he extended), and I was relieved that I could continue to be AMPED for his show.
After walking around all day, my partner and I decided to get there right as the doors opened, so I could sit and rest before the show. I napped from 6:00pm to 6:45pm in the cushy seats of the historic and recently renovated Massey Hall. To my delight, the show started promptly as advertised.
Image of Julie Kim + Ronny Chieng. Courtesy of Julie Kim.
The show was opened by Toronto-born Korean-Canadian comedian, Julie Kim, who just happens to be one of my childhood best friend’s sister. Julie grew up from humble beginnings in Scarborough. Now a super mom with a budding career in comedy, she is accompanying Ronny (having performed over 30 shows at the time of writing) on this Hope You Get Rich Tour across North America. With her pleasant voice and sass, she delivers pointed quips and hilarious truths of dating, marriage, parenting, and family that are risky, smart, and shocking all at once. With an awesome set, she left her hometown crowd relaxed and ready for more belly aching fun.
Now fully awake and ready for the laughs to continue, Ronny took the stage to a grand applause given by a packed house of 2000 fans. If you’re not familiar with Ronny’s comedy already, he is an incredibly intelligent and compelling story-teller. Having graduated with a Law degree in Australia, his jokes are always well articulated in their entirety. As a geek who’s fascinated by the art of communication and speech, I found myself laughing throughout the night during the setups of his jokes, before even getting to the punchlines. His scholarly vernacular and physical animations using facial expressions, tone, and body language create an engaging and truly entertaining performance. He knows his audience well – setting up his jokes often with sarcastic tones using semi-obscure terms related to mathematics, statistics, empirical research, and words long forgotten by me since my days at the University of Waterloo. How he tells his stories makes even me feel smarter, and that I am somehow on the ‘in’ for understanding the context of his humour. Finally, I can bask in some benefit of having taken Calculus 101, and I leave feeling incredibly satisfied.
Behind the facade of an aggravated man who is annoyed by the stupidity and conduct amongst our societies globally, Ronny tells stories that clearly reveal a man of high moral character, ethics, love and compassion. His humour showcases intelligent observations into the nuances of human behaviour and relationships, and always has an incredible underlying message that makes you reflect, and pushes for the betterment of society.
Being of Asian descent, he also touches on discrimination in subtle but impactful ways. Without saying too much and spoiling it for those catching his remaining tour dates, he describes a past performance at the legendary Soho Theater at the legendary Soho Theater in the UK. After an “okay” (self-assessed) performance, his reviews read that his routine was “over reliant on his ethnicity,” which was surprising as he had not told any jokes related to being Asian. It was an interesting point of reflection and snapshot of where the world is on seeing colour.
Image shared from @jfltoronto, Instagram
Segueing into a related topic, he goes onto express his disdain for the social media “reviewers” out there, and how he hates being “reviewed”, as an observation of the online negativity we see this day in the digital age. “People who have not created anything should not be able to critique those who are out there, sticking their necks out, day-in day day-out, trying to make something positive happen in their lives or their communities,” Ronny remarked. He elaborates on how little effort it takes to post something online to tear people down nowadays, juxtaposed by how difficult it is to achieve any bit of progress in any discipline, while shouting out a list of entrepreneurial, creative, and artistic professional careers. He emphasizes the need to support each other, and those out there creating for the world.
Early on in his show, he addresses how he often gets online requests from his audience to use his platform to “spread awareness” on Asian hate. He clearly expresses his apprehension (through full shoulder swinging and heavy use of air quotes), explaining that this is not the skill set of a comedian, and there are much more effective ways to “spread awareness,” than “one guy talking sh*t into a mic”. Like a geniously written episode of Seinfeld, he circles back and concludes the show with a story of an altercation he had with a “crazy person” in Manhattan, and masterfully ties in a subtle yet impactful punchline that addresses Asian-hate in a hilarious finale. Beyond his sarcasm and (self-described) tone issues, his sense of social responsibility has always been apparent and admirable to me.
In a surprising part of the routine (for me), Ronny mentioned that his original Delta flight to Toronto was cancelled. He was switched onto a last-minute WestJet flight, for which he expected his luggage to be instantly lost, and it was. It was under these serendipitous circumstances that I had met Ronny while he was shopping for his outfit at 4:00pm. A true professional fighting fatigue, long-covid, and losing his luggage, yet still building the story into his routine at the eleventh hour and delivering a truly memorable performance.
This was not a review, but simply a recount of an amazing Saturday in downtown Toronto, punctuated by two amazing talents that I am honoured to experience live during my lifetime.
sponsored by ferris wheel press.
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