Funny in Korea

[Applause]

um

first of all i want to say that it is a

big honor for me to be

a part of ted talks ted talks is a huge

thing it’s so huge that my mom who

doesn’t know anything

knows about ted talks i called my mom i

said um i’m going to be part of ted

talks i’m going to do a

ted talk speech and she was like oh ted

talk very famous

but why you speaking

you are not famous i said wow

i love you too mom i love you too but

she’s right

i’m not famous and that’s why i think i

need to

introduce myself so that you guys would

be like well who is this

weird looking at yoshi on stage right my

name is danny cho

and i am a stand-up comic who has been

doing stand-up comedy for 20 years but

specifically three years in korea

in the korean language and so i want to

talk about my journey

uh i started doing stand-up in the

summer of 2000

it was the summer between

high school and college and my friends

were like hey danny

you’re faint you’re funny dude but

can you do it on stage and i was like if

you pick a spot i’ll do it i was one of

those hormonal kids those dumb kids be

like you dare me oh do it that’s

that was my

that was my uh my dumb young hormonal

guy mind

so my friends they they found an open

mic

night in uh what back in the days we

used to call the hood

and so we went and

they called my name and when i walked on

stage

barely any claps it was

and then there was a woman in the back

that was like oh he chinese you know he

ain’t funny

and so i prepared about a five to ten

minute

set about you know like farting or

something dumb right

so i threw all that away and i attacked

her i made fun of her appearance

her looks her clothes i said oh you know

you look like

you’re not even f you’re not even like

national geographic hot you’re just

ugly all together right and so the crowd

was like oh my god

this chinese guy is going crazy and the

crowd went uh

they were just they were crazy right and

so to me

that feeling was very addicting you know

but what i want to say

before i continue on is that that

was not stand-up comedy according to

wikipedia stand-up comedy is a comic

act in which a comedian performs in

front of a live audience

usually performing directly to them

now a comedian it seems like they’re

doing uh dialoguing

but in actuality they’re monologuing

with a group of jokes

stories one-liners and that’s called

a set right and so what i did in the

hood

in that open mic was not stand-up comedy

i was just

verbally verbally attacking right uh

but the crowd went crazy that feeling

was so good that for 20 years

i’ve been searching and chasing that uh

chasing that high

you know and so

got into college was performing in

college and then graduated

and i became a business consultant right

i was a suit and tie guy

and um i was a suit as they call it

and uh but i was still doing stand-up so

i would get off of get out of the office

and then i would

go to the comedy club tell jokes in my

suit and tie

and then go back to the office finish up

the day

and go and i did that for three years

and uh i was making good money as a

consultant and you know

as a you know as a korean american son

you know my my my mom

you know you know how korean uh korean

moms they like to they brag

uh amongst their friends but they don’t

brag like

like directly you know they brag kind of

in

a roundabout way like my mom’s way of

bragging would be like

um like she’ll see her friend at church

and all of a sudden she’ll start

grabbing her head you know

and then and then her friends go oh

tanya and then my mom goes

um

all right they they they go in a

roundabout way

of of a bragging right anyway so i was a

consultant

and i wanted to quit but i was afraid to

let my parents down

right they went they came to america

they busted their ass you know to make

it

so that i don’t have to struggle like

them

and so they thought stability and making

a

decent amount of money was going to be

that

but i was going to throw that away to

become a stand-up comic

so i was afraid but the reason why i

quit was one day when i was at work

uh a famous comedian named bobby lee

calls me and he goes danny

i need someone fat and weird looking

on set tomorrow and i was like

hey man when do you need me on set

i’ll be there right away right because

i’m gonna be on tv man so

so i um i took a day off the following

day i went on set

and bobby between you know takes he was

like hey

uh you should quit your job bro you

should do comedy full-time

and i was like you think i could make it

he was like danny there’s two types of

people

that get on tv really good looking

people

and mutants and you’re a goddamn mutant

my friend

you know you look like a human thumb you

look weird it’s like you’re agile but

you you have no definition you know

you look like a potato it’s awesome

right and i was like and

i didn’t even get mad i didn’t even get

mad at all i was like

well i mean because he bobby also looks

like a mutant

you know you know he’s like my mutant

humber you understand what i’m saying

this is a

jacked up x-men you know what i’m saying

like bobby looks like a like a like a

scallop

you know what i mean he looks like a

chumbuk but but but still

he makes money and he says i can make

money

right and so he gave me the confidence i

quit my job

and oh that broke my parents heart you

know

my mom was like yeah

you throw away a six-figure salary

job to do this stand-up comedy

what the hell is stand-up comedy and i

went well according to wikipedia

stand-up comedy is and she goes what is

the wikipedia i said oh my god this is

going to be a long

stressful conversation anyway

so i quit my job and for about 10 years

i did what every non-famous no-name

comic does

we perform in all the hell gigs you can

think of

right so from college gigs college gigs

you think are fun

but sometimes think about it i’m in a

cafeteria

at noon where people don’t know that

there’s a comedy show going

and so people are like talking there’s a

blender going on over there because

somebody’s making a smoothie in that

side and this is what you have to fight

with

and then you get paid and then you drive

to the next college nearby you know and

then that’s what you have to do i did

that kind of gig i did military gigs uh

i did gigs um i did a biker gang

convention

you know and on top of that like i

performed uh

all over the world but not in like

theaters

or comedy clubs it was like dive bars

but this was fun

for the first five years it was really

fun you know sleeping in hostels hotels

cars trains sleeping on friends

couches you know i once slept at a frat

house

you know to save money right so that was

fun

and within my travels i found out that

they do stand-up comedy

in english in all of asia

right except korea right so

hong kong singapore malaysia

thailand vietnam japan and there’s a

small scene in korea

so nine years ago i came to korea for

the first time in my life

and i did a five city stand-up tour

in english for expats and english

teachers and

other people that just don’t know what

to do with their lives they were there

and so i was i was telling uh jokes for

them

and uh it was a great time i love korea

food was great got drunk

you know women were pretty it was

awesome right and then

one of my friends he is uh he’s one of

my closest friends

uh his name’s a big phony he’s a

singer-songwriter big fan he goes hey

man

uh wouldn’t it be great if you can bring

stand-up comedy

to korea and do it in korean i said

brother we are way too drunk to have

this conversation

because number one i can’t speak korean

properly

and number two the only things i know

about korean comedy at the time

were they weren’t doing stand up they

were doing like

sketch comedy like where people were

like drawing boogers and like

you know and then they’re just falling

on their face and they’re like oh okay

right so to me i was like i don’t

understand that

right and um i don’t think

the culture would understand stand-up

that’s what i believed right

uh and so if it’s again i’m touring

but that was planted in my head it might

be cool if i can do stand-up in korean

and then so for 10 years again i was

just kind of

doing the same thing over and over again

i was making i was making money i was

making a living but

i wasn’t happy i was starting to get

angry and bitter that my career wasn’t

taken off i wasn’t getting famous

like bobby said i would be right um so

instead of being bitter what i did was

you know what

i should make a drastic change so i

decided to move to asia and i was

thinking originally hey for about two

years

move to korea on the weekends travel go

to singapore hong kong

india wherever and do stand-up and then

on the weekdays

just you know do some random gig here

and there like english radio whatever it

is

that was my original plan and so

i get to korea and within the first

month

boom i did guam i did saipan

i did thailand i was doing english gigs

i did gigs in

in english in korea and i was like oh

man my plan is working

and i think i was happier i was thinking

about like

new perspectives in life and then one

day

a friend of mine named june he works at

an entertainment company

and he goes hey danny there is a group

of guys

that do stand-up comedy in korean

and they just started you want to go

check them out and i said what

what does that look like so

next week i go with june to the show and

there was about 10 people in the

audience

and uh the

they were terrible they were awful the

group uh

basically the laughter you hear from the

three people you see in this

auditorium right now was louder laughter

than what you

heard back then right and so i told them

yeah you guys are

but here’s the thing they just started

stand up you can’t

do an hour set and have a netflix

special within

three times going up you know and and

to them their reference for stand-up was

watching netflix or youtube with with

with terrible subtitles

so things were being lost in translation

so they didn’t really understand

why that joke was funny because because

they were at the mercy

of whoever subtitled that um that

project

and so i was like hey man uh koreans

have a word called conde right so i

conde

the hell out of these guys i was like

hey man

the setup’s too long you know i said

back in my days

i wouldn’t set up like this you know uh

and you know the punchline is weak

you know and so the group the four guys

are called comedy alive

they looked at me and they were like but

in their eyes

they were and then they were talking you

know when you when you when you talk uh

behind someone’s back or in front of

their face but you’re

talking through their teeth you go

right right like that’s what they were

doing though

right so what i did was i saw that and i

said okay

hey next week i want to perform

in uh korean and they’re like yeah okay

and i think they were like

oh oh deeply like yo let’s see if you

can do it you probably suck too

fool right so the next week i go

and um a long story short i had a great

set

actually it was the same feeling i felt

20 years ago uh in that where i was

making fun of that woman

but this time i was actually doing

stand-up comedy and

in the korean language and the the the

vibe of the place was so great

that it kind of altered my plans

i wanted to come here for about two

years just to kind of

get new perspective and get the hell out

of here but after that day

i decided hey i want to help

this stand-up comedy scene and so

from that day on i was helping mentor uh

the comedy alive guys you know if they

asked me hey hung like

how did they do this and i believe i

think you should probably hit that joke

this way

uh and we started open mics and

three years have gone by and within the

three years

a lot of crazy things have happened

right so within the three years

there’s been three korean language

netflix comedy specials that are out

uh there’s about 35

comedians that have regular paid sets

uh in korea now there’s about

three to four venues that do regular

stand-up comedy

and um kbs

uh they had a one season of a show

called stand up to showcase

stand-up comedy on korean national tv

and so i am fortunate

that i could have helped all these

projects and i had a little hand in all

of them

but i didn’t do it alone and what i

wanted to say was

it was because of my connections in life

that helped me accomplish all these

things

right so for example june if it wasn’t

for june to take me

to that crappy dive bar in

hongdae to see the comedy alive guys for

the first time

i wouldn’t be here right uh without the

comedy alive

team trusting in me believing in me

and making me like kind of their their

their

their coach right this i wouldn’t be

here

right uh without bobby lee saying hey

you’re a human thumb stupid you should

quit your job

and uh do stand-up comedy i definitely

wouldn’t be here

right and so what i want to tell all you

guys listening

is uh be nice to everybody you meet

because you never know who’s going to

help change your life

who’s going gonna help your life and uh

yeah that’s what how connections work

so i thank you for your time and i want

to leave by saying

oma i’m still not famous but

i’m doing okay thank you very much

you