History of TakeOut Comedy

My maternal grandmother lived in Hong Kong, and was beloved by all of her family. For many years, she lived in an elderly home and was hospitalized for the last five years in Hong Kong. When we were growing up, she
encouraged us in school and loved us very much. Occasionally through the years, we would visit her in Hong Kong. All of us looked forward to the trips to spend time with her. My mom was traveling back and forth from
NYC to Hong Kong for the last five years to take care of my grandmother. On Wednesday, November 27th, 2002 my mother called the family to let us know that our grandmother's health had taken a turn for the worse. She told us it was urgent for all of us to try to get to Hong Kong as soon as possible. I was in retail and at that time, it was the busiest shopping time of the year. However, that was not as important as being together with my family. Luckily, my bosses understood and granted me a leave of absence. My family decided that I would go first and evaluate her condition before they all would fly to Hong Kong.

I bought my plane ticket and flew out on Sunday, December 1st. About midway through the flight, I got an idea that I should do a comedy show in my own neighborhood and bring back entertainment to Chinatown. The
nightlife and entertainment in the Chinatown area had disappeared a long time ago. The four theaters that were around in the 1980's have turned into a mall, a Buddhist temple, an office building and the forth one is still abandoned. I wrote down all my ideas and my vision on a barf bag in front of me. (I still have that barf bag.) I was excited about my ideas, and I couldn't wait to share them with my grandmother and mother. When I landed in Hong Kong, I planned to go immediately to the hospital to visit my grandmother. My mother met me at the airport and told me that grandmother had gone to heaven. My heart was crushed, and I stood there numbed. She had passed away during my flight and did not want me to see her in that state. I truly believe that when she passed away, she gave me this vision of bringing back entertainment and nightlife to Chinatown. All of my siblings subsequently came to Hong Kong for my grandmother's funeral. I still miss her dearly and truly do believe she gave me this idea during my flight.

When I arrived back in New York City, I immediately started working on my plans for a series of comedy shows. After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, Chinatown had been going through continued hard times, especially financially. The recovery efforts impacted access to the area, and therefore the local businesses. The situation worsened with the "Park Row issue" and access to parking, and later the false SARS rumors scare.

I wanted to do something positive to help out the community. I held creative team meetings with my friends Chun Wong, Emily Eng, and Josh Kaufman to discuss different concepts for shows. We came up with "TakeOut
Comedy". I was determined to fulfill the vision my grandmother gave me and sent out mass emails for performers. The response was overwhelming. People loved the idea of helping out Chinatown by bringing back
entertainment to the area.

Next. I needed a venue. I looked into many places in Chinatown and the choice was Asia Roma. I pitched my vision to Mei Chan, the owner. She supported me and gave me a night. Thank you Mei! The first TakeOut
Comedy show started with two performances on February 6th, 2003. Both shows were completely sold out! Afterwards, we asked for audience feedback and received positive and encouraging feedback.

Later on, I heard my college friend, Alan Tong, was opening a new bar/lounge with friends called YELLO. The place was a bigger venue and the next TakeOut Comedy was held at YELLO on April 3rd, 2003. Seating
capacity was about 90 people, and the place was packed again. It was awesome!

Now, TakeOut Comedy is branded as The Premier Asian American Comedy Showcase in the USA!!

Future of Take Out Comedy

Eventually, I am hoping my show would get more popular and news of it would spread across the USA. Then we can work on revitalizing the nightlife in all the Chinatowns across the USA and Canada. We will then perform more TakeOut Comedy shows across the USA, like San Francisco, Houston, Boston, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver, and then overseas to HONG KONG!. We can and we will.