Elliot Chang set up an Asian stereotype and promptly defied it in front of an audience of about 250 Tuesday night in the K-State Student Union Ballroom.
“Funny Asian comics are like UFOs,” he said. “You know they exist, but you’ve never seen one.”
Chang has performed at more than 400 colleges and has made TV appearances on Comedy Central, MTV, Spike and NBC. This is the third time he has performed “Barely Legal” at K-State.
The hour and a half standup shwo was preceded by a reception with refreshments provided by the Asian American Student Union and the Union Program Council’s Multicultural Committee, which sponsored the event as part of Asian-American Awareness month.
“We had him here last March and he was great,” said Christina Patch, president of the AASU and a sophomore in accounting. “He doesn’t specify what nationality he is because he doesn’t want to alienate anyone.”
Audience member John Deterding agreed.
“He was willing to touch on things people wouldn’t normally say,” the sophomore in computer information systems said. “You could relate to the issue no matter who you were. I don’t think people could ignore him because they were laughing too hard.”
Henry Huguley, sophomore in geography, came after seeing Chang perform on Comedy Central in the past. “He was hysterical tonight. He’s so open about the racist jokes, and we all knew it was comedy. I laughed at everything,” Huguley said.
Chang spoke of sex and gender as much as race and managed to gauge audience reaction well enough to prevent any uncomfortable silences. But he hardly stayed away from the controversial.
“When you’re Asian, people always ask the same stupid questions, like ‘Do you know karate?’ and ‘Do you have a small penis?’ I like that stereotype because I always exceed expectations.”