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The Arts
August 2-8, 2006

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Bobby Lee

Seoul Brother No. 1: Bobby Lee, of 'MADtv,' is one ridiculous dude.

The Kims of Comedy

Improv Comedy Club, 62 S. Second St, San Jose 408.280.7475; www.improv.com; Thu 8pm; Fri 8 and 10pm; Sat 7 and 9pm; Sun 7pm; $15-$17

By Jimmy Aquino


These days, Asian American stand-up comedy comes in two flavors: the Dat Phan "My immigrant mom talks funny" jokes, and humor that doesn't rely on ethnicity as a gimmick. Despite the reference to their Koreanness in the tour's name, the standups of the Kims of Comedy showcase—Kevin Shea, Steve Byrne, Dr. Ken Jeong and Bobby Lee—are more like the latter. Sure, race fuels part of their material, but like Byrne once said in an interview, "You're not going to get hammered with Asian jokes," which is refreshing because endless "My immigrant mom talks funny" gags can get as tired as airplane food and Gilligan's Island jokes.

You gotta love that the tour is called the Kims of Comedy, even though none of the standups are named Kim, and two of them have white last names. The tour name is also a jab at how Asians are always viewed as having no individuality, as if they all march through life in lockstep like Kim Jong Il disciples. Each of the comics is far from interchangeable and all have different styles of humor.

Shea, who is a Korean adoptee, talks about his multiracial family ("Me and my dad used to argue all the time, and it kind of worried me, because he's actually a Korean War vet. I'm like, 'Oh, my God, did he adopt me or take me hostage?'"). Byrne, who's half-Korean, riffs on topics ranging from that creepy kid in The Grudge to crying during beauty pageants and has a hysterically funny bit about Bruce Lee having sex with his wife.

Dr. Ken, an actual physician moonlighting as a standup, does shtick about his day job: "Ladies, when you see your doctor for your Pap smear, make it presentable. Make it pretty for Dr. Ken. We wear masks for a reason! I just don't want my 9 o'clock being Animal Planet, all right?"

The most manic of the four, Bobby Lee is a hit with the frat-boy crowd. He's a little wittier than his spastic sketches on MADtv or cameo in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle would have you believe. And yet he's not too different from his MADtv characters—lots of rubber-faced physical humor and a tendency to drop his pants like R. Kelly at a schoolyard playground.

While Connie Chung cops accidental laughs, the Kims of Comedy are professionals. Like all other "... of Comedy" standup revues, the Kims tour has spawned a DVD. But the best place to see the show is live, partly because of the drunken Asian audience members beaming red from one sip of soju adding to the hilarity.


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