putting the knit in shizknitz

After almost 7 years of living in L.A., there are some areas that I still need a map to navigate - Beverly Hills, WeHo, Hollywood, Downtown LA. I’ve yet to really spend time on Melrose or bar hop through the nighttime labyrinth of Sunset.

Last night, Tienshiao, his friend Nelson and I got adventurous enough to go to another scene we are unfamiliar with - the real talent behind the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, the stage on which the future talents of tomorrow are groomed - an evening with the Asian American Sketch Comedy Group called OPM. Unlike the typical casts on media such as TV and movies, this was a group true to its roots - where the caucasians were the minority and asians were center stage using humor that would only resonate to the depths of our souls. The title of the sketch comedy? Asian for Dummies.

Of course, I had an underlying reason to stretch my wings to this unknown arena, my good friend from Jr High (YES, 7th Grade) Kim Chueh was one of the stars of the show. I think the last time we saw each other was back in, oh, I don’t know, 1997 ish for another mutual friend’s birthday? Going back a few more years before that, our true bonding came when we were in the same AB class (whatever the hell that stood for, it meant we had 2 class periods in the same classroom). We were probably the only asians on campus at the time - not including the Vietnamese folks (which were very few and inbetween at the time) who thought they were more French than asian - which of course, bonded us together. Okay, so perhaps it was a lack of options or perhaps it was a force of luck that took us through some fun and interesting times - Big Black Shoes, the Racist Substitute (remember the cheating incident?), B52’s, spraying the day care next door with a hose, tennis at CW, and of course, BAND. Now that I think about it, there was another asian - Brian Aung or something, but considering he was this short nerdy BOY he was a victim of our cynical humor than anything else. Wait, wait, I almost forgot another asian - Kunsan Kim (ha! I can’t believe I remember his name!) who was a casualty of my, well, unfortunate unrelenting crush. Kim was always much more level headed than I was, and didn’t partake in the time-wasting crap I did at that age.

Fast forward to now, and on my drive over to The Complex, I was thinking “oh, I wonder if Kim’s parents have seen this show, they would be so proud”. The first main scene I saw her in was as an asian porn star coming up to receive an award. Comeing was an understatement, as it was all over her face and chest as she rubbed the daikon trophy in her cleavage (see clip 4.2 MB). As she confirmed after the play, her parents have not seen her in this comedy (thank god!). The show in its entirety was really great! Funny, funny throughout - I especially love it when the humor is about taboo topics or generalizations made about each asian culture - Chinese, Filipino, Korean and Japanese from each other’s perspectives. The last show is this coming up weekend! Don’t miss it!!!

PS I have about 15 min worth of clips that are too large to post, so email me directly if you are interested!