Ronny Chieng, “No. 8” on the Asian-Guy Casting Wish List, Is Suddenly Everywhere

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In the week leading up to the most divisive, high-stakes and exhausting presidential election in modern American history, Ronny Chieng spent three nights manning the Daily Show anchor desk. As a politics buff and a longtime correspondent of the Comedy Central institution, he’s more than game to guest host. But he’s also aware of how much the work had changed since Trevor Noah tapped him for the gig back in 2015. “I’ve been there long enough where I get the rhythm of it,” says the Malaysian stand-up and actor. “But it’s become a bit like the emergency room, watching car-wreck victims come in every day. You just get desensitized.”

Fortunately for the 38-year-old, it’s not all comedy triage. The show keeps him on a long leash, allowing frequent breaks to tour (his latest stand-up special, Love to Hate It, hits Netflix on Dec. 17) and tackle a growing number of acting jobs (the Hulu drama Interior Chinatown premieres Nov. 19). He’s humble about the offers coming in, but there’s no arguing with the volume. He booked scene-stealing roles in Crazy Rich Asians, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, M3GAN and Joy Ride, to name a few, in rapid succession. It’s why, despite his disappointment in the “showmanship” of U.S. politics and Hollywood’s lingering slump, this onetime law student and his wife aren’t shifting course. Speaking over Zoom in early November, before Election Day, Chieng dug into The Daily Show’s transition from Noah’s exit to Jon Stewart’s return and why his comedy goal hasn’t changed from when he first turned to performing while in college in Australia.

Compared to the dearth before, Hollywood has commissioned more Asian- and Asian American-fronted work the past seven, eight years. And, by my count, Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu and you show up in the vast majority of them.

Sorry about that! I’m carving out a nice little career. If you need an Asian guy willing to work for minimum wage, I’m number eight on the list. It just so happens that the first seven keep turning down roles, and I’m desperate enough to do them. (Laughs.) I’m kidding, but it’s not that far from the truth.

I think you’re higher on that list.

I think you’d be surprised. Nothing’s going to get made for me as a vehicle, but I think I’m at a place where, if I have a good idea and I push it hard, I might get it made. I’m never top of mind, but when someone goes, “Ronny?” I think people are like, “Oh, yeah. Ronny. That guy’s OK.” As a stand-up, my profession naturally lends itself to countercultural figures. I’m not bitter about this. I think stand-up should be a little bit outside of the system.

But isn’t the goal of every comic to be mainstream?

“Mainstream” is a bit of a misnomer because Hollywood is still very much its own system. Stand-ups cross over, for sure. May I be so lucky. But being an outside voice helps me right now. That’s why Jimmy [O. Yang] and I work for this project. We’re still very much the guys who show up to the red carpet and have to tell photographers who we are. We’ll be out there with Gemma Chan or Awkwafina, and they’ll be like, “Get out of the photo.” That’s what Interior Chinatown is about — these guys wanting to get out of the background.

You were pretty unknown in the States when Trevor tapped you for the job. How has this run changed your expectations for your career?

Before The Daily Show — a gift from Buddha! Thank you, Trevor Noah — I laugh at how naive I was. I thought I’d come to New York with no job and just figure it out? It was tough enough with a job. But I was in Australia, doing OK, playing maybe 1,000-seat theaters. It was a decent living. I used to use Aziz Ansari as a career model. Obviously, not the best example anymore. But at that time, because he was an Asian comic who appealed to everybody in America, that was the goal. That’s always been the goal, to be a non-white comic who isn’t put into some ethnic pigeonhole.

You were on set the day Trevor announced, on air, that he was leaving. How’d you digest that?

I had no idea. We were doing a normal segment. Usually he’d go, “Thanks, Ronny. We’ll be right back.” And instead, he said he was leaving. There was no sign of it before the show, and we were next to each other in the makeup chairs. But he gave me my chance in America, and I owe him everything. So I just took him at face value. He was exhausted. And now that I’ve been hosting, I’m like, “Ooooh, I get it. This thing is crazy.” Why would you want to do this for seven years?

Some do! Prior to Jon coming back, there was a very public bake-off for a full-time gig. Roy Wood Jr. left because of it. Hasan Minhaj apparently almost had the job. Did you ever want it?

For starters, they didn’t offer it to me. But I thought I wasn’t capable, so I never thought to ask. That’s genuinely how I felt. I wasn’t like, “Now’s my chance!” I was like, “What’s happening to the show?” The Daily Show is an institution. For it to be great, it needs a host that understands satire, has a point of view and understands what America needs — whether they like it or not. One of the reasons Jon’s so great is that he is still a countercultural figure. He doesn’t say stuff that you’d expect from his tribe.

What did you think of Jon’s return? That was another big surprise.

Jon was a morale boost. This is not an indictment on anyone else who’s hosted, but he’s the guy who created the institution. On day one, he said, “We want to cover the climate and not just the weather of politics.” When you’re covering weather, you’re chasing something. The climate is big picture. So he comes in with his portrait of what the fuck is going on — and why it’s stupid — and we have the freedom to comment on the day-to-day. This format has freed us from becoming just another political clip show.

You just hosted three nights in a row. Do you feel capable now?

It took me a little bit to get into it. And now that I’ve hosted, yeah, it is an extremely difficult job. Not anyone can do it. I think I feel a bit more fearless when I’m hosting because Jon says stuff that gets him in trouble all the time. No one’s coming after me.

I won’t spoil the punchline, but there’s a bit in your new special about how you can mock people in power in America in ways you cannot in Malaysia. After an election where one candidate [and now president-elect] reportedly suggested “punishing” the late night hosts who mock him, how does that joke sit now?

One of the founding ideals of America is protecting its citizens from the government. Suggesting that, it’s illegal and borderline fascist.

I’d argue it’s not borderline.

Sure, yeah, I’ll go there. Nobody cares what I say about it anyway. My perspective is as a non-
American who’s lived in Singapore and Malaysia — countries where you really can’t say stuff about the government. I think Americans don’t know what it feels like to not have freedom of speech, so they exaggerate the lack of it sometimes. I don’t think that’s going to change in America. So if we have four more years of Trump, we’ve shat on him every single day and we’ll continue to shit on him.

Let’s end on a lighter note. Your only merch is socks bearing your likeness. Gotta be a story there.

My wife’s family makes socks in Australia [Melbourne’s Bruce Goose]. We’ve been selling after shows, but I’m going to stop. The way merch works in America, everyone takes too much of a cut. It’s not worth it. I asked Bill Burr about it, and he doesn’t sell merch anymore, either. And if Bill Burr can’t figure it out, what’s the hope for any of us?