Ronny Chieng shows the spirit of aloha in Netflix’s ‘Love to Hate It’

After several years of being in stand-up comedy, Ronny Chieng’s career is definitely heating up. These days, the 39-year-old comic can’t even walk the halls of “The Daily Show,” where he’s been a correspondent since 2015, without setting off the fire alarm. At least that was the case on a recent morning when he appeared in a Zoom interview from his phone in the middle of an unexpected fire drill. “Perfect timing!” he joked. “Fortunately, it’s not a real fire.”

He briefly popped through the show’s New York office to find a quiet place to talk about his third Netflix stand-up special, “Love to Hate It.” Launching Tuesday, the special was filmed in the slightly less chaotic location of Hawaii, one of Chieng’s favorite places to work and vacation. Aside from notable roles in “Crazy Rich Asians,” “M3GAN” and more recently in the Hulu TV series “Interior Chinatown,” fans of Chieng’s acting remember his days playing Dr. Lee in the Disney show “Doogie Kameāloha, MD”, as shot on location in the Aloha State.

As well as deploying a snappy observational comedy from the lens of a millennial Malaysian immigrant, Chieng’s weapon of choice is a wardrobe of tailored vintage threads fit for a ’60s spy caper. Even on a day that finds him offstage in his normal streetwear—a dark blue sweater and ball cap hiding a head of tousled black hair—Chieng’s thoughtfulness in discussing his recent career progress is indicative of the conscious mindset of a comic , which combines old school style and a new school perspective.

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

ONEaspects of the special are bound to resonate with people your age, especially jokes about putting off having children for the sake of your career. Have your thoughts on delaying parenthood changed at all since filming the special?

Yeah, it’s interesting, I did, and I just talked a little bit about what’s going on in my life, and I have to say, not to pat myself on the back, but a lot of people have surprisingly related to it. . So it feels like everyone in America is doing it. I wrote it this year, so it’s very current, so I’m still in that mindset. I’m a bad person to ask because I don’t have kids so I don’t know. Everyone who has kids tells me there is never a good time, and that’s fine. Bill Burr told me he wished he had more sooner. So all that gives me a kind of perspective on it. (Jerry) Seinfeld told me being married and not having kids is like going to Disneyland and staying in the parking lot. But everyone who is the comic that I admire seems to say that not only is it OK (to have kids while working on your career), it’s great.

What inspired you to film your special in Hawaii and what started your longtime appreciation of the Aloha State?

Every special I do, I try to have a visual aesthetic that matches a classic American show business era. This one was “Elvis in Hawaii.” I have been fortunate to film a few projects in Hawaii, including two seasons of a TV show (“Doogie Kameāloha, MD” for Disney). I did at least one film there, if not two. It sounds so crazy to say I love Hawaii, but I definitely feel something there. It reminds me of the best parts of Malaysia and the best parts of America in one place and it was a shelter for my wife and I during the pandemic. And then, by chance, all these references to Hawaii popped up in my comedy unintentionally while I was preparing for the thesis. But it was a coincidence. I chose Hawaii to film months before I even wrote the thesis.

I thought it was cool how you ended up with your love of Hawaii and tied it in with a special reference to your late father.

Yes, that was the aim of it and it took me six years to talk about (his death). My father passed in 2018 and I mention him at the end of (the special). So if you hate everything I do about comedy, I’d say at least skip to the end of this special so you can watch that part. I’m telling a true story about him and yes, I’m glad I could put him in it, I think he would have liked it.

Are there any comedy heroes therem you model yourself afterespecially as a non-American comedian of color?

A lot of the time I model my decisions after Aziz Ansari. I asked myself a lot, like, ‘Would Aziz do that?’ or ‘how would Aziz make a poster?’ Because he’s very tasteful, obviously very funny, and he also managed to do comedy in a way where he kind of transcended race. Everyone loved him and it wasn’t about his ethnicity. And he was kind of a super funny comic, and he was always very stylish and tasteful, and he also didn’t overexpose himself in terms of social media. So he was very selective in what he did. I’m also lucky Bill Burr (executive produced) my special. I’m glad I can get advice from (Dave) Chappelle and Seinfeld and all the great comedies. Jo Koy gives me advice. I filmed my first special (“Asian Comedian Ruining America!”) in Glendale (at the Alex Theater) and (Koy) filmed a special there 10 years before me. So I called him and asked him, ‘Hey, anything I should know about this place?’ And he gave me specific tips – he asked me to mic up on the balcony and things like that. Ali Wong always gives me advice. So I am very lucky to be able to get advice from everyone. I also learned a lot from John Mulaney. John let me open for him this year and I got to see how he works and how he runs his shows. And I got a lot out of that, just logistically, how to organize the show at that level.

Have you always had an eye for vintage Hollywood style, or has it evolved over time?

Yes, it is definitely something that has evolved over time. When I made my first custom, I wanted it to look professional and classy because I didn’t want it to look amateurish. I felt like I was in America and to me this is the NBA of comedy and entertainment. That was the impetus to try to make it look stylish and have a unique aesthetic. And the look I chose was classic American show business because, frankly, it was easier for me to look classic than to look fashionable. You just need to put on a suit to make sure it fits. When you’re trying to look fashionable, you’re trying to anticipate what will be stylish or what will stay stylish. So it was easier for me to look backwards for style and be more classic and be more professional. So that aesthetic stuck and I like it. To me it shows that you put effort into what you do. One of the reasons I did it was because I always felt like I never saw Asian people in those settings. They were never on ‘Jackie Mason,’ they were never on ‘Johnny Carson.’ So that was my way of putting myself into those settings.

Of course, running around New York City doing places where you obviously can’t dress like that all the time, right?

I feel like if you did three-piece suits every single time, it almost looks like a gimmick, you know, it kind of loses its impact.

Plus that dry cleaning bill is astronomical. Speaking of branding, marketing, when it comes to comedy, you don’t sell very much merch. Think selling merch as a comic is more trouble than it’s worth?

I will never sell anything I wouldn’t buy myself. So if I wasn’t going to wear it every day proudly, why would I try to sell it? Also, when you take merch on the road, everyone takes so much of a cut that it doesn’t even make sense anymore unless you make it a whole operation and you outsource it. Part of me feels like I know the free market will decide if people buy it or not, so it’s not like you force it on your fans, but I also feel like I don’t want to take advantage of my fans in that way. . I’m glad they bought a ticket. I don’t need to try to get more money from them, but that’s just me. I asked Bill Burr about this because he doesn’t really do much either. I asked if he ever found out and he said no, they take such a big cut it’s not worth it. And then I think if Bill Burr can’t figure it out, I don’t think I can figure it out.

So the way that people can support you is just to come to the shows and see you on screen?

To be fair, I do sell socks and vinyl on my website. So people can buy socks and vinyl if they want to buy something. But it’s also an environmental thing, I just didn’t want to sell something that would end up in a river and suffocate a sea turtle.

One of the things you also talked about in the thesis is losing male friends in your 30s to the “self-improvement algorithm” on YouTube and social media. How can you tell when someone has become completely consumed by these types of influences that can start with the idea of ​​simply getting fit and end with the idea of ​​wanting to overthrow the government?

There are some key words they say. They start talking about the “Global South” or the “Global North” or there are words they use that I’ve never heard them use before. “Mainstream media” is one that’s been around for a while, but yeah, it’s just sad.

Do you think comedy has the potential to become part of these kinds of extremist algorithms when it comes to how some people see the world socially or politically?

Yes, but it goes both ways politically, right? Some of (the type of content) may influence you to go left or right. There is comedy for everyone, so it can affect you in any direction. I think what’s sadder is guys – and I can talk to straight men because I’m a straight man – sometimes have legitimate complaints that get kind of focused on and exaggerated by being too much on the internet. It’s not even about politics, it’s about losing your mind. It’s not about conservative or liberal. You can lose your mind as a liberal, you can lose them as a conservative, I just think it’s very scary to lose your mind.

Have you ever gone to the extent of asking or trying to profile what type of people typically become fans of your comedy?

I don’t – I can’t think of it because it’s all I can do to just write a funny joke. I really can’t calculate the audience. I mean, I’m curious about who shows up when I do a live show. I’m always surprised by who comes to my shows. I literally can’t believe it when someone comes to my shows or says they’ve seen my stand up.

Now that you’re on a bit of a hiatus with the new comedy special coming out, how do you plan to celebrate the holidays? Do you actually want to take some time off?

I’m lucky I’m married to someone who can help me take it easy and relax. I find I have a few weeks to go to Asia and visit my mother and take her on vacation. So we’ll just go to Japan, Korea, Taiwan and hang out, and then I’ll come back in January to work on “The Daily Show” and write a new special where I’ll just go around New York City doing concerts like is a dream.