OMG! A Malaysian is now host on America’s #1 late-night talkshow

Here in Malaysia, we love nothing more than a good story of one of our own humble Malaysians making it good overseas. So we thought it might interest you that a Johor boy named Ronny Chieng is now a correspondent (main host is Jon Stewart‘s successor Trevor Noah) on America’s top late-night talkshow… The Daily Show, reaching up to 2.5million Americans every night!

Here’s a hilarious clip about him (and you can hear the Malaysian accent a bit even and talking about his “Granma from Malaysia”!) checking out America’s super high-tech voting machines.

If you’re a regular reader of CILISOS, you might have heard that we are BIG BIG fans of Jon Stewart’s Daily Show – which pretty much pioneered the combination of current events and humour which we’ve pretty much copied. In fact, The Daily Show was also voted America’s most trustworthy source of news by readers of TIME Magazine! #somedaycilisos. . So you can probably guess that we’re SUPER excited that one of our own home-grown boys is now a regular on the series.

But how the heck did a Johor law student make it big in the US?

“I couldn’t get a job. I couldn’t get hired, so I just did comedy and 6 years later I’m on the Morning Show.” – Ronny Chieng, on Studio 10’s Morning Show.

Born in Johor Bahru, Ronny Chieng was brought up in Manchester , New Hampshire in the States, and also spent some time in Singapore. However, like many Malaysian upper middle-class children, Ronny  was sent to Melbourne to study law at the University of Melbourne. There, in 2009, he won a university campus comedy competition, and began a meteoric rise to become one of Australia’s top comedians.

UPDATE: We added the term “upper” to middle class after a few comments that CILISOS out of touch 🙁

Since that competition, he’s opened for people like Dave Chappelle and Bob Saget… and was in the process of planning a  tour across Australia, being featured in TV and press numerous times.

“I’ve been pretty lucky. It is intimidating for me, but all the big stars I’ve met – Dave Chappelle, Bob Saget, Bill Burr – are all the nicest, most down-to-earth and encouraging people. I think that’s kind of what made them so successful.” – Ronny Chieng, Sydney Morning Herald.

(Un?)fortunately, just before his 30th birthday and halfway through his tour, Ronny Chieng found out that he bagged a highly-coveted role as correspondent for The Daily Show, based on an audition video he sent in, filmed at his home in Melbourne.

“I was literally on tour and I got the call. I’m going from my stand up straight to the show and I have to move to New York on Tuesday. I’m from Asia. You can hear it in my voice and you can see it in my face and that’s primarily my perspective. I definitely bring an international perspective. I bring different countries to the table – Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. I’m bringing the Asia Pacific to the show.” – Ronny Chieng via The Malay Mail Online

 

So what do his parents think?

“I know you’re only asking me this cos I’m Asian. You wouldn’t ask these other white comedians that cos you know their parents don’t care about them.” – Ronny Chieng, Sydney Morning Herald.

His actual answer is that his parents are pretty cool with the role now. ” It’s alot easier to excuse things when you’re doing well,” he says. They live in Singapore though, so they’ve only seen Ronnie perform once. Which is probably not a bad thing since his mom features quite frequently into his jokes.

“Anything your mom clicks on is a virus! Your mom could find a virus on the Google Home page! How are you under attack from Spyware on the Google Home page!? 95% of it is BLANK!” – Ronny Chieng at the Montreal Just For Laughs festival in 2015.

AND NOW, he’s got a new TV show and he needs Malaysian extras!

OMGOMG. Our editor was once a student in Melbourne, and we KNOW it’s a situation ripe for comedy value. So we at CILISOS are even MORE excited at the prospect of Ronny Chieng, filming a comedy about something many Malaysians can relate to.

“Meet Ronny Chieng. He’s a Malaysian student who’s come to Australia to study law. He’s smart, driven and competitive, which would make him the perfect law student, if he actually wanted to be a lawyer.” – synopsis of International Student, from smh.com.au

Even better than that, from 23-27 November 2015, he’ll be auditioning for extras! So if you have any friends in Melbourne, do share this with them. They can find out more on Ronny Chieng’s Facebook page here or email [email protected] for deets.

We’re genuinely excited for Ronny, and even more excited at the prospect of more Malaysians joining him on the international comedy stage. We know we’re a funny little country… and it’s about time the rest of the world found out.