Ronny Chieng

Royal Theatre, Toronto ON, September 24

BY Mirali AlmaulaPublished Sep 25, 2016

9
Ronny Chieng offered up a nice balance of material on race and culture, dating and relationships, politics, technology and more. As a comedian of Chinese descent, born in Malaysia, his material on race and culture explored the common Asian stereotypes of being good at math, driving, and dick size. His dating material was built on the premise that something being creepy or romantic depends on if the person likes you. While the premises are familiar, Chieng took them down fresh avenues with his blunt and highly logical explanations serving as punch lines.
 
For example, once he started talking about technology, he joked about the private server Hillary Clinton used to send emails by reminding everyone that, "She is a 70-year-old grandmother. No wonder she fucked it up. That's what grandmothers do with technology." His logic left little room for argument, but filled the space with big laughs.
 
His jokes about Facebook and his impressions of people who want privacy but keep uploading things to the website was perhaps the funniest moment of the show. It's hard to tell though, because Chieng is an energetic performer who does excellent act-outs and has material to spare.
 
Whether he was impersonating a New Yorker fighting a train door open or simply turning to the side to convey a conversation, his use of physicality made his performance dynamic, engaging, and really fun to watch.

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