Vietnam’s largest metropolis, Ho Chi Minh City, has long excelled at boundary-pushing night life. But now a vibrant new scene is creating late-night laughter across this city of 9 million: stand-up comedy.

Started by English-speaking foreigners, stand-up comedy is increasingly becoming a new tradition among Vietnamese in the bustling city locally known as Saigon.

Local comics are braving open-mic nights and can be seen cracking jokes in English alongside international comedians at events spanning Saigon’s hippest cafes, craft beer taprooms and hidden alley bars.

“There’s no stand-up comedy tradition here,” says Uy Le, a 26-year-old marketing professional who was the first Vietnamese comic to win the Vietnam Amateur Comedy Competition in 2018. “There’s no sarcasm or even puns in the Vietnamese language and traditional comedy is mostly slapstick. When I started it was 99 percent expats and travelers, but now there are Vietnamese people in the audience.”