Playing himself might be the ‘easiest job in the world’, but the boyish-looking, sick burn-delivering comic has been reliving some excruciating memories

On stage and screen, the comedian Ronny Chieng is famously irritable. A senior correspondent on America’s beloved news satire The Daily Show, and titular star of ABC’s Ronny Chieng: International Student, the short, boyish-looking, sick burn-delivering comic has the querulous demeanour of a man prone to outrage and allergic to pleasantries.

The 31-year-old Malaysian has been like that since his first public (non-university) gig, at a tiny, dingy, subterranean Melbourne comedy room in 2009, performing a slightly rinkydink set in front of a crowd of approximately eight people. I know, because I was one of them.

None of us had any idea who this very funny newbie was, though we certainly do now. Chieng’s rise through the ranks of the comedy scene has been meteoric – from festival shows, to sell-out tours, to local and international television. He is that rare person who went from a “respectable” profession into standup (Chieng has a degree in commerce and law) and experienced, if not overnight success, then certainly success with an impressive turnaround time.

In his new, seven-part, semi-autobiographical series, Chieng plays a considerably younger version of himself. When we meet in a Melbourne beer garden, the afternoon that principal photography of the series wraps, he tells me: “[I’m reliving] a lot of painful memories that I couldn’t explore without cringing … I am very quickly losing my time window to play myself at 19.”

Chieng developed the show with co-writer and co-creator Declan Fay, scouring through (and exaggerating for comic effect) the details of his own life as a student of the University of Melbourne, from interactions with dodgy lecturers to failed attempts at romance. The pilot episode won the ABC’s Comedy Showroom competition, leading to the full season.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘I am very quickly losing my time window to play myself at 19.’ Photograph: ABC

“Writing a whole series was a crash course in screenwriting, which is a very different muscle to standup comedy writing,” he says. “I guess you can say I learnt that the hard way.

“The Daily Show forced me out of my comfort zone. Granted, I have the easiest job in the world, playing myself. But there’s some stuff in this show I couldn’t have pulled off if you had asked me to do it even a few years ago, acting and writing wise.

“Obviously you’re a better writer at 31 then you are at 19. Hopefully you’re also a better human being, and better at describing reality. I’ve definitely improved a little as an actor. I mean, I’m still a shitty actor, but at least I have all this experience performing in front of a camera.”

That experience on The Daily Show – which the now New York-based Chieng works on, well, daily – invariably involves the pursuit of the holy grail of modern comedy: a video that goes viral.



Chieng’s best-known was produced in the thick of last year’s US election, depicting him responding to a segment aired on the now-defunct The O’Reilly Factor. One of the show’s presenters, Jesse Watters, claimed to have explored China’s attitude towards the election (a subject raised in one of the presidential debates) by filming vox pops in Chinatown.

Chieng was incensed. “Let me get this straight,” he fumed. “They say ‘China’ in the debate so you go to Chinatown in New York? When they mention Mexico, do you send someone to Taco Bell?”

The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) Tonight at 11/10c, correspondent Ronny Chieng reports on the Fox News/Jesse Watters racist Chinatown segment. pic.twitter.com/FTq8HyJ0KD

His full response, delivered in the comedian’s now-familiar vent-your-spleen style – vexed, cranky, shouty, outraged – chalked up millions of views. It incorporated turns of phrase that, to put it one way, do not tend to be uttered in polite conversation.

“Let’s just say it’s not the first time we’ve called somebody an ignorant sack of shit. In fact it’s one of the nicer things we’ve said about people,” Chieng says. “That’s one thing about The Daily Show. They’ve seen almost every permutation of words that can possibly be used to describe a human being, so you have to try really hard to surprise those guys.

“The one time I got them was when I said a bunch of stuff in Chinese. I tried to do that again and they said: ‘No no no, you need to tell us what you said in English.’ But I got away with it one time. Man, I was saying all sorts of horrible shit.”

Half the country hate you immediately, no matter what you say. You kind of realise every day is transient

A fixture of cable TV channel Comedy Central, The Daily Show shares the same legal department as South Park. So, Chieng says: “You can imagine the kind of conversations they have.” According to Chieng the lawyers “talk in terms of the amount of risk. They’ll say, is this joke worth this amount of risk? They’re like, we can do that, but understand that this is how much risk we’re taking. If you think it’s worth it, let’s do it. If not, let’s just change this word.”

The Daily Show is nothing if not political and topical. Meaning blowback – particularly from rightwing commentators – is inevitable.

But, Chieng says: “If they really hate us they probably don’t tune in. Then again, some people keeping watching us and keeping hating us, which is also interesting. You can’t get perspective, working on a show like this that’s political, because half the country hate you immediately, no matter what you say. You kind of realise every day is transient. They do their thing and we do ours. We make jokes and deliver them. Then we make some more.”

There are plenty of those jokes – albeit not so political – in Ronny Chieng: International Student, a quirky account of on-campus life directed by the prolific Jonathan Brough (whose work includes Sammy J & Randy in Ricketts Lane, The Family Law and Rosehaven). The show came about at an opportune time for Chieng, after chalking up so much experience at Comedy Central.

“I hope it’s good,” he says. “I have no excuse if it’s not.”



• Ronny Chieng: International Student is broadcast on the ABC on Wednesdays at 9pm; his standup tour of Australia begins in Sydney on 5 November