Who is the real Aaron Chen? Will the real Aaron Chen please do stand-up? Those vaguely familiar with Aaron Chen may know him as the awkward, chubby, home haircut guest on various ill-fated ABC (allegedly) comedy shows. On 6 March, at the Brisbane Powerhouse, his Western Sydney-styled hair was glistening in the stage lights, brilliantly shampooed, and he was donning that streetwear style of clothing that is simultaneously horrendously expensive yet underdressed. Aaron now wants people to laugh with him, not at him. And we did.
Aaron has crowd-working skills far beyond his years, and about half the show was high-quality audience bantering. No straggler was spared. One punter thought he would ill-advisedly turn the tables and called out an arguably racist Bruce Lee-related retort to Aaron, which obviously riled up Aaron and some good-hearted audience members, and threatened to derail the show with an ensuing barrage of C-bombs. Aaron eventually showed his class by quick-wittedly having the “best looking first-row” of any of his shows discreetly vote on whether to eject the racist heckler or not - in Aaron’s democracy, “only the best-looking 10% are allowed to vote”. It was mildly self-selecting of Aaron considering he had poked fun at the various ethnicities in the audience, and at an elderly man whom he assumed would know nothing about computers - the latter jibe being unfortunately more rude and mood-souring than funny.
A short story, ‘Super Rich Aaron’, was read aloud in three parts throughout the show by Aaron, which was made all the more impressive and hilarious by interspersing personal information already elicited from the crowd. The rest of the content was of a variety of calibre - a face-palm line like: “I bought a book called 1001 Films to Watch Before You Die, and then I got an email from my doctor saying I had 2002 hours to live, so it’s going to be tight” would follow well-crafted anecdotes about Chinese culture. There is a disproportionately low number of Chinese-Australian comedians on the circuit and it’s insightful and valuable to hear Aaron unpack facets of his life as a Chinese-Australian millennial.
Don’t be fooled by the (reluctant) self-deprecation and the underdressed (but expensive) exterior - Aaron Chen wants to be taken seriously. He will make you laugh, at times inducing a good, hearty knee slap, but only on his terms.
5th - 10th March, 2019
Brisbane Powerhouse, Rooftop Terrace
By Harry Rival Lee