Bowen Yang discusses his parents andSNLin Judd Apatows new book of interviews.
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Heres Apatows chat with Yang from June 2021, excerpted fromSicker in the Head.
How did you two meet?
Bowen:Matt and I met in college.
And we put in the work early on and just started to write.
Or taken the effort to ask themselves,What else can I do with my talent and ideas?
That screenplay was never made.
But we did write a lot together.
But that was all his rehearsal forBarry.He was learning what to do.
Nothing gets made like that anymore except for summer stock theater.
Im getting a littletooused to this.
Thats not how it works anywhere else.
Judd:It must be an interesting moment for you.
When I first started, I felt unrepresented in Hollywood.
What does this moment feel like for you?
And I dont know where thats going yet; I have no foresight into what it will be like.
Thats basically how I feel about being atSNL,too.
Its like,Oh I lucked out so, so, so deeply.
Judd:Do you feel like you have a responsibility to use your position?
Bowen:I approach every week atSNLwithout a care for how something will be received on a social level.
The week after the Atlanta shooting in March, I called the one other Asian writer on the show.
But we asked each other, How do we want to approach this?
Do we address it at all?
And I had such a weird hangover the next week about it being received well.
Judd:You didnt want to be like Jon Stewart after 9/11 every week.
Bowen:Even for just one week.
Jon Stewart shouldnt even be in that position, you know?
Its such a strange thing thats happened in comedy, and people are brilliant at it.
But I know what you mean.
Afterward, I really couldnt make sense of how I felt about it.
So, I dont bemoan it.
Its just an interesting thing to think about.
Did you realize at some point,Thats my thing, Ill be the funny person?
Because thats how I felt as a kid.
And some people would be like, Yeah.
Most kids would be like, No, what are you talking about?
My parents dont let me watch that yet.
I had these immigrant parents who had no idea what the programming was.
That became the keystone for my identity early on, and then I built concentric circles from there.
But I did have this feeling that it would work out somehow.
You know you’re gonna wanna work harder than everybody to realize that dream.
My little secret pet peeve now is the people who are getting into comedy as a fallback.
Judd:When you went to college, was it your familys dream that you would go into comedy?
You did premed for a bit.
Did you eventually open up to them and say, Id rather do stand-up?
Bowen:My parents could tell that I took comedy seriously even when I was in high school.
I thought it was the best thing in the world.
And they had tried to be like
Judd:Dont have joy.
Bowen:Not even that.
I had expressed many times before that I wanted to be an actor someday.
They werent even being domineering; they were just being protective.
It was their version of loving me.
Thats essentially what I based my whole college decision on, and I ended up at NYU.
I knew all of the peoples names in the improv group by the AprilbeforeI matriculated.
And then I was just obsessed.
Everyone around me knew this is what I wanted to do.
Judd:You just want to yell at all the other people who are being distracted.
Bowen:My distraction was academics.
That improv group was my life.
Judd:Did it make your grades better or worse?
Bowen:Worse, oh worse.
Judd:You would have been a terrible, distracted doctor.
When did you stop doing premed?
Bowen:I graduated with my degree, and I had my applications in for medical school.
And I was taking my MCAT for the second time, and there was the short-answer portion.
He couldnt follow through on this law-school thing.
I cant do this.I voided my score, left the testing center, and called my parents.
I was like, I dont think I can go to med school.
And they were very confused.
To their credit, they gave me a shot to figure it out within two years.
Judd:Thats a big biopic moment, walking out of the testing center in protest.
Why do you think your parents gave you a chance to figure things out after that?
And they were like, Thats interesting, and that was a little proof of concept for them.
Judd:Did they find you funny, though?
Humor can be culturally specific, and I wasnt nimble enough to pivot between those two worlds.
So, I would come home [and] just be this shy, boring kid.
Judd:When was the moment when you would say, Come to the improv show?
Bowen:It was in high school, and I dont know if it helped or hurt my case.
Because they went, and they didnt get it.
They were like, What is this?
Thats not for us.
Judd:They were just honest.
Bowen:They just said, What are you doing?
And to be fair, I would have rated it as, like, a six of a show.
It wasnt until Matt and I did this quick little bit onFallon.
It took other people to mirror it to her that her son was doing well.
Then she was like, Okay, maybe this will work out.
Judd:For me, my dream to get into comedy wasnt questioned.
My family was like, Yeah, go to that as a career.
Even though I had no confidence in anything else in life, I had a delusional confidence in that.
Bowen:I love that for comedy.
Either your dream to pursue it is challenged or its reinforced and supported.
Either way, we both end up in the same place where we love comedy.
I always love telling people my whole story with my parents and how they have come around only recently.
If you love it, you love it, and you pursue it.
And it has to be a sustained, lifelong thing.
You cant have a cursory engagement with it later on in life.
Its queerness in terms of living in a world where things are hostile toward you.
And I think thats it.
I think it transcends my weird little relationship with my parents.
Judd:Is it now possible to feel close and happy and celebrate this with them?
Bowen:For sure.
My mom came to the show on Mothers Day, and we just all paraded out our moms.
I was like Yeah, of course.
Or are you so focused that you dont get the enjoyment till afterward?
Bowen:The only time thats happened has been with the iceberg bit.
How do I look?
Right now, Im tired, but Im still recouping from just how exhausting the last season was.
But I am really grateful to have done it.
I keep wanting to frame things as luck.
Judd:What season is this as a performer on the show?
Bowen:Ive just finished my second season as a performer.
And I had written one season prior to that.
That makes it very exciting to watch.
I cant believe that is the same container as what it is now.
Even that feels like a completely different show, too.
We came from completely different poles.
But now he and I have some common ground as far as working at the show goes.
And I couldnt believe it.
I would never have expected to get this from Michael Che, of all people.
Judd:This was in appreciation of the show and your work for the year?
Reproduced by permission of The Wylie Agency.
Copyright 2022 by Judd Apatow
