Vision Australia ID 0:02
This is a Vision Australia radio podcast.
Kate Cooper 0:04
On Vision Australia radio, welcome to our conversations with emerging and experienced, creative voices in our community - on air now, and also available on Vision Australia Radio podcasts. I'm Kate Cooper, and our guest on today's program is award winning comedian, writer, filmmaker and ABC radio host, Jason Chong. Welcome to the program, Jason.
Jason Chong 0:45
Thank you so much for having me. Kate.
Kate Cooper 0:47
We have a lot to talk about, and I'm going to move between past and present in your story, starting with you winning the 2024 Oz Asia Legend Award at the start of November last year - congratulations!
Jason Chong 1:02
Thank you. I was fortunate to be in the audience at the Dunstan Playhouse, having attended the brilliant OzAsia Weekend of Words.
Kate Cooper 1:02
There was such a warm and happy vibe when you were presented with the award. You really were a popular choice. What does it mean to you to have received that award?
Jason Chong 1:12
It was really wonderful. I... it was not something I expected at all. I was on stage because we just done the closing debate, and they started saying, Oh, there's this award we want to give out to this person. And they started listing things that this person had done for the festival - and a couple of them, I was like, No, I've done that too, and I've done that. And then it just hit me, and I was like, Oh no, it's me. And I kind of felt a bit uncomfortable, but it was so lovely that I think that the last thing that June said before she said my name was, this guy is a great mate to the festival - and that's really nice. So I've been involved with OzAsia, oh God, maybe for over a decade, and most of it has been just hosting the outdoor kind of gardens, the lucky dumpling markets, as in their various forms, over over the years. And then COVID happened, and a lot of people can't have an Aussie festival if you can't bring in people from outside of Adelaide. So I kind of stepped in for a couple of things, like the debate and moderating some panels and and getting involved in that side of thing. And then the next year, they kept me on and they kept me on and kept me on doing things. And so, yeah, I've just kind of, I'm in a lot of different things, in a lot of different pies at the Aussie festival, but I don't feel like I'm, you know, helping run it or anything. I'm just a hired gun that that steps in when they need me and when they ask me to do things. So for them to recognise that meant, really meant a lot, because it's something that I really look forward to every year. And kind of came at a point where, so, as a stand up comedian, I, you know, a lot of my material comes from being Asian and being Australasian. My Dad's who was born in Singapore, my Mum's Australian. So I guess throughout my 20s and 30s, as you kind of leave going to, you know, dinner parties with your parents as you were growing up and at school, I kind of felt like I was losing a bit of my asianness, because I wasn't kind of surrounded as much as by it as I was when I was a kid. So the Aussie vessels really helped me feel Asian again in Australia, which has been lovely, and it's something I really, really, uh, yeah, really cherish that's fantastic. And before we continue, would you explain to our listeners about what the aussasia festival is and about the weekend of words, yes, the aussasia festival is a festival that celebrates Australia's place in Asia, and so they bring in a whole bunch of shows from all around I mean, not just Asia. Some of them are from Europe and things, but they've all got some kind of Asian flavor in them. Some of them are local artists who have an Asian background, who put on shows maybe from here, or maybe from Melbourne or Sydney or Queensland, and they work really hard on it. And it's one of the kind of big tent poles of the Adelaide Festival Centre's program. So there's the Dream, Big Kids Festival, the Adelaide Festival, OzAsia Guitar Festival, and Cabaret Festival. So there's, you know, five of them. So yeah, it's a nice pillar. And it just kind of takes over elder park outside of the festival centre. And there's a huge market there. But then, you know, in all the different spaces around the Adelaide Festival center, they've got a lot of amazing artistic performances, which has blown my mind, because my dad would take me to, you know, when the Shaolin monks come to town and, you know, we go and see all these traditional Asian performances and so, but the AUS Asia festival is very contemporary as well. It's got a lot of movement and visual arts and stuff. And it's things that I've, I always, I guess, in my mind, think of Asian culture as this a long time ago, you know, traditional culture, but it's very contemporary as well in the OzAsia Festival, which is something that I've, I love. And then the Weekend of Words is a literary festival within the OzAsia festival. So they bring in a lot of authors, screenwriters, they've really broadened out - journalists, broadcasters and stuff, and organise a whole lot of panels and different events. So yeah, so the word is represented as well it is. And last year there were also translators, so and that was the focus of the conversation, which for me, being involved in Spanish, English, translating was fascinating. I picked up so much, even though they weren't referring to languages, that I know it was great.
Kate Cooper 5:29
And I have more questions about OzAsia. So as the 2024 OzAsia legend, what commitments do you have this year, and what opportunities do they present?
Jason Chong 5:40
I don't know. I haven't spoken to them since they start planning, you know, the week after they they finished the last year's festival. So I don't know what they've got in store. I'm guessing there's a statue of some kind that they're probably putting a fresh lick of paint on and gold leaf. I'm not really sure. I kind of took a step back this past year because I was doing evenings on the ABC, so it meant I couldn't give them a bunch of my time. So I'm not doing evenings this year. I'm on Sunday morning. So I'm hoping that means that I can kind of do, like, step back into the lucky dumpling markets and whatever else they need. But I don't think they need that much for me, I think it was just, I haven't really thought about that. I hope that. I hope they ask me to do things I love. I love doing things with them.
Kate Cooper 6:25
Well, a shout out to the Oz people listening and well done too. On your team, winning the closing night debate for the second year in a row at the Weekend of Words, I reckon you clinched it in the moment you played on words with papadum - you had the audience in stitches. Before we talk about your comedy work more broadly, I want to ask you specifically about those OzAsia Weekend of Word debates. What do you like most about that team approach to comedy performance?
Jason Chong 6:58
Yeah, debates, especially when they're kind of, yeah, I mean, that's a comedy debate, but not everyone is is a comedian on the panel. So it's really good to see, you know, academics and journalists, you know, stretch their funny bones, stretch their funny wings, I guess. And it's... so it's really fun to watch other people and see what they want to do. We generally have a group chat where we're all panicked and haven't written our debates until you know the day of or a couple of days before. And it's really nice to do comedy as a team. So as a stand up comedian, you know, generally, you're on stage and you either do well or you don't do well, and when you don't do well, you've got to take that by yourself, and when you do do well, you can't really share it with anyone either. So it's really like, I've always really enjoyed the team aspect, whether it be, you know, improv or or just when a whole lineup works and the whole night is great. So debates is kind of a middle ground for that, where we actually, yeah, are all part of a team. We're all very supportive. We all pretend to, you know, Heckle the the other team, but it's all in fun, like we're all backstage, nervous together, and then we go out, we do battle, and then we all are high fiving backstage afterwards. No matter what team you're on, a lot of fun though it is, and it's certainly a lot of fun to be in the audience.
Kate Cooper 8:09
We'll come back to comedy shortly. I want to ask a question now that's been popular on this program and you've... touched on this already. Where did you grow up? And what does that place mean to you now?
Jason Chong 8:22
Oh, how specific do we get?
Kate Cooper 8:24
As specific as you'd like.
Jason Chong 8:26
Okay, so I grew up in Adelaide, more specifically my... so my parents were divorced when I was three, but my Dad stayed in Brighton, south of the city, and my Mum moved to Hallet Cove and had a house down there, and I would spend when I was at school, kind of... weekends with Dad and weekdays with Mum. And then later on, when I kind of finished school, it was like a week at each, so kind of a very happy kind of upbringing with that, like the parents got on well, and all that kind of stuff. But those places are now, like, you know, no-one's living in them now. Well, that's not true - my... so my my childhood home, my Dad's one, is... now he's passed away, but my old next door neighbor, who is just a couple years older than me, is now living in there, which is lovely to see that as a home, because it was kind of empty for a number of years after he passed away, and I didn't really know what to do with it, but she's in there now, and it's great. And my the home in Hallet Cove is across from a pond, and that's where I proposed to my wife, because I wanted to take her somewhere nice. So, yeah, they're both very kind of happy places for me, and place that I really love and cherish. And every time I'm in the area, I always like to drive past and see how the houses are doing. Yeah, I guess, more broadly, I love Adelaide, and I have a wife and a kid, you know, house and a dog. You know, this is my home. And following on from that question, what did you want to be when you were growing up? Yeah, I feel like someone's asked me this recently, and all of a sudden it popped into my head. I reckon I wanted to be a scientist. And more than that, I wanted to be an inventor. I think I was always in, you know, in the bathroom cupboard, kind of mixing talcum powders and shampoos together and seeing what would happen. And most of the time nothing happened, and it just made a paste. But I always liked that, yeah. And so I think from there, it became scientists and but I think at the heart of it, I just wanted to make stuff up. And now that I think about it, I kind of am like, yeah, because it, you know, I create ideas out of nothing, or, you know, follow my curiosity like a scientist or an inventor would. And so I feel like I'm closer to that goal than probably I think I am.
Kate Cooper 10:36
And another question that follows on, what are your earliest memories of doing something creative in any art form?
Jason Chong 10:45
Oh, creative. Okay, so my, I have an older sister, and she often had, you know, for Christmas, she would get, like, spirograph sets. Do you know what they are? Yeah, you put pens in the cobs and you they make pretty things. So she was very creative too. She was a really good drawer and all that kind of stuff. So I think hand me downs from her were some of my earliest creative things. I think my earliest creative spoken word thing that was I was in a movie theater. I remember this very clear now. I don't know why I was in a movie theater watching a thing with my parents, and in the...movie, someone knocked on a door, and I loudly asked, because I guess my parents had been teaching me this, Who is it? So I said, Who is it? And a whole bunch of people laughed. And I think that is a core memory that is that might have been my first stand up comedy gig. And so I think that that just kind of unlock something else. I'm gonna put that feeling in my brain, and I'll just see what happens with that. And I think that's again, kind of led me to to where I am today. I wish I knew what movie it was.
Kate Cooper 11:49
That's a brilliant story. Now let's get back to your comedy work. A buzz cut review quoted on your website tells us... Somewhere between taking the stage in 2001 and blitzing it with his 2011 festival show, Real Life, Jason Chong became a comic who could headline an emcee anywhere. It's all down to Jason's quick wit and a general cleverness in his comedy and a specific passion for technology that he brings to it. Jason knows how to put a show together. Jason, in 2009 you were named Adelaide Comic of the Year. Would you tell us the story of what drew you to comedy, beyond that moment in that picture theatre, and what it was like for you starting out?
Jason Chong 12:36
Okay, so I finished uni and went on a year abroad. So I went to work in the ski fields in America, and went to London to work in pubs, and it was going to eventually work my way up to Edinburgh as well. And I was getting really frustrated in London, and I didn't really know why, and then I realised it was because of the first time in my life I wasn't I wasn't learning anything. So I just, I'd done, you know, 12 years of school, three years of uni, I was learning snowboarding, you know, and things. And then when I actually settled in London, I was getting really antsy. I was working in a pub and and there was just something not right. So I went to a bookstore, and I just looked for a book to learn. And the one I got, I think, was it was either TV writing or comedy writing. And I don't really even know why I chose those books. I just went to the writing section, I think, and I was like, Oh, those look good. So I finished one. I don't remember which one it was, but then I immediately got the other one, because they were, there was something in a series. And yeah, from there, my mum, at the time, was sending me clippings from the advertiser, because this was kind of early internet... 2000-2001,so it was early internet and, you know, so she was just trying to make me feel, Oh, this happened. Sean Wren got traded to Hawthorne. I remember that was one. The other one was for a, was an article for a comedy school in Adelaide at comics... Comedy Cellars run by the late Dave Flanagan. And I kept that one and I put it in my passport. And when I got home, I rang the number and did a comedy course, yeah. So yeah, I think it was something I'd always wanted to do. I always loved the Melbourne Comedy Festival Gala, things on TV, and then I finally got a chance to do it.
Kate Cooper 14:11
Well, it's brilliant that you did. On Vision Australia radio. You're listening to our conversation program, emerging writers, our guest today is comedian, writer, filmmaker and ABC radio host, Jason Chong. Jason, you're a writer as well as a performer. How do you go about writing material for your shows? Do you have a favourite place? Can you write anywhere and everywhere when an idea comes to you?
Jason Chong 14:42
Yeah, so I probably don't write as much as I should. I'm not very disciplined a lot of the time. It's kind of working things out on stage. So I've got, you know, an idea, but then I give myself a chance to flesh it out on stage and see where it goes in front of an audience, because that's a very different from writing on the page. But I for many years have been just recording voice notes in my phone and trying to tag them. So if I'm writing about, you know, my childhood, about, you know, early girlfriends, like, I try to make those as tags, and then you can sort by the tags and see, Oh, I've actually written a lot on haircuts, or I've written a lot on noodles or something. And then I can kind of go through all those voice notes and see kind of how they all fit together. And then that, you know, can form the basis of a bit, but in terms of how I write, I should write, you know, daily, or, you know, whatever. But really it's... a deadline. I write to a deadline. So whether that be writing for a festival show, and, you know, you've got an opening night and has to be ready by then, or, or, you know, working back if, if there's other things involved that you've got to get ready before. Then, if it's a, you know, a film or something I'm writing for that, then, you know, shoot day or pre-production deadlines is, are very important. Or, if it's a, you know, for radio, I've got to get on the air and start saying these words. So, yeah, there's nothing, nothing better than a deadline for me.
Kate Cooper 16:06
To be honest, I'm the same. I do my best work when that deadline is looming, it just gets those creative juices going. Yeah, yeah. Could well be. Jason, I've interviewed quite a number of spoken word poets on this program about their experiences of performing and what strategies they use to manage any feelings of nervousness. So what does your pre-performance preparation look like?
Jason Chong 16:34
Oh, okay, so I have a book that I take to every gig with me, and it is... it's just full of set lists. The actual material, I don't know where that is. I think that might just be in my brain or in that Evernote, you know, in pieces. But once I kind of have a bit it gets whittled down to one word or two words, and so I just have set lists of one or two words, and I vaguely know how long they go for. And if I need to do a 20 minute spot in front of this type of audience, I can kind of select the words that I need, and I just make sure that I am aware of that, and then I might run through it a few times in my head to make sure that it all fits together. And I'm not putting, you know, a callback before the setup - you know, if they span different bits. Yeah. So that's kind of what I what I generally do. I don't drink before I go on stage. You know, a lot of people like to have a drink, but I I'm there to work, I think, so I kind of take it a bit more seriously. I think early on, I drank, you know, every now and then, and I once had two beers before a gig, and didn't like it. So I think that was a good experience to have. I was like, No, okay, that's not for me. Then, and then nerves. I mean, I feel like you should always be nervous. I know you know it can. It can get to a point where it's you know too much, and it affects you negatively. But I think some nerves means you want to do a good job. There's been times where I kind of haven't found myself nervous and have gone up, maybe a bit arrogant onto stage, and it hasn't worked well. So I like to be a bit nervous. It also means that you know you're nervous because you're unsure, and that's generally because you're trying something new. So whether it be, I'm working on a new bit and I really want it to go well, so I'm nervous because of that, or I'm in front of a big audience that I don't, you know, not generally around. I've spoken to a lot of young comics who have kind of asked me, like, you know, does it get easier? Do you stop getting nervous? And I don't think it should. I think you should always be nervous, because you always want to be better, that productive nervousness. Yeah, yeah, obviously, I guess it can get to a point where it's too much as well.
Kate Cooper 18:31
Now, your website - jasonchong.com.au - includes details of interactive shows that you host, like your talkback radio work, which we will get to a bit later. Interaction with audience participants requires you to think very quickly on your feet. I'm not good at ad libbing. Is it a natural talent, or can a person cultivate it?
Jason Chong 18:54
I think you can cultivate it absolutely. There are definitely, you know, improv courses and things you can do again. I think that you it's that it's experience. You need to do it. How do you go to anything? You have to do it over and over again and and give yourself the the grace to to know that it may not always go well, but that's okay. You can try again. The what's the the negative to ad libbing not going well is nothing like if you try something doesn't work, you know, the world moves on and no one remembers it. So if you're nervous about doing that kind of stuff, no one else really, really cares. Yeah, and I guess I also, like, I like, I said before, I really like the kind of team aspect of of doing things with other people on stage. And, yeah, I think also, you don't need to be the funniest. If you can help set up someone else you know, or be generous to the other performers, that is a really good thing, too. Of it, I've definitely been on stages. Comedians are solo beasts often, and so, you know, we get competitive and want to be the one with all the spotlight on when we're all on the stage together. So, yeah, it is... nice when there's a generosity between the performers, where we can all kind of trade, yeah, that's that's a good thing to keep in mind as well.
Kate Cooper 20:10
Jason, you've been taking part in the 2025 Adelaide Fringe as an event host with two shows outside of Adelaide. Where have you been? What have you been doing, and what do you always look forward to most when you're appearing at venues in country, South Australia?
Jason Chong 20:27
Yeah, so I'm hosting very interesting and fun panel comedy show for unisa's mod museum. So that's the museum on North Terrace, the Museum of Discovery. It's got a whole bunch of really interesting I think the museum exists to kind of showcase the research that's been done at UniSA, or Battle Eight, as it's going to become. So it's a place for them to kind of publicly display that. But it's really interesting things about you know, how do we live? How do we imagine our futures?... and it's constantly changing. So they do a an outreach program to UniSA campuses in Mount Gambier and Whyalla, every Fringe for the past couple of years, and I've been hosting them. So they bring up people who are doing interesting research on on campus. And they just get to talk about their their research, and they try to theme them. So one of them was living together, kind of in sustainability. The first one was really interesting. It was about the future and, and this year's is, would you want to live forever, which is a really interesting question. So they've got people who work in memory and kind of, you know, how dreams become can they influence your waking life and stuff like that. There's an Exercise Physiologist talking about how we age. And, you know, ways that we've discovered that we can stop or reverse kind of aging, physical kind of decline. So really interesting topics. And I'm just there to kind of keep the conversation moving, let our brainy people shine. And then there's a bit of Q and A, and a lot of the people are really interested and ask a lot of very interesting questions. Yeah. So that takes you out into country, South Australia, as well as here in Adelaide. Well only, it only happens in Whyalla and Mount Gambier. So yes, on the campuses there, the SA campuses.
With your popular profile as a comedian, do you find that people expect you to be funny all the time, and what expectations do you put on yourself as a result?
Oh, yeah, yeah. This is... whenever I put my immigration form I don't write Comedian because I feel like it's going to lead to situations I'm not going to be comfortable with. Yeah, often when people first meet me and they find out that I'm a comedian, the relationship changes. And it's not, it's sometimes I just... because you're a dentist doesn't mean that everyone's like, yeah, check this out. So yeah, it's not... the best - I often say, I might, might say, I'm a writer. I think entertainer is what I kind of put on on immigration forms, broadcasting. You know, I try to be a bit vague with it, because I don't want people to know exactly what I do when I'm standing in a queue with them and that kind of stuff. Yes, I try to live a normal life and have some time off. It's really hard when and writer, any writer, will say this, like, when your job is to imagine fun things, it's very hard to turn that off. And sometimes you just want to sit and watch the footy or do nothing or be bored, but your brain is always like, Oh, maybe you could use that in a thing. And so, you know, I've ruined holidays for myself where, you know, nice moments where I'm like, I've got to remember that, because I can just say that on stage. So I am working very hard to to not do that. And it's...not easy when... your job is to think up fun things. Yeah, when my wife, she had some five wisdom teeth out. I don't know if that's a normal thing, but she had five of them. I don't know where the fifth one was. It might have been a unicorn kind of thing. And she had to go on a general anesthetic. And so I took her to a day surgery. And I said, Oh, look. So when do I pick her up? to the woman at the reception... and she said, I don't know. And I said, Okay, so should I... call you? And she's like, No, no, you don't call us. I'm like, Okay, will you call me? She's like, No, they wouldn't thought so. I was like, I don't understand what's happening. And she's like, No, I'm just kidding. I saw you on stage at the... and she named a show, and she was just mucking around with me. And this is like, as my wife is about to go into general anesthetic. And I was like, That's, oh, I don't need this today. But it all worked out well, and I still have a wife. That's good. That's the important part of it. A... no.
Kate Cooper 24:39
We're making our way towards talking about your radio work, but I want to ask you about your television experiences. First, you've been a production assistant on some well-known TV shows. Would you share your television story with us?
Jason Chong 24:53
Yeah. So I started the other thing that my Mum sent me when I was over, and putting news articles in my passport, was to a film school in Adelaide. So I'd done a, do a marketing degree before I went overseas, and knew that that wasn't what I wanted to do. And I was looking for things to do when I came back. And one was a film school called Maps, the Media Arts Production Skills, at Hamilton College. And so I, that was the other thing that I kept in my my wallet and in my passport and my I went to an open day for that and signed up for that as well. So I think that so would have been the first year, the same year that I got on stage, was the same year that I started doing film and TV production. So there's, I mean, there's not a [?lie] in Adelaide. So I was really lucky. I got straight out of film school onto the first season of my restaurant rules as a production assistant and runner, and that was great. And then I, you know, there's... not heaps to go into an Adelaide and I felt that I was probably gonna have to move. And then managed to get a job in radio for Nova. So I've kind of jumped between those maybe three ladders of stand up and film and radio, which means that I kind of haven't focused on any of them as much as I should have. And so now kind of, you know, three quarters through my career, I probably find myself lower in each of those ladders than I would have if I made a decision to just climb one. So while I feel like I'm well rounded, I'm probably not as focused on things that I should be so where I found, like, a nice synergy, is when I moved to Melbourne, I started doing warm up. So warm up audience. Warm up for The Circle. If you don't remember The Circle. it was a lot of old ladies talking during the daytime. Was great. They would bring in six or seven, and I just get to chat to them in between the infomercials. And it was wonderful. And so then I've done that for, you know, Q&A and Before the Game and The Project and and things like that. That's something I really enjoy. It's a it's a good marriage of of those two worlds of mine. And I have a film production company, you know, that does bits and pieces, here and there. But again, I'm not focused on it when, when I'm doing other things. So you're developing a really diverse range of skills, and some of those must feed back one to the other.
Kate Cooper 27:09
So for example, your experience as a production assistant must make you understanding of what your radio producers... and we will get to your radio work, but what your radio producers are doing behind the scenes. So it might not be front and centre, but it's there in terms of how you grow your empathy, the more diversity you have in your experience.
Jason Chong 27:33
Yeah, and I really enjoy doing both sides. And that's well, I so for a couple of years, I was the broadcast manager for channel 44, so the community TV station here in South Australia, and that was great. I was working with a really good friend, Lauren Hillman, and I managed to, you know, get a few TV shows up and made for them. And what I really found interesting was the first we did a comedy show. It was a for the one of the elections we had, and it was a, you know, a political Spics and Specs, and it wasn't, I wasn't in it at all. I was directing it and helping with the writing and kind of behind the scenes. And I got so much enjoyment out of creating a space for my really talented friends to play. And I really enjoyed that. And I that was really surprising, because, you know, usually I'm the one on stage, everyone's looking at me, but to to be the facilitator of my friends doing what they do really well... was really rewarding. Yeah, I love that. Yeah. I love community media. So I started my radio. It was then 5UV, and then turned to Radio Adelaide, and they've been, they were great, you know, to me, and very encouraging. And then, yeah, Channel 44 as well. I really like community broadcasting, because, you know, that's where I got my starter, that I wouldn't be here at all if, if I hadn't put up my hand and said, Yeah, I'd like to host a show. Yeah, I had some early days back in the mid 80s at 5UV as well. And had some fantastic training there. I really loved it.
Kate Cooper 28:59
It's great talking with you, Jason. So let's continue this conversation in next week's program. Our guest on emerging writers today was comedian, writer, filmmaker and ABC radio host Jason Chong. This program is produced in our Adelaide studios and can be heard at the same time each week here on Vision Australia radio, varadio, on digital, online at varadio.org - and also on Vision Australia Radio podcasts, where you can catch up on earlier episodes.
(music) 29:40
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Earlier, radio blindness, low vision, opportunity
