Comedians used to tell Julie Kim to underplay her Asianness.
Not to be “one of those ethnic comics.” That wasn’t the only piece of bad advice she says she got, and while she disagrees with that advice now, she went along with it to start her career. She recalls it being no worse than bad advice from a comedy class: don't “look too good on stage as a female (comic) because the men will want to (have sex with) you and be distracted, and the girls will be jealous of you,” Kim said. “It’s so horribly archaic… So the key is not to listen to anyone.”
When she started her comedy career in Toronto, most early audiences she encountered were adult men, with very few people of colour, and her perception of that archetypal comedy audience dictated her jokes.
“It restricted me, I felt pressure to do jokes that resonated with them,” Kim said. “Otherwise, if I didn't do well at that performance or that club, I wouldn’t be able to perform again.”
There was even a period of time when she wondered what role comedy would play in her life, as she worked on a doctorate and a part-time job while toiling in an art form few Korean Canadians are known for.
“I envisioned that as I got better at comedy, I would be able to sustain my life more doing that… which I did,” Kim said, laughing. “So I am really happy about that, (but) I have never celebrated it, because what Korean stops to look at their achievements?”
More than 14 years into her career, Julie Kim headlines the Doing Too Much Comedy Tour, her first tour, and believes audiences are starting to normalize seeing people of colour and other diverse voices as comedians.
“It’s so much broader now, our idea of what we think funny is, what stand-up is, what comedy is, and what a comedy audience is, too, which I really like,” she said.
This growth hasn’t just broadened audience appreciation for new, diverse acts, but also helped attract millions of new fans to comedy who never previously enjoyed stand-up, and can now enjoy it through more platforms than ever. She’s even started her own short-form podcast, Bothered, and left her part-time job and her doctorate to pursue comedy full-time.
Life as a full-time comic is stressful, but she enjoys some stress in her life. “I think it is a Korean thing. If you are not suffering, what are you doing?”
Kim said she recently found herself reflecting on her career while sitting on the toilet late one night, feeling proud of following her heart and grateful for “Being at a point that I have built a life I can feel grateful for,” she said. “I take a lot of credit for that.”
Her tour continues through May, deliberately taking place through May, Asian Heritage Month, almost a decade and a half after writing a mission statement in her first year of comedy, when she declared she wanted to unite people through laughter.
“I feel it is so important for us all to see how we are more similar than dissimilar,” Kim said. “When we do that while we are laughing, I really feel that breaks down barriers and does really good things for people in society.”
Kim’s Doing Too Much Comedy Tour continues May 6 at the Artspring Theatre on Salt Spring Island and May 10 at the Capital Ballroom in Victoria. For more information, visit juliekimcomedy.com or Instagram @juliekimcomedy. Her new podcast, Bothered, can be found on all major podcasting platforms.
