“Last Comic Standing” season-one winner Dat Tien Phan performed to a packed audience in 100 Willamette Thursday evening as part of Asian Heritage Month, where he talked about his life as a Vietnamese-American, his career as a comedian and, of course, his mother.
After two hours of performing, answering questions and meeting with fans, Phan looked dizzy, exhausted and constantly scanned the room in search of his manager.
“I’m very hard on myself. If I don’t do a level eight or above, I really blame myself,” he said after the show. “I have bad days like everybody else, but in the end, if the universe asked me if I’m happy with my life, I’d say yes.”
Phan, the youngest of 10 children, grew up in San Diego, Calif. after emigrating from Vietnam as a baby. Phan became interested in comedy in college and decided to devote his life to making it as a stand-up comic after Sept. 11.
Phan moved to Los Angeles in his late 20s and lived in his car while working four jobs as a doorman at various comedy clubs at night and waiting tables during the day. He studied comedians such as Benny Hill and John Ritter, emulating their comedic timing and movements.
While living off Top Ramen noodles and water, Phan auditioned for NBC’s first season of “Last Comic Standing,” which he won in August 2003. Since then, Phan has toured, performed voices on “Family Guy” and “Danny Phantom” and appeared in movies such as “Cellular” with Kim Basinger.
Phan said he has allowed himself to be typecast in the past, playing the token Asian character, although he did turn down the role of “Asian whore” in “Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo,” he joked.
Phan is currently working on creating a multiracial production company that will avoid racial stereotyping, he said.
“I point (stereotypes) out and say that it’s there, but in the end it’s like when your family teases you and when you get down to it, they really love you,” Phan said, who spends a majority of his comedy routine speaking in a thick Vietnamese accent and joking about his mother’s Vietnamese habits.
Wannita Nualngam, a University senior and advisor for the Asian Pacific American Student Union (APASU), the organization that hosted the event, said she thinks Phan brings awareness about Asian culture and heritage through his routine.
“He brings up issues other comedians wouldn’t talk about,” she said. “It’s very different sometimes (because) Asian parents are very strict and there are certain ways they want their kids to grow up.”
University sophomore Lily Pon, outreach coordinator for APASU, said Phan’s confrontation of stereotypes is a different type of humor that points out what’s unique about Asian families and culture.
“You don’t see a lot of Asian American figures out there and for him to win ‘Last Comic Standing’ was really big for us in the Asian communities,” Pon said.
Phan said even though he didn’t elect himself as a role model, he tries to act like one by giving everything he has, even though other parts of his life sometimes suffer.
“I try to make everybody happy, because this is their only chance to see me,” said Phan. Phan admits he has broken down during the past two years of traveling through 45 states and 350 cities.
He doesn’t like to mix dating and business and because everywhere he goes he’s on business, he rarely is able to date, he said.
“I think I went on a speed date” last month, he said. “But they all recognized who I am.”
If it weren’t for “Last Comic Standing” this wouldn’t be a problem for Phan, who said he would now either be a teacher or on the MTV show “Punk’d,” which offered him a job before he left for “Last Comic Standing.”
“We’re trying to bring his popularity up to where it was when he won ‘Last Comic Standing,’” said Emmett Morgan, Phan’s manager.
During 2008 Phan will continue to work on his multiracial production company, which is coming out with a romantic comedy he will act in. He will also star in a reality show to take place in Las Vegas, release a live DVD of his stand-up, and probably appear on season five of “Last Comic Standing,” Morgan said.
“I’m the same guy who lived out of my car,” Phan said. “I just have more money to take girls on dates now.”
For more information on Phan and to see a video of his comedy and map of his comedy tour, go to www.datphan.com.
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