Esther Ku is a comedian who's known as the "Asian Sarah Silverman." We did this podcast after she performed a sold out show at The Apollo Theatre. You've seen her on Last Comic Standing, MTVs Girl Code, Wilding Out. She also does Voice Overs for Family Guy. We talk about dreams, growing up with immigrant parents, and how Ku wants to lead a sexual revolution.

We talk about the difference between "urban" and "suburban" comics. How Ku was almost consumed by a religious cult (she was saved by a tie-dye shirt). Aaaand how men never buy enough groceries.

Check out Esther's podcast "Ku and the Gang." Check it out!

Transcript:

Yulia: [00:00:22] So I'm here with Esther Ku is a comedian she's appeared on Last Comic Standing and TV's Girl Code wilding out. She's often referred to as the Asian Sarah Silverman and she also has a really great podcast called Ku and the gang. That you should go download right now because it's really funny. And she interviews a lot of comedians. She's going to be on the podcast today talking about comedy, women, funding and diversity and probably anything else that is going to come up as it comes out. So the question that I always ask my guests is what was your dream as a kid.

Esther: [00:00:57] Well. My dream as a kid. I mean I don't know if I had dreams as a kid.

Yulia: [00:01:05] Awwww. How can you not?

Esther: [00:01:08] It's called immigrant parents. They don't let you have dreams. You're just supposed to like do this and do that. They're not really so keen on dreaming.

Yulia: [00:01:18] Did you ever have a dream to not have immigrant parents?

Esther: [00:01:23] Yes! When I watched sitcoms and they're all white. I was like I want a white family. Who like talk to each other. And have these like nice moments and full house. You know. You always think that like everybody else has it better, especially when you're watching it through the lens of a TV screen.

Yulia: [00:01:41] So I'm an immigrant too. I grew up in Moscow and I moved here when I was 10.

Esther: [00:01:45] Yeah, but I look more like an immigrant than you do. Even those I was born here.

Yulia: [00:01:47] It's true. But like I moved here when I was 10 and then I have like a single mom and a grandma so my life is also different from American life right. Automatically. I think it's interesting what you have as a dream and what your background is and what contributes to your dreams and what you're allowed to envision for yourself. Right. Because it depends on like what you allow yourself to dream. When I was a kid I wanted to be an anthropologist or I wanted to be an archaeologist. And my mom and grandma were like Please do not be an archaeologist you're going to spend your whole life digging in some dirt you're not going to find anything like you're really creative. Let's just have reading books and drawing. Just just go be creative. Which was really great because they supported my creativities. You know I wasn't allowed to do anything besides being a kid which in retrospect I'm so grateful for.

Esther: [00:02:39] Yeah. You're so lucky. I had to be a mother when I was a kid.

Yulia: [00:02:42] That's probably the reason why I don't have kids right now because I was allowed to just read a lot of books and be creative and express myself. I think that's what made me an entrepreneur. Just being allowed to explore. But what did you want to do as a little kid?

Esther: [00:02:57] Well I mean I grew up in a super strict religious organization so my dream as a kid was to save the world from eternal damnation.

Yulia: [00:03:08] Can we talk about that please.

Esther: [00:03:10] Yeah. Sure. Like the church that I grew up in, they put this burden on you like you have seen your classmates from hell basically by bringing them to Bible study and to Jesus and to salvation and the truth. And all that.

Yulia: [00:03:25] So you were on a mission to save the world!

Esther: [00:03:29] Well to save Jesus's lost souls, I guess. You know redirect people to a life of serving God.

Yulia: [00:03:38] How many souls did you save?

Esther: [00:03:41] I don't know if I even saved half a soul. I mean, I brought people to like bible study and stuff , but it's hard to get them to stay because they did some weird stuff.

Yulia: [00:03:50] They didn't want to stay for Jesus?

Esther: [00:03:52] No I mean like you lure them in with food and then you're like surprise! Jesus is here, you know. So you lure them in with friendship and like camaraderie, you know?

Yulia: [00:04:04] Jesus is really hot.

Esther: [00:04:07] Ummm.

Yulia: [00:04:08] He's sexy! He's got those abs.

Esther: [00:04:08] Well, those are just pictures. In real life, Jesus was actually a slob.

Yulia: [00:04:12] Was he?

Esther: [00:04:12] He was a little overweight.

Yulia: [00:04:12] You think?

Yulia: [00:04:16] So this got into like religious territory for a while so let's bring back into the comedy experience. You were on a Last Comic Standing. What advice do you have for people who want to get into comedy?

Esther: [00:04:27] Well you know it's funny because people think that you just need to get a manager. They're like, "I need to get a manager and then I can do stand up comedy." It's like... No! You have to do standup and THEN get a manager. There are a lot of people who want to do comedy. Every year, all these like comedy classes are filled. There are people who just want to do it just to get speaking chops up. The way to do it, is just to constantly go out every night and do comedy shows.

Yulia: [00:05:02] Right. You have to get out there.

Esther: [00:05:02] It's just to be at the comedy clubs in the bars and the restaurants that do comedy shows. It's to just constantly get out there.

Yulia: [00:05:12] Well, it's like the Beatles. the Beatles just worked their butts off that's how they got really good. They were paid in booze and like women so they just played all the little tiny English clubs. And That's what made them good and then eventually they were able to step up to a global stage. You don't just get up on the stage and are great.

Esther: [00:05:28] Yeah, you do like the small tiny rooms all over the place.

Esther: [00:05:32] Yeah, and you build up an audience.

Esther: [00:05:33] And you travel everywhere. And I remember like my first few roommates. Like, I think they hated that I did comedy because I wouldn't be like home in the evening to like watch TV with, you know? Like when you're living with just one other girl, like they you don't like you when you do comedy.

Yulia: [00:05:48] I don't think anybody likes it when you do stuff. I think people become very resentful if you're doing stuff. So I don't think it's just comedy. I think it's like if you have other things that you're working on and you're focused it...