This Week

Comedian Grace Yao appeared as a guest on LeMent Tonight, sharing her experiences growing up as a first-generation Canadian-American and attending a strict all-girls Catholic high school. She hilariously compared her time at St. Agnes Academy to a prison sentence, joking about the intense guilt instilled by the nuns and the “speakeasy” vibe of the confession booths. Yao also opened up about her relationship with her traditional Chinese mother, who initially tried to raise her as a boy because she wanted a son. She joked that she eventually managed to “buy off” her mother’s persistent guilt and stalking by moving far away and purchasing her a white Lexus.

Yao explained that entering stand-up comedy served as a form of therapy, allowing her to process her childhood trauma and get paid for it. During the interview, she participated in an improvisational game called “Ask Not,” intentionally giving terrible advice on topics like buying rusted-out junkyard cars and sending parents to the Titanic with nothing but a flashlight and a rope. Looking to the future, Yao discussed her upcoming aspirations, which include auditioning for acting and commercial gigs, utilizing her skills in Mandarin and martial arts, and producing a new stand-up show centered around female and mother-focused comedy.

https://www.instagram.com/graceyao_00/

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Bad AI Transcript

Hey, everybody. Welcome. It’s LeMent Tonight. special guest is Grace Yao. And of course we’ve got Gary Lymes, the Flea Tones. Thank you, Gary. No, Gary, no. So Grace Yao, let me say a little bit about Grace before we bring her out here. So Grace Yao talks about family relationships, observation of rules in life we all follow and are fed up with. She has bottled up beautifully her polite rage into comedy. Everybody, Grace Yao. Thank you, thank you. Oh, I can hit the applause button. Oh, I raised my hand here. Let’s get some applause for you, of course, right? Sure, that’d be great. You stayed up late tonight uh she’s supposed to be watching uh love island or something and she decided she’d talk to me yeah yeah tv broke tv broke um yeah so how are you doing tonight grace i’m i’m hot it’s hot here um
hot flashes don’t help. Yeah. Just feel like I’m incredible. I got stuck in an oven. Oh, gosh. Yeah. Yeah. But uh, yeah. So um, yeah, Bob and I were talking about shame for some reason right before. My that’s always my second subject when I talk to people. Yeah. Very, very nice opener there. Um, But it was great. It’s great because I’m also a Catholic school girl. Yeah. Yeah. I still have the outfit. Shut up anyways. Yeah, it was a school for, it was a high school for girls only. It wasn’t bad. It really wasn’t that bad, really. I mean, it’s like where girls go. You know, they hang out, they gossip, they braid each other’s hair. You know, it’s kind of like that place called prison.
Yeah. Yep. I served four years at St. Agnes Academy of You Will Graduate If You Feel Guilty. Yeah, I graduated the class of I’m sorry, I’m a sinner. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. Oh my god, I think a really good. Sorry, sorry. You know, have you ever seen nuns? Like close up? Yeah, I have actually. Are you a Catholic schoolboy? No, I’m not. Okay. I just wonder what how would you get to see a nun? But you know, they have you noticed that nuns they don’t walk? You know, they glide in their habit and everything. And I just I used to think it was the Holy Spirit. Yeah, but looking back, it was just pure concentrated, like, I haven’t had sex since prom, you know,
they’re going on yeah and and somehow i don’t know what, what did nuns do? I mean, they’re probably on like catholic dating apps, just like swiping right on Jesus. Like, Oh, you know, yes, for Jesus. And somehow they all got, yeah, they all got matched with the same guy actually. So they’re all married to Jesus. Seriously. Uh, they’re literally called the bride of Christ. Yeah. Yeah. So isn’t it weird? Like we, we call them sisters. We calling them Mrs. Jesus. Cause they’re all married to Christ. Yeah. So anyway, you know, when nuns die, they should be like, they’re probably waiting for their honeymoon finally, you know, to go on a honeymoon. But, uh, I don’t know how many people know this, but there’s no marriage in heaven, according to the Bible. But it just means that when they die, they’ll probably end up at the pearly gates with St. Peter going, I’m sorry, but there’s no sex in heaven. Please put your vaginas in the basket.
Have you got one? Come on, don’t be shy. Now you know the secret. Now pretty much in heaven we’re all just Ken and Barbie dolls. Just nuns out there going, I stayed celibate to end up in eternity smooth. But anyway. Yeah, so that’s me. Catholic school girl. Lots of therapy. Anyway. Now, you really think that there’s no sex in heaven? Well, true. Just because there’s no marriage doesn’t mean… I mean, maybe it’s just all, you know, like some kind of crazy orgy up in heaven. Yes, actually. Yeah. Or maybe it’s just people… It’s like, you know… plastic sandpaper. Everybody’s just rubbing up against each other with their smoothness. What do you think? Yeah, rug burn. That’s right. I got some cloud burn going on because I’m up in heaven. Right. That’s interesting. So you spent four years at Catholic school. Now, I mean, the interesting thing as you talk about it is if it’s
kind of bad and good. It’s not like you’re angry about it. It’s kind of like you’re, you survived and you’re kind of, you know, it’s kind of quizzical to you, it seems like. Yeah, I’m not angry about it. I’m just like, I can’t believe, I can’t believe what they, they, what I went through. I can’t believe so So you’re saying basically you didn’t buy into all the rhetoric is what you’re telling me. Yes, pretty much. Yes. So what rhetoric would you, were the pieces that you, all the Catholics that I know, they always just take the pieces they like and then they leave the pieces they don’t like. So which pieces did you like? I liked the confessional booth. You know, you go in, there’s like a little peephole, you know, you can fly the door open. I mean, it just reminded me of like a 1920s speakeasy. Okay. Yeah. So I always… Just the physical nature of it? Or was it, do you like pouring your soul out to another person that you may or may not know? Oh, no, no, I didn’t. I would go in there when no one’s in the other little room. Yeah.
Isn’t that kind of like, you know, it’s kind of weird because you could draw a comparison between the glory hole and confession. Yeah. And they’re also called a Judas hole. Oh, really? I’ve never heard that one. Explain. I must have had something to do with Judas. Okay. So basically you shouldn’t necessarily always trust who’s behind the door there, behind the other side? Yeah. They could turn on you and say, Grace, give me 10 Hail Marys and… Bloody M...