Netflix Comic Sheng Wang Talks About His Houston Roots

Lotion bottle failures. Costco parking heaps. Skipping along with your favourite homies. These are just some of the innocuous issues that Sheng Wang incites deep stomach laughter over in his beloved Netflix particular Candy and Juicy. It’s licensed as 98 % contemporary on Rotten Tomatoes, and made The New York Occasions’ Greatest Comedy of 2022 checklist. Earlier than Candy and Juicy, Wang appeared on Comedy Central and the 2 Dope Queens podcast, and wrote for the critically acclaimed TV present Recent Off the Boat. You can even hearken to some extremely well-aged jokes on his 2015 album, Cornucopias Are Truly Horrible Containers. This can be a candy and juicy resumé for a comic who has been working at his craft for over 20 years. Initially hailing from Houston, Wang is rounding out the 12 months with new materials at Bayou Metropolis Music Corridor on December 28.

Wang enjoys discussing his love of clouds. “I had this actually sturdy reference to the picture of cumulus clouds in Houston, as a result of they’re totally different in California. You don’t see them as usually,” says Wang, who now lives in Los Angeles. His signature comedy model would possibly open with a easy statement about mortgages (or clouds), however his genius turns that thought into laughter.

“I’ve all the time preferred the thought of writing about some subject that everybody has skilled, or is fairly widespread or fairly mundane, and put it in a light-weight that there’s one thing a little bit under the floor,” he says. “It provides you that second to decelerate, take into consideration that second, after which, by a little bit bit of additional reflection, discover one thing about it that’s form of a common fact and make it enjoyable and humorous on the similar time.” 

What appears an unimaginable enterprise to most comes naturally to Wang. After graduating from Bellaire Excessive Faculty, he majored in enterprise at UC Berkeley, the place he additionally dabbled in poetry, images, and comedy. Houston, particularly through the pre-internet period with its lack of distractions and prescribed enjoyable, influences his work.

“I’d go to the bayou and I’d see what’s up, what’s occurring, what birds are consuming, what tadpoles are there,” he says. “Discovering pleasure and digging a gap within the yard…after which overlaying it up with twigs to make a little bit booby lure.”

Wang’s outside hijinks draw a straight line between the child seeing what’s up with the birds on any given day and the comic who could make well being care deductibles belly-clutching humorous. 

He makes it again to Houston a couple of instances a 12 months, with the first goal of spending time with household. “For my household, which means consuming meals collectively. If it’s April, we do crawfish boils, or Vietnamese meals on Bellaire. [There’s] going to be some barbecue concerned,” Wang says.

Brazos Bend State Park can also be usually on the homecoming itinerary, which ought to come as no shock to followers who know that he goes as much as benefit from the foliage. He compares Houston’s ever-expanding, heavens-touching freeway ramps to a René Magritte portray on the Menil, certainly one of his favourite Houston museums.

Wang usually posts footage from meet-and-greet occasions, and it takes only some scrolls to see that his followers are each numerous and delighted. A number of individuals remark with thanks for being each humorous and punctual, repeatedly calling out how pretty it’s that his exhibits are aligned with an acceptable bedtime.

“It’s unusual, however the employees at these venues, they need me again as a result of they like my crowds,” he says. “They like that they’re thoughtful, form, respectful. They’re having enjoyable however don’t overdo it. They’re not rowdy and disrespectful, and so they tip properly. It simply seems like they’re good individuals.”

What’s particularly pleasant is that his followers inform him how a lot they take pleasure in experiencing his comedy with their very own dad and mom.

“Rising up, even with my household now, generally we battle to seek out issues we are able to take pleasure in collectively,” he says. “I by no means thought I’d be so moved to listen to individuals speak about how they share it with their pals and their dad and mom or children.”

Laughter surpasses all of the journey wires maturity trains you to put between the way you challenge and who you’re. What you giggle at not solely reveals what you discover humorous, however in the end, what you discover to be true. On this means, Wang bridges gaps between individuals with totally different viewpoints, specializing in the trivia of every day life that the majority of us can relate to. He makes audiences suppose along with laughing, giving them an opportunity to speak after watching his work and discovering commonalities as an alternative of divisions.

Wang is making much more trivial issues humorous throughout his present unnamed tour. Followers of Candy and Juicy can anticipate his trademark observational humor, with a little bit one thing additional. “This new hour, I generally is a little bit extra free. It’s getting weirder right here and there,” he says. “It’s only a enjoyable time.”

Setting out on tour after the success of the particular, Wang was initially anxious about ensuring the expertise met followers’ expectations, particularly because it prices money and time for them to exit and see him. “I simply wished to ensure persons are proud of their decisions, as a result of it means lots to purchase tickets to return as much as a reside present. However I really feel like I’m previous the anxious half. I’m all the time attempting to make the present higher,” he says. “Each efficiency is a chance.”