Standing on the grand stage of the Royal Festival Hall facing a full house must be daunting for any performer, but surely, it’s a big ask of a stand-up comedian. With nowhere to hide, and with a microphone cord that doesn’t extend further than a few feet, the comedian is exposed on the empty stage. But it doesn’t seem to faze Phil Wang who appears very confident in such opulent surroundings.
Wang seems to have been around for decades but he is still only 33. Perhaps best known for his jokes based on his experience growing up as mixed race – he is British-Malaysian – Wang brings his Wang in There, Baby! tour to London. Of course, his repertoire is broader than the differences between British people and Chinese people, but the gags that cover that subject tend to be the funniest tonight.
Take rice, for example. In Britain, we see rice as dangerous. As soon as it’s cooled down, we treat it as toxic waste believing that even the whiff of it can cause food poisoning while the Chinese are happy to reheat it the next day: what else is fried rice but a way to use up leftovers? In fact, it seems that even Americans are not scared of reheating rice, a fact Wang became aware of when trying to tell the joke on a recent visit to The States. The fear of rice seems a very British quality.
Another horror that stalks us is, according to Wang, the lack of wood available when we say ‘Touch Wood.’ Our faces fill will utter panic when there’s no wood to touch, only some of us believing that a tap on the head is good enough to ward off the evils that will inevitably come. Wang suggests that the male population needn’t worry too much when there’s wood that is always readily available.
This reference to Wang’s nether-regions is picked up when the comedian talks about his recent book and the possible lie that is contained within it. Wang is talented enough that none of this material ever feels smutty, and this extends to his observations about nipples and about being a dirty old man. Instead, his patter seems perfectly suited for the salubrious Festival Hall.
However, whether it’s the acoustics in the auditorium, the microphone or just too much mumbling, some of Wang’s words get lost. The same also happens to his support act too, Pierre Novellie, who delivers a completely different routine to that of his own one-man show which is currently touring. Novellie, dressed in his trademark smoking jacket, the irony of which is lost in the smart Festival Hall, also gets plenty of laughs from jokes about food. As a South African, he despairs of the British obsession with wet food. Peas have to be mushed, Yorkshire Puddings act as emergency gravy boats, and biscuits have to be dunked. He’s very funny.
In today’s world of cancel culture, perhaps food is the safest topic for comedy. Let’s hope that this isn’t the case for the future. Wang suggests that it’s unlikely that he will be cancelled but he also remarks that he is famous enough to make sure that he behaves himself in public. Touch wood that he doesn’t behave himself too much.
Reviewed on 19 May 2023 and Wang in There, Baby! continues to tour until February 2024
