By April Isaacs
With the upcoming presidential election, more and more people are becoming politically savvy and contributing their opinions to the ongoing dialogue, be it with friends at the bar, at the dinner table or on personal blogs. Rego Park resident and talk-radio host Richard Alan Chen also has a few words to add to the mix, but he plans to do it on stage.
“Obama isn't change,” he says, “we're not putting a black man in office. We're putting a half-black, half-white man in office.”
It's tongue-in-cheek to a degree, but Chen is also trying to give voice to points he feels are overlooked — about the Obama candidacy and everything else that's going on politically and socially — with cohorts in his group InYourFace Productions.
“This is how we approach comedy. We're going to call it like we see it. Obama's supported by the same types of Democrats who supported all the other democratic candidates.”
Chen (who also goes by the stage name Alan Chan) practices law by day and in his spare time — among other things — co-hosts his own talk radio show “Julio and Chen” and works the stand-up improv comedy circuit. On his Internet radio show on LATalkRadio, he's hot on politics and riffs on sensitive issues in a brash, pull-no-punches, comedic style reminiscent of Rush Limbaugh, a so-called neo-conservative radio personality whom Chen admires.
Chen has been called a “neo-con” himself by some of his listeners, but despite broadcasting in a liberal city, it's a label Chen doesn't shy away from. Like Limbaugh, Chen considers himself a comedian, not a politician, and more specifically in the business of what he calls “free-speech comedy.”
On Saturday, Sept. 6, Chen brings his politically-charged material from the radio waves to the comedy club, hosting a line-up of comedians in “Let's Get Real,” a show Chen describes as “in-your-face comedy” that challenges the audience to look at current political issues in an honest but lighthearted way.
The line-up includes comedians from various backgrounds: Chen's radio co-host, Who Who Julio, and comedians Manny Man, Justin Alexander, Angry Bob and Crystal Bryant. The aim is to present a variety of comedic perspectives; Angry Bob, for example, is Jewish, and Crystal Bryant is an African American and will be confronting race and gender stereotypes in her routine.
“We don't have a gay. We need to scout a gay” Chen said.
Issues that Chen and his companions will be addressing run the gamut of everything from climate change to illegal immigration to the Obama campaign. This is Chen's first time addressing a live audience with his controversial political humor, but says he wouldn't mind being challenged by the audience if they disagree with what he's saying or find it offensive.
“If you don't like what I'm saying about Obama, it could be a good way to get a back-and-forth going,” he said.
Chen went on to suggest that the stage also functioned as a kind of immunity to physical confrontation. “When you say it on stage they laugh. When you say it outside to their face, they'll punch you in the face.”
Chen did recall one particular story when he was heckled while doing stand-up at a gay comedy club. Though his act wasn't centered on addressing political issues as it will be in “Let's Get Real,” he did throw in some politically incorrect jokes about being Asian-American: “My eyes aren't slanted, yours are swollen,” for example. Someone called out from the audience and told Chen that the joke was offensive. “The show stopped and it became a discussion [between Chen and the audience member] … I honestly don't know how I'd handle it in this show [if addressed directly by the audience]. I might get serious on 'em.”
If you go:
Let's Get Real
When: Sept. 6, 6 p.m.
Where: Broadway Comedy Club, 318 West 53rd St. (between 8th & 9th avenues), Manhattan
Cost: $10/$15 at the door
For More: 212-340-1899
