Joanne Lau – Original Review

Note: This review is from 2007

Review by Steve Bennett

Imagine if a black comic came on munching on a watermelon and singing a calypso. Well, Joanne Lau adopts the Chinese equivalent of this Uncle Tom behaviour, addressing the audience in broken English, initially as if she was a waitress in a Chinese restaurant.

Hers is an all-purpose ethnic stereotype, too. She can evoke dog-chomping Koreans in one gag, Japanese schoolgirls the next, or a Thai hooker the next. The joke is, presumably, on us dumb Westerners who can’t tell the difference between any of these major Asian nations – but you can’t help but feel she’s pandering to this prejudice, too.

Especially frustrating is the fact she doesn’t need to use her ethnicity as such a cheap gimmick, as this relative newcomer repeatedly proves herself a strong writer, with some rock-solid gags.

She’s lacking in direction, mind, with a set that’s something of a jumble: sometimes whimsical with so-so puns elevated into routines of their own, but sometimes hard-edged and aggressive.

She overcomes this with a good supply sharp and funny lines, which suggests she could well prove to be a formidable comic once she gets to grips with who she is, and where her comedy is coming from.

Review date: 12 Jun 2007
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett

We see you are using AdBlocker software. Chortle relies on advertisers to fund this website so it’s free for you, so we would ask that you disable it for this site. Our ads are non-intrusive and relevant. Help keep Chortle viable.