It will never not be weird seeing someone you have only ever seen through a phone with a dodgy greenscreen effect in the flesh. This familiarity with Jenny Tian on screen is something she makes the most of, opening with a really funny pastiche of both her online content and etiquette around stand up shows. But whilst there are these great moments surrounding her digital content, it feels like some aspects of her comedy didn’t hit as hard as they could have, and left me wanting a bit more.
A show with great elements, let down by some generic ones
Chinese Australian primarily focuses on Tian’s own journey through comedy, looking at her beginnings in 2013 when she saw Ronny Chieng perform at the University of New South Wales, to her success online over the pandemic to the here and now of the Fringe. A show that makes the most of both elements of its title as well as her online presence much of it naturally leans into her explosion online, framing the show around a “doomscroll” with sponsored ad breaks in the middle. All whilst assisted with a presentation which when used to its full effect makes some of her jokes really land.
Alongside this however, there is a lot of fairly generic material in the mix, with some material on overbearing parents and Tian’s dating life. None of it is bad, the jokes are clear and funny they just don’t particularly pop out, and when there are parts of the show which feel really personal and unique not only from the narrative but from the shows humour, it feels let down by some jokes which feel like ones I could see in many other places.
Jenny Tian is great fun to watch on stage. Her crowd work is good and any interactions with the audience feel natural and easygoing. Chinese Australian has an interesting narrative at its heart and a lot of really good bits in it, yet seems to be held back from being brilliant by some material that I feel I could’ve seen anywhere. For the moments where it gets good it is more than worth the watch, and I look forward to hopefully being able to see her again, with some more of what makes her comedy unique both online and in person, and less of what can be found in every comedians wheelhouse.
