Asian women stand-up comedy show in Montreal

A group of Asian women stand-up comics have come together for a comedy show for an Asian audience.

“What’s special about it is it’s not just that we get to tell the jokes that we want to tell, whatever we want to talk about,” said Elie Gill, the producer of The Empress Comedy Show, “it’s also for people who have some context about some of these experiences.”

The Empress Comedy Show, which is part of the Zoofest comedy festival in Montreal, is meant to be an unfiltered evening of jokes that address taboo subjects important to Asian communities.

“I have a joke and the punchline is, ‘you know, grandma, we don’t have to collaborate anymore,’ ” said Gill, adding, “it’s because my family collaborated with the Japanese occupation. In my view, I’m sure they wouldn’t agree. And that’s a very difficult thing. So, it’s nice to be able to say to an audience, who knows, maybe that’s not ideal.”

The first Empress Comedy Show took place in April in Montreal and this will be the second show of its kind that Gill is hosting and producing. In her stand up routine, she is not afraid to criticize her own culture.

“I’m half white, half Korean, and I immigrated to Canada, but my family immigrated before that to the United States. So I’m like a double immigrant. And I think there’s this assumption sometimes that in order to not be racist, you have to think of all immigrants, you have to sort of treat them like they’re as a block, just like wonderful people, and that they’re sort of politically neutral, they politically agree with you. And that’s just not always the case,” said Gill.

Mariam Khan is another stand up comic performing at the show.

“I’m going to talk about how my parents are the perfect immigrants, and please be nice to us. You know, kind of taking the opposite approach from Elie,” said Khan.

“I talk about that experience and growing up, leaving the house and everyone thinking I’m free. But like in the house, my parents were definitely strict and very Pakistani, so you know, just having those two world experiences,” explained Khan, “also, being able to go back to Pakistan and seeing what that world was like.”

Khan also addresses other issues in her comedy that she has faced as a Montrealer. “It’s not just being an immigrant daughter, you know, it’s also the things I go through the dating world, navigating my weight issues, pop culture, all of that.”

The comedians at The Empress Comedy Show are South Asian, Pinoy, East Asian, Mixed-race, and Middle Eastern. It takes place Thursday evening at 7 PM at Café Cléopatra in Montreal.

“I think this is a really special show. We sold out last time and the last time we had everyone in the room together, there was this cathartic feeling of finally being able to just be together and enjoy some of the stuff,” said Gill.