On this edition of Kollaboration’s Coffee Break we welcome Bobby Choy aka Big Phony! Bobby is an amazing singer-songwriter who moved to Korea a few years ago to live, play music, and find himself. You might also know him from the webseries turned feature film KTown Cowboys, which he stars in. With a new album in the works, a movie in the theater, and a documentary in the festival circuit, we caught up with him on one of his recent trips to LA to see what’s been up!
Don’t forget to check out the amazing Green Room live music session he played for us as well as his appearance on the KollabCast.
Stationed on opposite ends of the continental USA, my interview with Naomi Ko starts off with a weird game of video tag before the dawning realization that my sunny afternoon is an ungodly hour in her California morning.
After finally connecting, she says “Sorry for the mess. It’s been a long week.”
Known for her role in Dear White People, among other things, Naomi is a headstrong, ambitious woman with experience as a writer, actor, and director. She takes advantage of the millennial “we can have it all” mentality and seems intent on doing just that.
But it isn’t easy. “I am kind of untraditional when it comes to being an Asian American woman. I am aggressive, I swear a lot…I don’t really give a f*** anymore.”
To Ko, being an Asian American in the industry has come with its fair share of challenges. “Accessibility is one of the biggest hardships that I’ve encountered as an Asian American. I have definitely encountered issues about being Asian American but also about being a woman, especially when it came to pitching and talking to Hollywood studios and networks and producers and executives who have certain expectations of what they feel I should be and what my work should represent.” She quickly points out the time when she pitched a violent historical drama and how surprised people were that an AAPI woman wanted to tell such a violent story. “One person even said, ‘Wow, this is really violent,’ and I said, ‘Well, haven’t you seen Game of Thrones? That’s really violent.’ But I guess if three white, British dudes want to do it that’s cool.”
Indeed, in the western film industry, Asian Americans are underrepresented on and off the camera. Actors that do make it in a feature film or major TV production tend to be stuck playing the model minority. “I think for actors, when you go into auditions and they ask you to do an accent—that’s a more aggressive form of racism. But when you’re in a room meeting with different studio execs and producers, you’ve already proved yourself in the sense that ‘Okay, my writing is good enough to get me through this door.’ Then, there is how are they going to nitpick, and how are they going to say no to you, and how is that influenced by what they perceive of you?” She continues, barely stopping to take a breath. “But then also, that’s the most ideal situation. So, how do you even get your script through the f***ing door?”
Dear White People (Roadside Attractions )
For Ko, untraditional is both the problem and the solution. “I think those are the hardships for AAPI just generally in terms of how Asian Americans are dealt with in society, and how that really reflects in Hollywood. There is such a passive-ness when it comes to how people treat us and what people expect of us.”
I ask her to elaborate. She recounts her childhood in a primarily white suburb of Minnesota, promptly adding, “Minnesotans are kings and queens of passive aggressiveness.” She chuckles at her jab before saying, “I feel like I understand a little bit of these hardships when you come to Hollywood because I have over twenty years of experience dealing with white people who constantly underestimate me.”
She then recalls her early performing days. “I was a big performer throughout middle school and high school, and I never got parts. And for a while, I thought it was because I was not talented but then I realized—I’m pretty good at what I do.”
Pretty good is an understatement, if you ask me.
She continues. “I was really sick of having no control over the casting process… once you can specify what your characters are and what their experiences are, there’s a lot more power in that.” I ask how she got herself into writing. “I’ve been writing since I was a little kid, and I wrote terrible fan fiction.” She laughs. “You know? I was one of those.”
Despite her growing success, she is still painfully aware of her social background and responsibilities, and uses this to shape the stories she wants to tell. “In most of my scripts, I have a strong Asian American woman and I’m not gonna change that. Not anymore.” Hollywood, Ko says, which has been long criticized for perpetuating a white-male dominated entertainment industry, “does a great job at keeping us invisible, and silencing us in that way of artistic expression. Because they realize that a lot of power comes through that. And if you can just settle with doing our colonoscopies, then maybe you don’t want to be visible, and maybe you don’t need to be expressive.” She laughs darkly. I laugh as well, thinking about all the colonoscopies my pre-med friends will soon perform routinely.
Another problem she has, is the lack of diversity in AAPI roles. “The problem,” according to Ko, is “representation.” Not only a tendency for Asians to get cast in “model minority” characters, but also the demand for those characters within the AAPI Community. “I think also there’s a standard in what Asian Americans want and what they want to see. And I think they didn’t want to see this curly haired, potty mouthed girl swearing all the time.” By writing the stories, Ko finds that Asian Americans can contribute to the increasing diversity in mainstream media, but also notes that there is a “lack of diversity in Asian American voices because “you know how it is in theatre its very dominated by Asian American men.”
But for her, that’s not good enough. “It’s just funny that you can have Amy Schumer and Rebel Wilson who really just don’t give a f*** anymore and then you’re getting resistance from everyone about having Asian American women do really raunchy things.”
Naomi’s issues with representation, however, extend far beyond the AAPI community. Blacks, Native Americans, and Hispanics are included too, and not just within the entertainment industry. Ko’s work and the stories she chooses to produce, stem from both a strong sense of social justice and a deep-seeded desire to tell the stories she knows best. “I feel like I really have something strong to say and, if anything, that’s it.”
I ask about her future. “One of my future goals is to start working on projects with other people of color who are representatives of their communities and to start talking about interesting stories that connect us—connect us in different relationships.” She reveals one such story, prefacing with, “I don’t think I can write this, since I’m not an LA native, but someone really should [make] a really complex, in-depth, complicated, messy, heart-breaking story about the LA riots and what happened with a shop owner, and her ties with the black community.” She paused. “I don’t know, I just want to write and see very good stories. And I think diversity has to do with that.”
Will this be the next Hollywood blockbuster? Maybe in the near future. “I think different stories produce better content,” She says, “and that’s what I want to do.”
We’re very excited to share with you this special Green Room live music session with the amazing Melissa Polinar! One of the OGs of the YouTube creator revolution, Melissa stopped by the Green Room while in town for a few shows in LA and San Diego to sing a few of her originals for us. Please enjoy!
Setlist:
“Meant to Be”
“Feel’s Like Home”
Hear more from Melissa on her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mpolinar
Editor’s Note: About a month ago, our Associate Editor Lily Rugo left for a trip to visit China, the country of her birth. We asked her to write down a few of her thoughts as an adoptee making this trip for the first time.
I have the average “adoptee visiting the Motherland” story. I’m not meeting my birth family or filming a documentary about finding my long-lost twin on YouTube. Instead it’s more of a pilgrimage, the most daunting and personal pilgrimage for me yet: China. I’ve always loved personal journeys because, for me, physically being at a place that holds special connections makes it more meaningful. Connecting with my heritage and identity as a Chinese adoptee has become more and more important to me in the past few years. Growing up I only had this vague idea about China. Between dim sum and human rights issues, I never knew if China (or coming from there) was a good or bad thing. It was after the 2008 Beijing Olympic opening ceremony when I started to care about “the Motherland” more. As I see more of a negative take on China in the West, I decided I don’t believe it. China’s not perfect, but I wasn’t going to take other people’s word for it anymore. I fortunately have the chance to go there through a summer program that includes intensive language classes coupled with an internship. In a few days I’m headed back to the Motherland after nearly twenty years. However, the more I think about spending twelve weeks in China, more or less on my own, the more I realize how crazy this whole venture sounds. I get lost in Boston, how am I supposed to navigate a city with over twenty million people? And truthfully I’ve been very pragmatic in how I go about connecting to my Chinese roots. I’m learning Mandarin because it’s more widely spoken than Cantonese. I want to go to Shanghai because it’s one of the most exciting cities in the world, and slightly less polluted than Beijing. I want an internship because as the Wonders Of The Orient become more interesting for Westerners, I want a Chinese edge on my resume. China is a part of my identity, I want to visit it and learn about its history, people, and future. But this doesn’t feel like a heritage trip. What makes a visit to the Motherland a “heritage trip”? Actually, this isn’t even my true Chinese heritage. I was born somewhere in the Cantonese-speaking southern Guangdong province. I’m about to spend twelves weeks learning Mandarin and most of my time in Shanghai. Before my program, I’ll see the great Wall of China, the terra cotta warriors, adorable pandas, take a cruise along the Yangtze River, and explore Shanghai. Then I’m spending a week in Tokyo. No visit to the orphanage where I was adopted from, or even Guangzhou, the city where I met my [adoptive] parents. I wouldn’t know who to contact to line up a personal tour on that scale. Like most other Chinese adoptees, I’m not even sure if I have the paper trail to set up something like that either. Sure I’m going to the Motherland, but does it count as “connecting with my roots” if I’m going to connect with all the wrong parts of China? Even if it’s the wrong part of China, I can at least say I’ve been to the Motherland, been to the place where it all began. Will I ever visit Guangzhou or learn Cantonese? Maybe.But I’m not going to China to find answers- I gave up on that a long time ago. I’m going to China because I feel like I have to. I want to see this country that I’ve only heard about, yet claims so much of my identity. Hopefully, this is only one of many trips to the Motherland to explore my heritage.
Big Phony has been busy the last few years living in South Korea, but the singer-songwriter, & K-Town Cowboys star, took some time during his last trip to LA to stop by the Kollaboration Green Room to play a few tunes for us. If you haven’t heard of Big Phony before, you’re in for a treat! Please enjoy as he shares his melancholy songs about loneliness, love, and hope. (warning, some lyrics NSFW)
Setlist:
“Shoot the Sh*t”
“I am F***ed Without You”
Megan Lee, star of Nickelodeon’s Make it Pop and Kollaboration alum, joins Minji Chang for a Coffee Break to talk about what she’s been up to. Megan shares about her busy schedule shooting Make it Pop in Toronto, making new original music (and her new single Stronger), and her origins in Kollaboration. We love Megan and you will too after this interview!
One of our favorite artists Megan Lee, star of Nickelodeon’s “Make it Pop” and a Kollaboration alum, joins us for this session of Kollaboration’s Green Room! Check out a special acoustic performance of her new single “Stronger” and watch out for more new songs from Megan soon on her YouTube!
Improv Artist Will Choi joins us for a coffee break to chat about an epic (and FREE) improv comedy show that he put together taking place Friday, May 27 at UCB Sunset in Los Angeles. Scarlett Johansson Presents: AAPI Heritage Month will feature several of the top Asian American improv teams in the LA area, as well as am APA superteam of UCB regulars (ScarJo will not be in attendance)! Check out more info on the event on its Facebook Page
Credits:
Producers: Minji Chang & Marvin Yueh
Director: Dennis Chang
Production Assistant: Jimmy Hang
Camera Operator: Westley Kang & Andrew Kim
Editor: Marvin Yueh
The Flash executive story editor and writer, Kai Wu, didn’t originally want to be a writer. While she was growing up she used to think, “I guess I’ll be a Red Lobster manager, or something like that.” Born in Taiwan, Kai moved to the US a the age of 7 and raised in a small American town. However, her life changed upon seeing the movie Casper on the big screen. The movie not only pushed her to become a writer, she loved it so much that she also has everyone’s favorite friendly ghost tattooed on her skin. Since then Kai has made a career as a television writer and risen in the ranks by making waves on critically acclaimed shows like the deceased Hannibal and CW’s hit show The Flash. Jes Vu caught up with Kai recently to chat about her career.
What made you end up in TV writing?
I kind of fell into by accident. I didn’t really watch TV growing up except for Full House—I only watched movies. I worked at Gersh Agency, was an assistant in the Motion Pictures Lit Department, and went into development—I wanted to be in features then. I was really lucky there was a point someone had to help someone out. One of my co-workers at Gersh—an old co-worker—knew a showrunner, and said I’m looking for a writer’s assistant [job]. And he knew I wanted to be a writer, so he passed my resume along. I interviewed and I was very lucky to get the job. But I had no idea what writer’s assistant meant in TV. So I took it. I hated television because of that routine of going in every day—and I was a crappy writer’s assistant because I had no idea what I was doing. But I was also the showrunner’s assistant, which I was great because of my agency experience, so they didn’t fire me, thank goodness! After that, I didn’t want to be in TV again, but then I got a job on Burn Notice as Matt Nix’s assistant. I learned so much there, and from then, TV popped for me a little. People were responding to my TV samples more than my features, so I just went with it.
Your first staff writing gig was on Hannibal for Bryan Fuller—How did you get involved in Hannibal as well as The Flash?
I was, and I still am Bryan Fuller’s biggest fan. As a fan, I was obsessed with his work. Wonderfalls is my favorite television show, and I loved Dead Like Me. Through all my assistant jobs, I had met this woman named Kath Lingenfelter—an amazing writer—she wrote on Pushing Daisies. I knew Hannibal had gotten picked up, and I asked Kath if she would pass my resume on because I wante to be a writer’s assistant for Hannibal hoping that there would be this show called Mockingbird Lane. Bryan was at NBC, and I was hoping he could staff me for Mockingbird Lane. So I went to interview Bryan and Jesse Alexander for Hannibal. Miraculously, they offered me a staff writing job.
What was that feeling like getting your first gig?
I’d worked so many years and I never worked freelance—no one ever promoted me. [Bryan Fuller] didn’t have to. There was no reason for him to give me a chance, but he did. I was ecstatic! On top of that, it was Bryan Fuller. I’m like his biggest fan, so I was all smiles. Like wow. It’s a little surreal. So I got on Hannibal and very quickly you realize that it’s work too.
Now you’re currently on The Flash. Had you read The Flash comics or watched any of DC Comics’ animation before getting staffed on The Flash?
Before the job?—No. The night before the meeting? —a crap ton. It was really tough only because they literally asked “Can you come and meet tomorrow?” From 8 o’clock that night to whenever the meeting was the next day. I had read so much. I knew Arrow because I was watching Arrow a little bit here or there. So I was trying to go back an episode, trying to watch episodes The Flash guest starred on, and then I was going through all the villains and history. It was overwhelming because I guess they reboot their continuity a lot—so I was like what was happening? There was a lot of information to be consumed in that in that 12 hour period. Whenever I go into a meeting, I have to be overwhelmed by information, so even if it doesn’t come out, it’s in my subconscious. I was still watching episodes and reading stuff an hour before the meeting.
Writer Kai Wu with Grant Gustin (Barry Allen/The Flash)
You’ve worked with very difference shows and networks. How is Hannibal handled vs working at the the CW and The Flash.
Even though Hannibal is [a network show], it’s essentially a cable show. I think it’s just how explicit it needs to be, and I think with Hannibal…it was a lot of subtext—we’re always talking about things without talking about them. Every conversation with Will and Hannibal was something about them…it’s all circular, which that’s the kind of writing I actually like. With CW…I assume it’s like what writing for a big studio movie is because you’re reaching a wider audience. You have to be clearer….There’s also 23 episodes instead of 13.
I think that was the hardest adjustment for me, but I don’t think one is better than the other. It’s just different ways of writing. What’s fun about the CW—[The Flash] is lighter, so we are able to go super light, just the funnest situations will get on the page. With Hannibal, it’s a lot more cerebral in your head. It doesn’t need to be a lot of plot, it just had to be a lot of beautiful philosophical talk. So that’s different too. And I think that’s the show.
How has being a woman of color play a role in the writers’ room for you?
I think The Flash…some people will disagree with me—I think The Flash is incredibly diverse in that half the staff is women, and that itself to me is diversity because people focus only on race. I am the only one on the show that is non-white, but I can offer something. But as a woman, I can also offer a point-of-view. I’m incredibly proud to be on a show with so many women.
That’s also more interesting that it’s a comic book-based show and there’s so many women involved.
Yes! And kudos to all the DC shows. Arrow has women…Legends of Tomorrow…Supergirl has a lot of women, so it makes me I’m think it’s great. It frustrates me a little bit when people focus just on race. We get a lot of comments like “we need a writer of a certain race…we need more diversity.” If you look at the statistics of Hollywood, women make up 30 percent. We [as women] are a minority group to men…to straight white guys. So that’s an accomplishment. To me, it’s a testament of [The Flash showrunner] Andrew Kreisberg in hiring so many women. Aside from that, I think it gets too narrow or people just focus on one group, to this one race. As to any other “diversity” trait that may qualify…if you’re a gay, white guy, to me, you’re “diverse.” You’re able to offer this outsider’s’ point-of-view….I think we’re making progress. Could there be more? Yeah.
Kai Wu with Victor Garber (Dr. Martin Stein on The Flash)
In that respect…how has TV changed since you first started your career as an assistant?
The way people write scripts. I remember going to a panel where Shonda Rhimes said if you write characters descriptions and you write everyone’s race out except for the white person—then you’re fired. Because it implies that white is the norm. So either you put a race for every single person—white, black, Asian—or you don’t at all. And that is something I notice I do too. Even for me as a minority, I still do it—Now, I’m very careful. If I’m naming race, I’m naming the white person as well because that’s not just a given. So I think [writing] is changing. Also, describing women not just by how they look. I mean, that is huge. I remember reading an old script I had and I was like “Good God, I can’t believe I’m doing it too!”—And I’m a woman too. So much of it is subconscious.
What advice do you have for those who want to be a writer like yourself?
Make sure you write. Because I think a lot of people don’t write. They’ll stop at one or two scripts. Also, my friends are going to hate me for this…with all the noise about diversity, and more women…yes, there’s all these things we can fix, but sometimes complaining about them without doing anything just doesn’t work because you’re relying on someone else to fix the problem.
If there’s a problem—and there is a problem—you keep on writing. If I get up there, I make sure it is balanced, so that’s how I can change it. Right now, don’t let those things deter you. Don’t focus so much on it. Be aware, but make sure when you have the chance, you’re fair and you’re even. I feel like there’s a lot of people that’s like “This is unfair!”—Life is unfair. Hollywood is definitely not a bureaucracy, so I have no idea what they were getting into. But you can do your part when you have the power.
With that final note, what advice would you give to people that you would have given to your younger self starting out?
I’ve seen a lot of assistants get bitter when people get ahead. They’ll be like “oh that person got ahead because of that connection.” Again, this is Hollywood. This is life—it’s not fair sometimes. Just stop worrying about other people, and worry about yourself. It took me a while too. You’ll carry a lot of negative energy, and I truly believe negative energy affects you. As soon as I let go of that, it’s kind of like “You know what? I need to focus on myself and not who got ahead of me.” It’s easier to say because in that time, you’re working so hard as an assistant, people are getting promoted before you—But that’s all just noise. At the end of the day, you’re doing this because you love telling stories, so go write your stories!
For more of Kai, follow her Twitter @chinoiskai! Otherwise, catch the season finale of The Flash tomorrow night, May 24 on the CW at 8pm ET/PT.
The Green Room set up a very special session in sunny San Diego with singer-songwriter Terry Matsuoka. A mainstay in the San Diego music scene, and also a past Kollaboration guest performer, Terry plays some original tunes for us that show off his soulful voice and the range of his music. We hope you had as much fun listening as we did shooting!
Setlist:
“A Minute”
“I Will Be There Too”
“How She Feels”
Hear more from Terry at https://www.youtube.com/terrymatsuoka and http://www.terrymatsuoka.com/
