THIS COMEDIAN CAN’T BE WONG

If anyone can make a packed audience laugh at the bright and early hour of 2pm on a Sunday afternoon, it’s stand-up comedian MJ Wong. There was no one to warm the starkly sober crowd for his Bris Funny Fest encore show, In the Wong Family; but when you watch a comedian this good, no alcohol or crowd warming is necessary!

If you are of mixed nationality, you will find MJ relatable. If you are Caucasian, you will relate to him. That’s because he is three-quarter Asian, and one-quarter Caucasian. MJ may possibly be the tallest man with Asian features most Brisbane locals would have encountered, but his looks are deceiving. As MJ confesses in his show, he is “about as Asian as an Asian tattoo on a white guy”; and his Frank Walker impersonation quickly proves his Australian tongue.

PowerPoint slides appeared early in the piece and intermittently throughout the one-hour show. In case you’re thinking 'death by PowerPoint', it was more like death by laughter. MJ’s use of multi-media unexpectedly enhanced the comic element of many of his jokes. Just when you thought you could predict what he was about to say or show next on the slide, he would take you down a completely different side-splitting path.

Every single story and joke told by MJ is a perfect balance of light, shade, and somewhere in between. His performance is faultless, even down to his microphone technique. MJ has truly mastered the art of not just comedy, but showmanship. He was so professional in In the Wong Family, it’s hard to believe it is his first solo show.

To find out where MJ Wong’s next gig is, visit this Facebook page.