Recently named one of Variety’s 10 comics to watch for 2025, Jiaoying Summers has taken her comedy act on the road with her latest tour, “What Specie Are You?” After immigrating from China to the United States in 2009, Summers has made a name for herself in the comedy scene as a stand-up comedian, owner of Los Angeles comedy club The Hollywood Comedy and host of the podcast “Tiger Mom with Jiaoying Summers.”
Set to headline The Comedy Attic on Oct. 3 and Oct. 4, Summers spoke with the IDS about her comedic style, life as a Chinese woman in comedy and what’s in store for her Bloomington performance.
The following is a transcript of a portion of an interview with Jiaoying Summers. Listen to the full interview above.
IDS: You were recently named one of Variety's 10 comics to watch for 2025, and in the article, you mentioned struggling early on with trying to be ‘likable.’ How did you learn to embrace the honesty and rawness that people see in your comedy now?
Summers: I tried so hard to be likable, and I think I also was asking — I mean, I didn't even ask — but a lot of other comedians would like to give me advice. They don't have any bad intentions, and I just didn't do it for 10 years, 20 years, so I always want to take their advice. And all that I get is ‘You are too loud and you try to be too glamorous on stage. You are a comedian, you are a clown, you know, you cannot be pretty. You have to be like Ali Wong, you know, just wear your glasses and copy her. She's successful, just copy whatever she's doing.’ And I just it, confused me, but I definitely was not trying to be loud and aggressive on stage, I just tried to be likable. And I never really found my voice. It just felt off. It's like dating someone. You know that person's not good for you, but you still try to see it like on paper that person could be good for me and it never works out.
So, I just got frustrated because I paid my dues. A lot of times, people don't think I paid my dues because I was able to buy my club. But every Tuesday, you know, every time there's a weekly audition at the Hollywood Improv, Laugh Factory and The Comedy Store, I'm there. I'm standing on Sunset Boulevard. I'm standing on the streets with hundreds of comedians trying to hope to do two minutes and get called. That's what I tried, and I never got picked up. I never got any luck. I never passed at any clubs. I just knew that there was something missing.
There's one time that Laugh Factory held this thing called The Search of the Funniest Female Comedian. My friend had submitted me to it; her name is Isabella. I said 'Isabella, the Laugh Factory hates me like it's not gonna work. I don't care. I don't want to even do it.' But she just encouraged me, and I went there. I knew they didn't like me, because I'm there every Tuesday and nobody cares about me, and I never get picked. Sometimes I would kill and I never got picked. So, I went there and that was the first time in my short career back then that I didn't really care. I just thought, you know what they're gonna hate me and fuck everyone. So I went to the bar, I got two beers, I went on stage, and I was ‘me’ for the first time. I did my show. I killed. I just was loud. I was passionate. I guess, I also had the frustration of not being able to find my voice, of not getting validation from any of those clubs. I had zero expectation. I just got off stage, and I left. And the manager back then, Enrique, he followed me and he said, 'Welcome to the Laugh Factory.' So that was the moment I just needed to realize that all I needed was to be me and I never came back to play it safe or to please anyone after that.
IDS: You also have a podcast called ‘Tiger Mom with Jiaoying Summers.’ How does hosting the podcast differ from your other comedic outlets, and what got you into it?
Summers: I felt like I've always been very funny and entertaining conversationally, and I also felt that my goal is really to make people in America understand Asian culture or Chinese culture more so there's less hate towards Chinese Americans, because people don't like us because they think we are ‘aliens.’ We don't really talk about our true emotions. Asians tend to only talk about success and academic success and money and status, and they don't really talk about the mental illness, they don't talk about suffering and the humble beginnings, and I think it's extremely unhealthy for us to be like that kind of person. I just also just thought it was a really good time for conversation to come out like right after COVID. I want people to see Asians as humans.
And in my culture, I should not share my bipolar disorder, but I want to because my flaws make me a human, and I want to understand that we are all the same. That's why on the podcast, we talk about things that are not very pretty, but I think they are very important for young kids to understand that their role model they were thinking that's perfect is not real. And success is about getting back up after you fail, once, twice, three times, even 100 times. And that is the definition of success. That's the spirit and the resilience I wanted to share by real stories with real people. And I think that is very important to me, and I think it really does work.
IDS: Like you just mentioned, you talk a lot about your own personal life experiences in your comedy. And, for a lot of people, those might not be the most comfortable topics. How do you turn what might be uncomfortable for most people into a comedic set for your work?
Summers: I tried to talk about something I wasn't ready to talk about and I wasn't funny. And if I feel ready to talk about things that are extremely traumatic, like being born in the one child policy and being a girl born during one child policy then getting discarded by my parents. They took me back, but they told me all the time to make sure I knew I was lucky to be alive, and I had to thrive to be the best I can in every way in order to be worthy to be alive. And it has been extremely hard for me, but it also drives me to become this extremely ambitious person and hard-working person. So, it took me a long time to gain the self-confidence to understand and to accept my trauma in order to talk about it. So, I tried to make it funny because I got over it.
I feel like I could not make anything funny if I haven't got over it yet. So I feel like every time I speak in front of audience about my suicide attempt, after I had my son and my marriage fell apart, those are all the experiences as I think a lot of people experience or have friends who experience that but they don't talk about it. And I want them to feel safe. I want to feel that they are not alone. I also make it very funny, because I like to make fun of myself, and I feel like laughing at your pain means that you are getting over it slowly. And even in science, you know, when you talk about your struggles to another person, the moment you start talking, your anxiety levels get lower. And I'm very happy that I was able to do that. And it was not easy at the beginning. I was afraid to be judged by people who say she's a mess, like she's such a mess. But you know what I learned from my mistakes, and I heal from my trauma. And making people laugh makes me happy.
IDS: Your upcoming show is part of your international tour ‘What specie are you?’ What are you most excited about when it comes to bringing your comedy to Bloomington audiences at The Comedy Attic?
Summers: I went to the University of Kentucky for college, so I'm very familiar with the culture and people in the Midwest and I loved the people. And I know Bloomington, Indiana, is a college town, I love young kids, and I really wanted to be able to communicate with them and talk to them. Because I was that age and I made a lot of mistakes. I did some wrong things, and I also did not feel better or beautiful. And I really wanted to be more about empowerment for younger kids to know they can do whatever they want if they set their mind to it. I think that is what inspired me the most, is to see those faces and to be able to show them that if I can do it, you can do it better than me.
