The Empress Comedy Show’s first edition took place April 8th, for Gigglefest 2023, at La Poubelle Magnifique on Peel Street in Montreal, to a sold-out crowd of mostly Asian women.
The purpose of the show is to bring together Asian women comics for an Asian audience, so we can laugh and show off, and talk about our issues in ways that might not read to other audiences. The Empress Comedy Show gives comics a chance to talk about Asianness, and tell jokes, without having to water it down, sanitize it, or give a bunch of extraneous background information.
The show features South Asian, Pinoy, East Asian, Mixed-race, and Middle Eastern comedians. We mean Asian in the widest sense.
The comics on the show were comedian, DJ and professional dancer Diana Reyes, web show host Kayla de Leon, comedian and producer Mariam Khan, comedian and comics artist Andrina Learmonth, Just for Laughs Discovery Series featured artist Joanna Selvarajah, and Zoofest vet and headliner Yumi Blake.
Every guest received a small origami box filled with nostalgic Chinese candies: haw flakes, white rabbits, and ginger chews. The host wore Korean traditional formal dress; her mom’s hanbok, shipped from California.
