Phil Wang on his book Sidesplitter: How To Be From Two Worlds At Once

Virgin Radio

27 Oct 2021, 07:57

The stand-up comedian joined the Graham Norton Radio Show with Waitrose to talk about his new book, which delivers a candid reflection on race, belonging, his British-Malaysian heritage and what it means to be from two places.

Sidesplitter: How To Be From Two Worlds At Once is out now. Phil told Graham: “It’s not a memoir, because I’m not old enough, but there are lots of stories from my life!”

When discussing the book’s premise, the comedian said: “It’s about being from two worlds at once. I’m half-British and half-Malaysian, and the book is an exploration of that dual identity, and of having a dual identity in general, and the book is split into ten subjects... family, food, home… and these are ten separate explorations of those ten aspects of being from those two places at once.” 

Phil was born in Stoke-on-Trent, but three weeks after his birth, his family flew ‘back’ to Malaysia, where his father is from. On growing up in Malaysia, he said: “It’s funny, here in the UK, people look at me and instantly go, ‘Oh there’s an Asian guy’, and I go, ‘Yeah, hi, how’s it going?’ but growing up in Malaysia, compared to everyone, I was pretty white, so I was like the white guy. So, growing up as the white kid and the white teenager I thought, ‘Well, I guess this is not where I’m supposed to be, I’m supposed to be in the UK, where my mother is from, where people look like me.’

“And then I moved to the UK, not just to the UK, I moved to the city of Bath, which as I say in the book is a spa town for people who find Cheltenham too ethnic. And I realised in the context of Bath, ‘Wow, I am actually pretty Asian’. And it was at that point, moving to the UK at 16 that I realised, ‘Okay, I probably won’t feel completely native anywhere I go.” 

Speaking more about living in the UK, Phil told Graham: “The UK is a wonderful place, and all these cultural influences I’d grown up with, the comedy, the literature, the music, this is where it was from, you know, the UK. And I was able to pursue music, and then when I found comedy and stand-up in my late teens, there was already a well established comedy tradition in the UK. So the UK represented, and was home to, so many of these cultural worlds that I’d grown up with and that I’d always been fascinated by, and I’d always wanted to be a part of. And although I found that the UK probably wasn’t where I was going to feel racially at home completely, it was culturally somewhere I felt very much at home.”

When discussing the chapter in his book on love, Phil told Graham: “It’s a particularly tricky one, because it’s one that encroaches on, you know, personal taste as well. In the book I tell the story of [how] I do a gig at Roehampton University and I’m announced on - this is early on in my career - and I’m announced on by the host who says, ‘And your next act is Phil Wang,’ and there’s a little commotion in the crowd, and the host goes, ‘So what’s going on?’ and there’s two girls and one girl reveals that she’d said to the other, upon hearing my name, Phil Wang, ‘Oh, is he fit?’ And the other girl had gone, ‘No, he’s Chinese’, and the moment she says this, the whole room goes quiet and they realise what they’ve said is actually a bit, you know, not quite on. And I was there for that, and it was shocking, but I wasn’t surprised.”

Phil continued: “It was something I’m quite used to. The emasculation of the East Asian man is quite a common thing, and it’s something that you might not be aware of if you yourself aren’t an East Asian man, but if you are it comes with the territory. And so, in that chapter I talk about the emasculation of the East Asian man, and the history of it, and how it used to be the opposite, it used to be the sexual villainization of the East Asian man, with things like Foo Manchu, this hugely popular character that was invented by a British writer, of this dastardly Chinese guy with these long moustaches, who would capture women and his wickedly way with them. And as the 20th Century progressed it sort of inverted and became the, sort of, sexless East Asian man, with silly caricatures of East Asian men on TV and stuff.” 

When talking about choosing to speak about race in his routine when he started out in his stand-up career, Phil said: “I just felt like it was something that people weren’t talking about, simply because there weren’t many East Asian stand-ups. There are certainly more now, and I don’t feel that sort of pressure now, as I used to. But when I was starting out, there was hardly anyone else, and so I felt like there was a weight of an entire culture on my shoulders! Not really! 

“When you’re starting out in comedy, you have to lay out your stall and you have to explain yourself away, and as people become more aware of you, you’re given the freedom to talk about other things but, at that point of my career, I really had to defend myself.”

During their chat, the comedian also told Graham about a worrying encounter with some cows! You can see the video below:

As well as being able to read Phil’s new book, fans can also check out his live Netflix special, in which he explores race, romance, and politics at the London Palladium. “It’s called Philly Philly Wang Wang, because I couldn’t be bothered to think of a name!” he laughed.

Phil added: “I managed to sell it out, under reduced capacity restrictions! As long as social distancing is in place, I can sell out the London Palladium.”

Sidesplitter: How To Be From Two Worlds At Once is out now.

Listen to The Graham Norton Radio Show every Saturday AND Sunday from 9:30 am on Virgin Radio or catch up on-demand here.