In a true tale of self-determinism, viral comedian Jiaoying Summers made her career in comedy happen through sheer force of will.
“It was a lot of struggle in the beginning,” the digital content producer recalls. “I bought the club but I had zero experience in running a comedy club. I bought it for myself to get on stage.”
“It was my first week after the open mic, that I realize it will take me 20 years to get [enough] hours under my belt. I was like, I do not have time to waste. So I bought a comedy club on Melrose like one week after I started doing comedy. It’s crazy – it was a clothing store! It was a for lease on Melrose, and I’m like, this is Melrose, it’s a good location. I went in and they had ugly clothes. I was like, ‘Oh bitch, you should not be selling clothes. I’ll take your lease.’”
The funny risk taker says the gambit paid off, and her now club The Hollywood Comedy is surviving and thriving.
“It took me a week to hire some Chinese people to renovate it into a little black box theater,” Summers jokes. “And I start hosting open mics, and back then, we had eight open mics a day. Every hour we have open mic. I host every hour.”
“Then pandemic came, four months later, everything close down. But I did not feel like I’ll give up comedy after pandemic. So I keep it. I keep selling my jewelry, my purse, to pay the rent. I go there every day to talk to the empty room. But then I get on stage and film myself doing my jokes. I posted them on Instagram, and TikTok, which wasn’t really popular so the [clips] never really did anything. But I realize all this material is about my life, and reliving the pain and vulnerability – and those are the jokes that worked. Those are the jokes that went viral for me.”
“I got to a million followers on TikTok during the pandemic, and I kind of build my audience. It makes it easier to go out and I start to get in the big clubs because I can sell tickets. I have gotten funny because of the amount of crowd work and stage time I have amassed under my belt. Even in pandemic, I was able to go on stage and post my jokes. I was very lucky to use social media and the social media audience helped me find my voice. They show me what is funny by making clips go viral.”
Now a headliner, Summers is returning for two nights at Punchline Houston on Friday, September 26 and Saturday September 27. “I love Houston!” the comic exclaims. “I played the Punchline last year around October, and I imported my boyfriend from Austin TX to Los Angeles, so Texas gave me a man. I love Texas.”
The newest hour for Summers entitled What Spesie Are You? is an exploration of subjects that helped her climb the ranks on TikTok. “It will be my origin story including how I grew up in China and lots of religious trauma but we’ve made it into comedy gold! We laugh about all the things that have happened and what I’ve been a victim of. We use it to showcase my skills and resilience. I think it is going to be really fun to share a lot of things I haven’t shared before. I wanted to open my heart and be vulnerable. I think that is the best place to find good comedy, to say things you are embarrassed of and ashamed of and make it funny. People can connect with me, I think.”
Turning out new jokes is hard, but turning out new jokes from childhood trauma must be harder. However, for Summers, the gamble of people not connecting with new material is worth the risk of putting herself out there. “It is all how you say it, and the willingness to take that kind of risk,” she surmises. “Because I, unfortunately, am not perfect. You want to showcase yourself as a person who is successful and who has their shit together – but I have two DUIs. I have two divorces. I have two kids and I’m a single mother. I suffer from a bipolar disorder. And I also own a comedy club, that is a mess, but it just keep going. I don’t know when the toilets are broken and I’m paying nine times the water bill. So you try to find beauty in chaos, try to find funny in all this pain.”
“I think that is where you find the best stuff – when you are bravest to share with your audience. That’s when they know you are also human. They can feel like they can not be so judgmental of themselves and the mistakes they have made. If there is a second chance to make it right and be like, ‘Oh my God, I fucking suck.’ We all suck.”
While Summers is embracing the suck of being imperfect – she also warns against others trying to turn their tragic backstories into stand-up material too quickly. “I think when I do materials about something traumatic, I have to make sure I have overcome that trauma,” she says. “If I have not overcome that trauma, the audience can feel it. They won’t laugh, they’ll be concerned about you. They know when you are not over it. You can’t talk about it, because you are still grieving inside. Your body is still carrying that pain. You have to go to therapy to really make your peace with it. Onstage, you have to make it funny.”
Summers speaks with clarity and confidence about her craft, despite her young age. She’s mostly self-taught, and unafraid to suggest that’s the only way to develop as a stand-up. “I tried to take a class,” she says, followed by a slight pause. “There’s something that I should not say, because it makes me a villain but… the best comedians are working. They’re not teaching anyone. I don’t want to be the person who said it, but I’m a Chinese savage, I’m gonna say it!”
“The best advice I got, the advice I hear from people like Nikki Glaser or Tom Segura or Bobby Lee, the people who are working comedian legends, that was the best advice I got. But in the comedy clubs, [those that] taught, were like these angry comedians who never made it, saying you’ll never make it with an accent, or you can’t wear a dress on stage. If people think you are pretty, they will not listen to your jokes. You need to wear thick glasses like a nerd. They would just give you the most outrageous dumb advice. Are you kidding me? It was like everything that I am is wrong.
“But every real comedian would just tell me: just be you. Don’t pander to anyone and if they don’t like you, they don’t like you. They won’t like you if you are fake. They may if you are true. Don’t copy other people. If you don’t have a really good teacher, just avoid it.”
“The best way to be a good comedian is to get on stage. You can just sign up and go on stage every day. You will find your voice because the audience the person who will show you if you are funny or not. Pay attention. Tape your show. Study it. That’s the best advice for young comedians, not the don’t look like this or sound like that. It is very bad for your confidence. For the longest time, I was afraid of myself. My voice, my accent, how big I was on stage. Because I am a very big personality, but I try to make myself small so people can like me. But I never found my voice, I was struggling. Then I was like, fuck everything they said, and that’s when things started happening.”
Jiaoying Summers’ performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. on Friday, September 26 and 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. on Saturday, September 27 at Punchline Houston, 1204 Caroline. For more information, visit punchlinehtx.com. $32-69
