Jiaoying Summers Believes She Can Say What Gets Other Comedians Canceled

Comedian Jiaoying Summers gets away with a lot in her new special, What Specie Are You?, premiering Saturday on Hulu. “It’s a real belly laugh,” she promised during a conversation with Cracked. “It's the laughter you have when you are with your best friend in private, those things you say that you don't want other people to hear because you don't want to be judged.” 

Summers, who has a million followers on Instagram, recently told me about her unusual comedy journey, from growing up in China to buying her own comedy club in California to her issues with cancel culture going too far. 

“I never really know that comedy is a career, but I was always, always funny. I always like to make people laugh. My father was very funny, too. It just was very natural.”

“But there's no stand-up comedy as a career in China until recently. So I had no idea people can be a comedian, be on stage and tell jokes. It just never occurred to me that it could be a career.”

“I wanted to be a performer, and I came to America. I studied business and also theater. When I moved to LA, I pursued acting, but the biggest challenge is my accent. There's a lot of good roles that I was very close to getting, but the production always considered my accent.”

“John Singleton was auditioning for his new TV series called Rebel. We did a lot of improv, so I was making him laugh nonstop, and he told me that you should try stand-up. You're going to become a star.”

“And I said, ‘What is stand-up?’”

“Shortly after that, it was my first open mic. I definitely wasn't great. I got on stage, I was frozen. I was stuttering too. One minute felt like two hours. Nobody laughed. I don't even think I was able to tell a joke.”

“But somehow I knew that's what I want to do… I know I needed hours, so two weeks later, I bought a comedy club in Los Angeles.  I was just believing if you want to do something, do it all the way, or don't bother with it.” 

“I work hard. I do everything hard. I think you gotta do it 10 hours a day. Just really get into it and find your voice and be good. Or don't do it because it's just so competitive. The business is nasty, and you gotta be the best of the best in order to have a chance.”

“This is a business. It's not feelings. It’s about money. You can make the money if you are funny. You gotta be funny, you gotta sell.”

“I have a lot of comedian friends that hate posting (social media videos). I'm like, you think I like posting? Nobody likes posting. Nobody likes to go work out. Nobody likes to work. It's not like I just sit there and post on social media, like something I enjoy. I hate it.”

“I post around three videos a day. No, there's no exceptions. When I was in the delivery room with my daughter, I was posting before I pushed her out.”

“When you are like, ‘Oh, I'm busy,’ I'm busy too. I'm sick too. But you want to have a million followers? You're going to be a slave to social media, to the algorithm.”

“It doesn't matter how funny, how beautiful, how great you look — the algorithm is a very abusive boyfriend. He wants you to keep submit, submit every day so they can get a reward. That's nasty, but that's true.”

“Someone asked me, do you think you're a social media influencer or a comedian? When I started comedy, I had zero followers on social media. Everything I post on social media is jokes. I didn't dance. I didn't do my makeup on social media to get famous. I'm a comedian who's smart enough to build a social media following so she can sell tickets.”

“People try to make you feel like you are a low-grade comedian because you are big on social media. No, because I am smart. When you go to a club, other than being funny, they want to make money. They got to pay rent, they got to pay their staff. They got to buy food. You could be the funniest person in the world. You only sell one ticket, you are a fucking loser.”

“There's no other way. People don't get it and they just make fun: ‘Well, you just have the time.’ I don't have the time. When I'm pooping, I post. That's what I do.”

“I didn't just come out of nowhere and get famous and start making money. I have my 15 years of stage time in six years because I bought my own club. I fucked myself to the top.”

“You gotta go on stage. When you are fighting with your boyfriend, when you are fighting with your mom, when you got robbed, you still go on stage. That is what matters to make you funnier.”

“Laughter is like an orgasm, you know? It's real. When it happens, it happens.”

“You can't try to copy someone. People tried to ask me to wear glasses and copy Ali Wong. Why would I copy her? I'll be a cheap, stupid version, a fake Ali Wong. I'm not going to copy anyone. Her success is her own.”

“Anyone who say what I say, they get canceled. Nobody is me because I'm doing this in my second language. My accent is real. My jokes are layered because there's an aspect of that I'm very Chinese, but I’m definitely very American. I was very lucky that I was able to say things most people think they can’t say because I'm a woman of color.”

“The boundaries should be to be funny. As long as you're funny, it's funny. It should not be uncomfortable. Some people need to be called out. I just think that the cancel culture is going too far. It's silly. Even the Riyadh Comedy Festival, like, if you got over $2 million, you can do it, okay?  People need to chill out.”

“I make fun of everyone. I think it's uniting people together because knowing our differences connects us closer together, because we are actually all the same. We cry the same, we laugh the same. And our mama hate us the same.”