MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Every week, a famous guest draws a card from the Wild Card deck and answers a big question about their life. Comedian Ronny Chieng says he is still in pursuit of the perfect joke. You can see his latest attempt in his Netflix comedy special, "Love To Hate It," or you can watch him star alongside Jimmy O. Yang in Hulu's "Interior Chinatown." The "Crazy Rich Asians" actor talked to Wild Card host Rachel Martin about his journey from law school student to "Daily Show" correspondent.
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RACHEL MARTIN: What was a disappointing experience that now feels like a blessing?
RONNY CHIENG: I couldn't get a job coming out of law school. My grades were too bad, and I couldn't get hired, and everyone around me was getting jobs 'cause I went to a very good law school, so everyone around me were, like, these very hypercompetitive type-A people who were getting really good jobs at these big law firms. And I felt a little left out at the time, but in hindsight, I'm like, oh, man, I'm so glad I never got hired because I think it would have been more difficult for me to quit a job and do comedy. As it was, I just...
MARTIN: For sure, yeah.
CHIENG: ...I didn't have anything to lose, so I could just do comedy. It wasn't like I had to pick between comedy and a corporate job. I never had to make that decision because I never got hired, so...
MARTIN: Were your parents disappointed that that didn't pan out for you?
CHIENG: No, they weren't because I never told them.
MARTIN: What do you mean?
CHIENG: I just didn't tell them I was doing comedy. They thought I was studying for the bar exam, which I was...
MARTIN: Yeah.
CHIENG: ...In fairness. But in that time, I was just doing comedy. And by the time they found out, it was almost, like, too late.
MARTIN: Hey, that's awesome. So you just...
CHIENG: Yeah, that's the secret.
MARTIN: ...Led this separate life, but you were - I mean, assuming you were in a good enough place that when they found out, they weren't traumatized. You're like, I'm a comedian, and I can pay my rent...
CHIENG: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...So it's OK.
CHIENG: Yes. They only found out, honestly, when I got hired on "The Daily Show."
MARTIN: What?
CHIENG: Yeah (laughter).
MARTIN: Wow. Did they know what "The Daily Show" was?
CHIENG: No, they didn't know.
MARTIN: No.
CHIENG: They didn't know what it was. And then, like, a couple days later, they Googled it. They found out all about it. They were like, oh, you know, this is an important show, it's a very famous show. And I'm like, yeah, I know. I know it's important, yeah. They kind of trained me to be like, it's a - you know, it's just a opportunity. It doesn't mean you're good.
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MARTIN: It just means you have a chance to do something cool, right? Like, that's what it was. So that's what I took it for. And that's really what the strength of being on "The Daily Show" is. Like, more so than fame or whatever, it's, like, this opportunity to work with extremely talented people and really become better yourself because everyone at that show is so good at their jobs that you don't want to be the weakest link, and so you lift your game. So that's really the - that's why it's the best job in comedy. You know, it just makes you a better writer, performer, comedian, satirist, you know? That show is - yeah, it's just - it's like the Harvard Business School of comedy.
KELLY: And you can hear more of that conversation with Ronny Chieng on the Wild Card podcast.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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