The KnightSpot was filled with students, faculty and community members last Saturday night as famous Korean comedienne Tina Kim performed in an event run by Geneseo's Korean American Student Association.
Kim originally hails from Seattle, Wash., and was a local news anchor before she decided to pursue a career in stand-up. Now a successful performer across the country for over eight years, she has appeared on many television networks as well as the hit show Last Comic Standing. Kim has two albums available for sale, I'm Not Chinese and Single Asian Female.
Kim began her show with a thank-you to KASA and a shout out to "all the Asians" in the audience, which was returned with many excited cheers by her expectant fans. She then began her show with a set of jokes about being Asian-American in today's society, with some humorous anecdotes about her own experiences growing up in a Korean household. As the show progressed, Kim continued to return to this topic for fresh material. Though these jokes were entertaining overall, her reliance on them was a little heavy and sometimes distracted from her other witty material.
Another set of topics that the Korean comedienne focused on was dating and sex. Again, Kim made use of several hilarious personal stories about her own failed experiences with love. Such events as bad first dates, awkward physical situations and the simple difficulty of finding a guy who will call back all made it into her performance. Sometimes her jokes in this vein went a bit on the dirty side, but for the most part the humor was at a good level for college-age students.
Other enjoyable subjects that Kim attacked included diets, stereotypical family moments, awkward Internet situations, shopping and popular television shows. As the show began to wind down, she stopped directing the content and instead asked the audience for suggestions as to what they wanted to hear her joke about next. With some hesitation, audience members came up with such ideas as travel as well as questions about her primary influences as a performer.
The show ended with Kim asking the satisfied crowd to stick around for a small comedy workshop that she would be running.
Overall, Kim was a success and received the approval of the Geneseo audience. More information about Tina Kim can be found at tinakim.com, and information about upcoming KASA events can be found on the Geneseo Web site.