NEW YORK – “Did you come here alone or with a friend?” Baries Li, the host of the comedy show, asked an audience member in the front row.
“Alone. I saw you guys on RedNote. There’s no other Chinese comedy club, so I just came,” he replied.
“Yes! You can bring friends or just make new ones here!” Li said with a smile before scanning the audience. “Anyone else here alone tonight?” she asked playfully.
Founded in 2022, CrazyLaugh began as a small gathering organized by four first-generation Chinese immigrants: Li, Muhuan Liu, Rachel Shi, and Nicholas Zhai. It has since hosted over 150 shows, reaching an audience of 14,000. Within just a few years, starting from a small comedy club in New York City, they expanded to Los Angeles and Washington D.C., even having their own online broadcast show.
Three years ago, there was nowhere in the city that catered to Chinese comedy and Chinese audiences. So Li posted on Chinese social media platforms, WeChat and RedNote. It was an overnight success—three joined her effort, and 300 people were in the group chat waiting to buy tickets for the first show. They had discovered what Li describes as a “niche market.”
Even the location of the grand opening was very “Chinese”—a dumpling place on 9th Avenue. Tickets sold out quickly, seats were filled with people eager to get a taste of the humor from back home, and the first show at CrazyLaugh was born.
Time has gone by, the club is now preparing a grand show for 500 audience members to celebrate the three-year milestone.
But the club's rise is more than just a tale of stand-up comedy—it’s a story of how immigrants create a community through shared culture and humor.
On a recent Sunday afternoon, nine Chinese comedians took turns on the wooden platform, microphone in hand, each sharing slices of their lives. The comedians were very diverse—men and women from 20 to 48 years old. Their best jokes came from their daily lives, the joy and the pain of being first-generation immigrants.
They communicated with the audience in Mandarin, within a cultural context so familiar and dear to both the audience and the comedians. Some brought up the hardship of obtaining an H-1B visa; a Columbia graduate student shared his frustrations with the New York subway system; a mom who moved here from Shanghai shared her experience of educating her daughter on tackling bullying in an American school.
While these narratives unfolded in America—a foreign land for most performers—their storytelling created bridges back to their native culture. Chinese cultural references permeated their stories. Oftentimes, they were the punchline.
The audience resonated with the jokes featuring Chinese dialects and slang. For instance, a Shanghai comedian joked about a curse word in the Shanghai dialect. “I lived in Shanghai for a while, so I found it really funny,” an audience member, MeiMu Chang, said. “I’ll definitely come back next time.”
A show like this one is regularly. Now, CrazyLaugh has shows almost every week in the city—open mics, showcases with various topics, and even hosting blind dating events.
The origin of the biggest Chinese comedy club was plain and simple: “Because I wanted to do stand-up comedy,” Li said.
“Let’s find a bar and catch up!” Li said to the volunteers and comedians in an upbeat tone after the performance.
“Compared to other English-speaking clubs I went to, CrazyLaugh has a stronger sense of community,” shared Nick Hu, who has been performing at CrazyLaugh for almost two years.
“Almost all the people in New York City, after graduation, their friends are all gone—they all went to different places. You can go to social events, but some of those are so phony,” Li said. “But for us, we all share a common interest in stand-up comedy. We have something to talk about, and that's how you start to make friends.”
People also bring their friends to CrazyLaugh. One by one, they step into the club, and the community grows bigger. Most new comedians were in the audience at first.
"I just felt like I could do a performance like that too," Hu laughed, recalling his motivation to try stand-up.
Hu wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Anni Chu, after seeing performances in China, also decided she wanted to give it a shot and performed twice in Hangzhou.
When Anni first arrived in the city in 2022, because of her previous performance experience in China, she was soon introduced to CrazyLaugh through a friend. She was among the first group of comedians at the first show in March 2022. “I talked about American life through an Asian perspective,” she said. “I joked about the awkward situations I was in because my English wasn’t so fluent.”
Some performers had experience performing in China, like Anni did. Stand-up comedy has surged in popularity in China in the past decade, with broadcast shows like "Rock&Roast" going viral, along with offline shows and open mics. CrazyLaugh is almost like a transplant of comedy shows from China, taking root in New York City.
“Even though these are Chinese people in the US, because we were educated in China up until at least high school, when we look at issues in the US or write these jokes, we still do so with the marks of a Chinese background,” Chu said.
She noted that CrazyLaugh's community hasn't yet fully expanded to include other Mandarin speakers—such as Malaysian Chinese or Taiwanese—who share the language but bring different perspectives.
At the moment, it may not be as diverse just yet. “But I still think it is a great community regardless,” Chu said.
Reaching beyond audiences from China is, in fact, a vision that CrazyLaugh embraces. Co-founder Shi shared, “I hope to connect with a broader audience through comedy and break down barriers between us. Being able to communicate and understand each other in our native language is far more important than arguing.”
One way Chinese comedians are expanding their reach is through bilingual performances. Rachel Yu, a bilingual comedian in New York City, has performed at CrazyLaugh’s bilingual shows twice, though she more often takes the stage at various comedy clubs across the city. She is ambitious when it comes to her stand-up. “I want to reach a broader audience, so I chose to perform in English,” she said.
Through both CrazyLaugh’s efforts and comedians like Yu, Chinese and Asian culture is gradually reaching a wider audience.
While Chinese comedians are crossing boundaries to reach new audiences, another invisible boundary remains—the topics they choose to explore. One subject that remains largely untouched is politics.
Despite CrazyLaugh openly stating they support freedom of speech and do not censor comedians' scripts, the comedians simply are not talking about politics.
“My feeling is that Chinese people in the US are generally hesitant to touch on politics in stand-up comedy—at most, they might joke about American politics,” Chu said.
One explanation is that culturally, Chinese audiences are less interested in more sensitive topics. “From experience, Chinese audiences are more reserved in accepting racial or sexual jokes and generally require a more indirect way of expression, as if through a layer of window film,” Hu mentioned.
Another reason could be the fear of retaliation from Chinese authorities, resulting in self-censorship. “It's like treading carefully on a line you’re subtly aware of and afraid to cross,” Chu described.
“I guess it may be a warning to other comedians,” Chu said. “If they say something and are heard by people with different political stances, they may be in danger of censorship.”
Chu and Yu both heard about censorship by the Chinese government when they were in Hangzhou and Shanghai. If comedy clubs host bigger showcases, they are required to submit their scripts to the authorities for review. This not only creates a chilling effect but also limits comedians' creative freedom—their jokes may not be as timely since they have to wait for review and approval.
In contrast, comedy in New York City operates without such a review system. While only a few comedians touch on politics—and even then, within a careful scope—Chinese comedians in the city are carving out their own space.
Political or not, Chinese comedians in New York City are finding their own voices, sharing their unique stories as immigrants.
“The material on stage was never deliberately suited,” Li shared. “Like today, people have stories about the NYC subway, flying in coach, and I shared experiences about being a romantic because we’ve actually gone through it and have something to say. It’s always about the stories in life that compel you to speak.”
Like a form of oral history, they are leaving their marks through their jokes and laughter.