THE LIST OF great Chinese comics isn't a long one. And that's something Jami Gong hopes to change.
Born and raised in New York's bustling Chinatown, the third of six children of Hong Kong immigrants, the energetic 36-year-old is determined to show the world that Chinese can be funny. With that in mind, Gong launched TakeOut Comedy after the September 11 attacks on New York.
Like all New Yorkers, Chinatown's residents were traumatised by the attacks - perhaps even more so, given that the colourful enclave is near the lower Manhattan site of the World Trade Centre. Business suffered in the aftermath - exacerbated by the Sars scare that followed, which frightened New Yorkers away from Chinatown's restaurants and resulted in 7,000 people in the district losing their jobs.
Gong says he's always liked making people laugh, although no one in his family was involved in entertainment. His father, now retired, was a businessman and his mother a teacher. Each of Gong's five siblings fits the successful profile of Chinese-Americans: one sister is a Yale graduate, another went to Georgetown and received a Fulbright scholarship, one went to Cornell, another sister is a doctor and his brother is a banker.
Gong studied engineering at university, but switched his major to geography, then worked in retail for many years.
But having grown up watching the TV talk show host and comic Johnny Carson, he always dreamed of making people laugh. Gong's first attempt at comedy was at college, when a friend dared him to enter a stand-up comedy contest. He wrote his own material and, despite being terrified at being in front of a room full of teachers and fellow students, got plenty of laughs.