‘You don’t expect that darkness from an Asian woman’: comedian Annie Louey on subverting stereotypes, and finding out about her father’s secret family
- After her father died, Chinese-Australian comedian Annie Louey discovered he had a secret family that he had kept hidden from her, her sister and their mother
- Louey talks to the Post about posthumously bonding with her father in Hong Kong, challenging preconceived ideas about Asians and finding her voice in comedy
Chinese-Australian stand-up comedian Annie Louey has quite the story to tell.
From fainting and falling face first into a fire as a teenager, which caused extensive burns, to working both as a marriage celebrant and in a funeral home, to sorting through her own grief after her father died, Louey’s star has ascended on the back of her thematically ambitious material.
Feisty, feminist and a little bit filthy, Louey has mined the many changes in her life to not only find the comedy gold but to successfully subvert stereotypes.
“I’ve worked hard on writing material that is not what you expect, or delivered in a sweet way but it’s actually dark,” says Louey, who is in Hong Kong performing a series of gigs at Backstage Comedy at Jardine House, Central, including her debut Asian headline show, “Annie Louey Live in Hong Kong”, on Australia Day on January 26.
