Doctor-turned-comedian Jason Leong on quitting medicine, the fear of being cancelled and where he gets his material from
- Jason Leong ‘was unhappy as a doctor’ and liked listening to his own voice – so when he won a comedy competition in Hong Kong, he made it a full-time thing
- The Malaysian comedian talks to the Post about where he gets his material from, backlash from social media and his advice for aspiring stand-up comics
It has been 10 years since Malaysian comedian Dr Jason Leong swapped his stethoscope for the stage. “I’ve never regretted it once,” he says.
“I think I was unhappy as a doctor, not because of the nature of the job but because of the bureaucracy and the politics. Plus, the wages were low and the workload very heavy.
“When I reflect on my life now, I think, ‘wow, this is amazing’. You get to make people laugh, even for just one night. I go home happy, they go home happy – it’s a magical career.”
Leong’s latest live show, Dr Jason Leong: Why Are You Like This?, has toured Australia and New Zealand and lands in Hong Kong on June 8, before heading to Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.
It comes hot on the heels of his 2023 Brain Drain tour and his performances at Canada’s Just for Laughs comedy festival and the Laugh Factory in Hollywood.
Finding fresh material is never a problem, he says in a video call from Australia.
“I’m a father, so there’s a lot of material there, and my wife lives in Australia – she is a nurse at the Royal Perth Hospital – so there’s a lot of stories about Malaysians living in another country.”
Being on the road is also a rich source of inspiration, he says, but being separated from family for long stints is no fun.
“I do a lot of FaceTiming with my family – it’s tough because my daughter is now four but she won’t always be tiny.”
As a young student in Malaysia, Leong was often the class clown. “In secondary school, I was always cracking jokes in class,” he says. And standing in front of an audience came naturally to him.
“I joined the debate team, I joined public speaking competitions and I was always an emcee for school events, so I was a natural on the mic. And I liked listening to my own voice – a narcissistic trait is useful for stand-up comedians.”
“That clip went super viral and it allowed Asians to know that ‘hey, we can be funny too’ because, [back] then, comedy was a very alien thing to Asia.
“When I quit my job, I think I was 29, I didn’t tell my mum – I just told her that I’m going on unpaid leave for three months and then slowly, three months became six, six became nine, nine became 12.
“My mum is not stupid – she knew what was going on. One day, she said, ‘Hey, Jason, you’re not going back to your job, are you?’. And I said, ‘No, I’m not going back, I’m going to be a full-time comic’. And that was that.
“It is not just in Hong Kong where there are certain sensitivities. Even in Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, India – every land has its own. There are many pathways to comedy, so one doesn’t always have to be political to be funny,” he says.
The question of what is taboo cannot be avoided when political correctness rules and the threat of being cancelled – vilified by the public – hangs over comedians.
Leong calls it the comedian’s curse. “There will always be people who may not find you funny, who may take offence … every comedian must deal with that.”
His advice to young comedians starting out is to “just be authentic to yourself and speak your truth”.
Dr Jason Leong: Why Are You Like This? June 8, 8pm, Convention Hall, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Wan Chai, Tickets: HK$780 (US$100), HK$580, HK$480 from hkticketing.com
