ROLE CALL! 7pm Next Sat, 9/10 at The PIT!

I’m producing and hosting this new show where some of New York’s best performers revisit the role that got away!  Find out what really goes on behind the audition room door in this parade of broken dreams and painful re-enactments….

ROLE CALL!
Sat, 9/10 at 7pm
The PIT, Downstairs
$5
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=141665279261212

Starring:
Peter Augero (The Moth, BTK Band)
Mindy Raf (ECNY Awards, Leibya Rogers)
Amy Albert (ANTFest, Delilah Dix)
Leah Winkler (Everywhere Theatre Group)

Asian American Writers Workshop: MOM MIC!

Mouth to Mouth: MOM MIC
Friday, July 15, 2011, 8PM

In response to the recent media coverage about Amy Chua’s polarizing Tiger Mom, Mouth to Mouth: MOM MIC will feature the real stories and voices of Asian American moms. Blending comedy, spoken word, hip hop, and stand-up from Kate Rigg, who Bust Magazine calls “hell bent on exploding Asian stereotypes,” will have you out of your seat, and actress, writer, and mom Natalie Kim will entertain you with selections from her solo comedy show.

Come early to sign-up to share your own mom-inspired stories. Whether you are a mother, have a mother, know a mother — we want to hear from you! Free admission if you are a mom (or if you bring your mama)! Stay-tuned for details about the second installment of Mouth to Mouth: MOM MIC, taking place on August 12 (Thursday).

Kate Rigg is the iconoclasic amerasian culture vulture and lead singer for Slanty Eyed Mama.  Artist in residence at the Smithsonian Institute, Comedy Central Theater and the Mark Taper Forum has made a career with a mix
of stand up comedy, spoken word and potty mouth political rants
focused on pop culture represent-Asian.

Actress and writer Natalie Kim was born in Harlem, New York and raised in Centereach, New York. Her credits include HBO’s Bored to Death, independent film West 32nd Street, and Law and Order: Criminal Intent. Recently, Natalie completed a successful run of her solo show, YO GIRL! at 59e59 Street Theater and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She just wrapped SuperTwins!, a comedic web series about fraternal twin superheros, which also stars Trevor Zhou.

This program is funded by the Asian Women Giving Circle.

@The Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 West 27th Street, 6th Floor
Between 6th and 7th Avenues
Buzzer 600

open to the public
$5 suggested donation
free admission if you are a mom or bring your mom

click here for the facebook event!

Wish Come True: My New Solo Show Premieres April 15th!

I’m really excited to present this whimsical new solo show! It’s about dreams coming true (or not). There will be tons of music – per usual!, and tons of stories about my life – not per usual!

Wish Come True
Fri, April 15 at 7pm
The PIT
123 E 24th St (btwn Park/Lex)
Tickets $8 http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/165610
(running time: 40 min)

Wish Come True, 7pm on Fri, 4/15 at The PIT!

Since this is a workshop, feedback is INCREDIBLY welcome. Your support and thoughts will be greatly appreciated in helping to shape this work.

Also, the new PIT theater is amaaaaazing – it’s so baller that it’s got it’s own bar with an amazing draft beer selection and a gorgeous bright red Baldwin I will be tickling the ivories on.

Written and performed by Jen Kwok
Directed by Juliet Jeske
Writing collaboration with Leah Winkler
Design collaboration with Matthew deLeon
Tech by Beowulf Jones

Hope to see you on 4/15!

New Solo Show Nov 9 at Ars Nova!

My new show, She Wants to Sing!, is going up one night only as part of Ars Nova’s ANTFest!

She Wants to Sing!
Tues, Nov 9 at 8pm
Ars Nova
511 West 54th Street
$10

I’m gonna sing and dance and do stuff you’ve probably never seen me do before, and it’s gonna be a ton of fun (AND there will be sparkly costumes)!

Click here for tix:
http://arsnovanyc.com/antfest/shows/57-she-wants-to-sing
Facebook event:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=112236425506061

Written/Performed by Jen Kwok
Featuring Michael Haayen and Ricky Milburn
Directed by Juliet Jeske
Videos by Ballard C. Boyd, Choreography by Michael Haayen, and Additional Music by soce, the elemental Wizard

Kickstarter Project for Page Turner: Asian American Literary Festival!

Hey dudes, I’m superexcited to be helping out with the Kickstarter for Page Turner!  I did this event last year, and it was tha bomb.

Page Turner is describe as “the TED of Asian American literature, but with more booze and better battle rhymes!” – and that pretty much about sums it up!

Check out the project and help us raise money to keep this an annual event because it rules and it’s inspiring and the only event of its kind!

Page Turner Kickstarter Page!

Also, you get cool rewards and various giving levels – there’s even one level where I will write you a personalized ukulele song

Take You Home Music Video Shoot!

Hey Ya’ll,

I recently shot the music video for my song “Take You Home” with the same dream team behind Date an Asian.  It was directed by Ballard C. Boyd and the song was produced by  soce, the elemental wizard aka Andrew Singer!  This time I have the lovely Miss CKC aka Carolyn Castiglia, spittin a rhyme on this joint!  Check out her blog post about the vid shoot for more photos:  More behind-the-scenes of “Take You Home”.

Here we are shooting at my fave bar in Greenpoint, BK, The Diamond:

Jen and Carolyn! Photo by Anya Garrett.

Special thanks to Dave and Will at The Diamond!  The bar is rockin’ with a huge Nite Brite-ish wall and painting of Michael Landon on the wall . It’s gonna look HAAAWT!

We were styled by the inimitable Johnny “JR” Tabanao, who also styled Date an Asian, and Michael Haayen did the choreography.  Also shout out to Gary Mahmoud and David Cope (who you can see in the background), who played the leading men.  Yeah…there’s a lil story that goes with this one, but you’ll have to wait till the vid comes out to see!

Also special thanks to the crew that was helping all day:  Will Beckley – DP/Cinematographer, Sam Roden – AD, Jeremy Brunjes – Gaffer, Drew Martorelli – PA.  And of course Tom for driving the Honda Fit, Joe Valkenburgh for help cleaning/kid duty (there’s another kid!!!  It’s CKC’s daughter and she is FABULOUS!), and Greg Moss for help returning equipment/kid duty.

Many thanks to the cast that came out – I will shout them out when the vid arrives!!!  It will be coming out mid-April with two live screenings in NYC leading up to its release!

“Take You Home” Music Video Live Screening Dates
Jen Kwok featuring Miss CKC
Directed by Ballard Boyd, Music Produced by soce, the elemental wizard

FRIDAY, APRIL 2 at 7:30 pm (doors at 7pm)
Splurge! at Happy Ending
302 Broome Street (Forsyth/Eldridge)
FREE

This is the AWESOME comedy show hosted by Miss CKC aka Carolyn Castiglia, the brills comic/rapper on “Take You Home”.  She has AMAZING comedians on her show.  April 2 is Kevin Allison, Ophira Eisenberg, Tom Shillue, Brooke Van Poppelen and Mark Douglas – the video premiere!  We’ll be showing a rough cut of the video this evening.

FRIDAY, APRIL 16 at 9pm (doors at 8:30pm)
Mouth-to-Mouth Open Mic at the Asian American Writers Workshop
16 W 32nd St, 10th Fl (Bwy/5th Ave)
$5 suggested donation

This is the monthly open mic I co-host with Ed Lin at the AAWW, the only non-profit org dedicated to supporting Asian American writers.  We’ll be showing the official version of the video here.  Also, I invite any of you guys to sign up and present your work that night!!!  Just show up early (right at 8:30pm or slightly earlier) to sign up for a slot.  And you don’t have to be Asian!  All writers are welcome – and any style (poetry, music, comedy, etc.). We have everyone from seasoned pros to first-time readers testing out new material (usually with 100+ people in attendance each month)!

Why Date an Asian…Chick?

One of my favorite websites, Racialicious, did an excellent blog post about the depressing existence and overall awfulness of the website, “Classy Asian Ladies”.  A vile quote from the website:

“While Asian women are well known throughout the world for their exotic beauty and sensitive nature they are also very smart and well educated, and in many cases high earners in the job market.”

Seriously.  Who hasn’t vomited yet?

Hop over here for the full article.  I’m not going to comment on it any further because:

a)  The Racialicious article does a great job breaking down the implications of this website.

b)  These stereotypes and outdated racial views are 500% (bad math, I know) the reason why I write and perform.

The author was also kind enough to draw the following conclusion at the end:

“At times like this, I like to visit Big Bad Chinese Mama, or listen to Jen Kwok’s Date An Asian. But watch out, these are not for the faint of heart. These classy Asian ladies are writing some serious satire, and they have a lot of rage.

But can you really blame them?”

Sometimes I really do want to quit what I’m doing – for various reasons.  I’m often worried about being misinterpreted as offensive or perpetuating the very thing I’m trying to satirize.  I’ve definitely been accused of it.

But once in awhile, I feel like someone really gets what I’m trying to do, and I realize it isn’t all for naught.

If My Vagina Could Talk…It Would Be Doing So This Weekend At Hunter College!

Come check out my next show at Hunter College this Sat, Feb 20 and support a great cause!

Sat, Feb 20 at 8pm
“If My Vagina Could Talk….”
V Day: A Benefit at Hunter College to Stop Violence against Women
$12 at Door, $10 advance tickets at Brown Paper Tickets
$10 at Door w/ student ID

Come support the other V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. Produced by Madhatters Cabaret (MC) to benefit The Audre Lorde Project, Sanctuary for Family and New York Asian Women’s Center (NYAWC), featuring some truly amazing poets and DJs!

NEW Asian American Writers Workshop (AAWW) Open Mic: Mouth-to-Mouth!

This nifty flyer was designed by the talented Diana Ho! Check out her amazing art and hire her if you need kick ass graphic designer or other visually artistic and cool looking things!

www.diana-ho.com

Ed Lin and I are resurrecting the open mic series at AAWW:

Fri, Feb 12 at 9pm
Mouth to Mouth Open Mic:  Celebrate Your Lunacy on Lunar New Year & Valentine’s Day!
Asian American Writers Workshop
16 W 32nd St, 10th Fl (btwn Bwy & 5th Ave)
$5 suggested donation; open to the public

Facebook Event: AAWW Mouth-to-Mouth Open Mic

This is our first show to kick off the series, so come out to celebrate the Year of the Tiger…and love!

Ed and I will also be on Asia Pacific Radio to talk about the series – tune into Asia Pacific Forum on WBAI on Feb 9 at 7pm.  They’ll be doing a half hour on each of us and then we’ll be plugging the mic and the workshop!

I encourage all my fellow Asian creative writer-y type people to come out and share their work/works-in-progress at this event!  Our goal is to host a broad range of writers from the Asian American community: novelists, comedians, playwrights, poets, songwriters, etc. etc.  The Workshop has held open mics in the past with over 100+ people in the audience – in addition to the artists performing new work – so there’s huge potential here to build an awesome place to create, share and meet other peeps each month!

If you aren’t familiar with the AAWWesomeness (I know, I corny…), check it all out at www.aaww.org for info on workshops, readings and other events.  AAWW is an amazing non-profit resource and advocate for AA writers – and has worked with badasses from Jhumpa Lahiri to David Henry Hwang.

And pass the word along as well to your other Asian writer homies!  We’re gonna make this thing F***ING amazing!

Please Come to Jalopy on Feb 6!

Hey lovers and fighters and Saturday-nighters!

So the comedy loves of my lives, Tinkerbel Tompsin and Juliet Jeske, are teaming up with me on this great show in Brooklyn nextnext Saturday, February 6 at 9pm:

Sat, Feb 6, 2010 at 9pm
Jen Kwok, Tinkerbel Tompsin and Juliet Jeske
Jalopy
315 Columbia Street
Red Hook, BrooklynF train to Carroll St (more detailed directions)
*SUBWAY NOTE: the G Train normally goes there, but it is not running at ALL on weekends in Feb. There is a free shuttle bus thing-y, though*
$10

As some of you may know, Jalopy is really quite possibly my favorite music venue in New York – and definitely in Brooklyn (I could never do Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola like that!).

What I’m saying is that the venue is fucking awesome and worth the trip (it’s a music school with ukuleles hanging on the wall, to boot!), but these are also two of my very best performer friends that were with me from the very beginning of my creative journey – when I surgically remove myself from life as an accountant at Ernst & Young and decided to give improv a try at UCB.

It will be an evening of beautiful (funny) songs, hilarious stories, sick shit and a little bit of sex (we can’t help it)! Between the three of us, we ladies play five different instruments, have at least 3 yards of leg and boast maybe 42 broken relationships. It will be awesome!!!

I’ll be doing a full length set with my band, The Ridiculously Good Lookings, comprised of: Marco Buccelli (drums), Matt Buttermann (guitar) and Charles HehasalastnamebutIcantthinkofitrightnow (bass). Tinkerbel Tompsin opens with her truly luscious/sultry/offbeat Southern Gothic cabaret and Juliet Jeske hosts between sets with drunken musings of a sober woman who is so good at performing that being a clown is her day job.

CONCLUSION: COME HAVE FUN WITH JEN KWOK, TINKERBEL TOMPSIN AND JULIET JESKE ON FEB 6 at JALOPY IN RED HOOK, BROOKLYN.

Thanks in advance for coming!!!

PS You can get amaaaaazing Mexican food beforehand at the brick-and-mortar outpost of the FUCKING DELICIOUS Calexico – only a few blocks away!!!!!