-This is very exciting. You started doing stand-up again.
You filmed a Netflix special that's coming? Yes?
And what has it been like
being back on the road doing stand-up again?
Because I know you took a break for a while.
Yeah, I hadn't done stand-up in 10 years.
And I'd done it for 15 years prior to the first "Hangover."
So that's how I really got my start in comedy.
And it has been amazing.
It's been basically
very personal, very autobiographical,
and it's really like a one-man show with [bleep] jokes.
You know? It's just so -- Small [bleep] jokes.
And --
[ Laughter ]
-It's, like, very short.
-Very short. Yeah. Very short.
-There's a setup and a punch line, and we get out.
-And some may call it unsatisfying. Now...
[ Laughs ] But it's very nice.
You really kind of get to see --
The first movie I did was Judd Apatow's "Knocked Up."
And I shot that movie while still having my day job.
And really therapeutic
to kind of go over the last 10 years of my life.
And my wife's a breast-cancer survivor.
She's 10 years cancer-free.
[ Cheers and applause ] Thank you.
And it's really nice. I had forgotten --
Before "The Hangover" became "The Hangover,"
I had actually turned down the part of Mr. Chow.
And there's a whole backstory
of how I eventually did the part.
It's lovely.
-And because of what your wife was going through at the time,
while you were shooting "The Hangover,"
it was a difficult time for you, which I'm assuming
people would think was this
transcendentally great time for you.
-Yeah. It was cathartic.
In fact, I did in-jokes
because Tran was going through chemo at that time.
And I did in-jokes in Vietnamese that made it in the movie
just to make my wife laugh.
When Mr. Chow...
[ Cackles as Mr. Chow ]
When Mr. Chow is releasing Black Doug,
he says [Speaks Vietnamese]
And it doesn't mean "release the hostage" in Chinese.
Actually, in Vietnamese, it means "chicken die."
For some reason, that just came up.
And so a lot of these Vietnamese words
are sprinkled in the final cut.
-Did you put as much thought into Mr. Chow's backstory
as those people did for their Santa Claus?
-I didn't choose Chow.
[ As Mr. Chow ] Chow chose me!
-[ Laughs ] I believe that. I believe that.
[ Applause ]
You have another show that's coming up.
It's called -- What -- -It's "The Masked Singer."
-"The Masked Singer." -Yeah.
-Explain how the show works real quick.
-Yeah, it's based on basically the most popular
competition show in Korea and Thailand.
I'm Korean, and this is my mom's favorite show in Korea.
And I got offered to be a judge on this show,
and I was going to turn it down.
I wasn't sure about it.
And my mom's like, "You have to do this show!"
It's like, "You don't understand, Mom.
I have no -- what's the word -- talent.
I don't know anything about music."
She was just like --
She sent me YouTube clips in Korean,
like, tapes of the Korean show.
It's so oddly perfect.
It's so amazing, where you're -- It's part like "The Voice."
It's like the blind auditions in "The Voice."
It's part "American Idol."
It's part, like, "This Is Your Life."
It's four different competitions rolled into one.
-But the part that you've left out
that is maybe the most jarringly different
is "The Masked Singer" is someone we know,
but once they reveal themselves, we'll know who they are.
They're famous.
-Everyone's recognizable. Everyone's famous.
At the end of every episode when contestants are eliminated,
when you hear their testimonials
of why they chose to do this in the first place,
it's oddly emotional.
There were a couple times I teared up, like, literally.
"Oh, my God. I love you, Hippo!" Or whatever. I don't know.
-Well, that's the thing.
When you think of masked singer, you think of just a mask.
But that's a lot more than just a mask.
So this is would be a celebrity singing.
-It is. It is.
-And then they give you clues,
and you have to guess who they are.
No one at home right now is thinking, "Oh, I had that idea."
-[ Laughs ] It's amazing, though.
Look at the layer of it, you know?
It's a bunny, but it's Donnie Darko.
-Yeah, it's got some spookiness to it.
-We look forward to that, as well.
And it's always just so great to see you, man.
Thanks so much for being here. Really appreciate it.