how are you feeling Esther I'm feeling
very healthy I'm Kyle Marion I'm a
former scientist and science comedian
hello my name is Esther Chen I am an
actor and stand-up comedian from Taiwan
and we created the Asian strike back a
coronavirus comedy and science show I'm
feeling very anxious as I'm sure many of
the people on the house are these days
yes yeah yeah not because of the corona
virus but because you've gathered a
hundred people the Asian strike back of
coronavirus comedy and science show is a
variety show that we created together
bringing together stand-up comedians
musical comedians with scientists
including a couple of science comedians
[Music]
and we just wanted to be able to tackle
both the social issues around epidemics
like this that are constantly you know
racialized but also just make people
laugh and myth bust at the same time I
thought as a comedy show with very
helpful knowledge so should we be scared
in front of virus what are you scared
are you scared of the symptoms are you
scared of dying from it in that case no
because you're not old
unless you're old then I'm sorry we
decided to put on a show because around
the time that the corona virus was
kicking off we were like just really
feeling the pressures and the pain of
our community worldwide of people
blaming Asians in general for this new
outbreak of something we don't know what
are we doing today Esther what is the
show about the virus
the virus and the racism and I also
wanted to combat misinformation with
science the thing that gives me the most
anxiety is that I know how many people
in the room don't wash them oh I don't I
think one of the things a lot of people
didn't realize especially when they were
reporting the outbreak of the corona
virus as it was first coming out was
that it would be accompanied with
increases not only in microaggression
but just in in-your-face kind of racism
coronavirus things started there's only
been maybe one night when people weren't
means Asians on the internet and that
was one parasite so weird - just because
of my skin color people assumed that I
carry the disease or I'm more prone to
the disease or that they should shy away
from me to keep themselves protected I'm
sorry girls very sick so at the top of
the show we walked out with bras on our
faces actually we walked out with
Esther's bras on both arms yeah because
she just didn't she didn't want to
sacrifice her bra he didn't they're so
expensive so what's going on with your
baby girl you know this this is called
the Asian Asian whitening mask this is
what you wear to the beach if you don't
want to get a tan one of the things I
wanted to tackle immediately with the
show are myths and misconceptions around
face masks and so Esther did bits where
she just kept putting on different masks
hue was useful for fading people yes
corona virus protection news my college
production the non-union Romeo and
Juliet reason why the surgical masks
work is because it contains it but also
when you're the one being sprayed at
it's all your holes on the face so just
like wash your whole face wash your hand
stop touching your face really yeah I
love touching the moment LeBrock
millennial I cannot even afford to ever
go to Asia like
I'm so broke I can't afford to catch
coronavirus do you understand like we
had a very special last minute dropping
guests we don't know where he came from
but he claims he is from he wants to get
out of this small town I think one of my
biggest takeaways doing the coronavirus
show there's still so many
misconceptions and we allow our fear to
get ahead of us this is going to be an
exercise about how to face our fears
about coronavirus and I'm gonna need
some audience volunteers Wow not all at
once okay
also please stop hoarding face masks and
antibacterial hand sanitizers because
they are for the people who are most
vulnerable and more importantly please
protect people who are elders
immunocompromised and persons with
disabilities it's a shared experience
amongst everybody we're all going
through the Croatoan virus we are able
to laugh at this together we're gonna be
okay
you