“I have a tone problem,” reckons Ronny Chieng: everything he says sounds angry or sarcastic. In the past, that’s been to the detriment of his standup, but it’s less the case here in his first London outing since becoming a correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. He dials down the scorn (a little) in this set, which is going with a swing – until he gets heckled for a routine defending the “creepy” amorous behaviour of the teenage male, at which point his tone problem resurfaces to unpleasant effect.
If you’re coming at him via his sitcom, International Student – routinely described as sweet and charming – you’ll barely recognise onstage Chieng. Slick and high-handed, he kicks off with an extended routine about living in the States: a land of consumerist abundance and turbo-charged convenience.
Occasionally, it feels as if we’re voyeurs at a show designed for a US audience. He seems unaware that his observations of the New York subway apply equally to the London tube. He builds jokes around basketball stars we’ve never heard of. But usually he finds new – and relatable – angles on the eccentricities of American behaviour.
This US material finds Chieng at his jauntiest. Other jokes make the most of his misanthropic demeanour – such as the one about planning three weddings at the same time; or the tirade against comedy critics (which may explain why none were invited to this show). These are curmudgeonly, but recognisable as comedy – which can’t be said for Chieng’s reaction to a heckler, two-thirds into the show. His uncertainty is palpable when a woman in the crowd disagrees with his apologia for (what he describes as) clumsy male seduction. But then – perhaps goaded by hostility towards the heckler from other audience members – he makes a bad decision, accusing her of rudeness, after which she opts to leave.
Whether or not she had a point, it’s an ugly moment that suggests a tin ear on Chieng’s part for the post-Weinstein moment. He pulls the show round with a closing anecdote, full of neat callbacks, about missing the flight home to his own wedding. But the heckler keeps preying on his mind – and on ours, too – and the show suffers as a result.
At Soho theatre, London, until 25 November. Box office: 020-7478 0100.
