Just for Laughs: The Nasty Show host Bobby Lee is thriving by keeping it real

Comedian Bobby Lee’s career is constantly evolving. As a cast member on the sketch show MADtv for nearly a decade beginning in the early aughts, Lee was responsible for playing characters like Kim Jong-il and the incompetent “Asian translator” Bae Sung, which led to roles in stoner film favourites like Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and Pineapple Express. Over the years he’s worked as a stand-up, starting in LA’s legendary Comedy Store, performed improv, and appeared on an array of TV shows, including the recent Splitting Up Together sitcom on ABC. After decades of playing a variety of over-the-top characters, today Lee is likely best known for his freewheeling and open Tiger Belly podcast, the anything-goes show he co-hosts with his girlfriend Khalya Kuhn that has boasts 300,000 subscribers and 45 million views on YouTube.

We caught up with Lee from his home in LA to discuss his unique career trajectory, how he learned to navigate emerging technology to continue to thrive in the comedy world, and why he’s still waiting for that Crazy Rich Asians bump. Bobby Lee hosts The Nasty Show at Just for Laughs from July 17 – 27, with sets from Big Jay Oakerson, Andrew Schulz, Jessimae Peluso, Chris Powell, and Bonnie McFarlane. For the full schedule and tickets visit the official festival site.

Bad Feeling Magazine: You’ll be in town hosting The Nasty Show later this month — what does that designation mean for you? Does that help shape the material you’ll be doing at this run of shows?

Bobby Lee: No, I would do the same act if I was doing  a clean show actually. I don’t really view myself as being that nasty, but people think [the act] is I guess. I was raised in comedy in not the traditional way. I grew up at The Comedy Store, so my role models were always like, [Sam] Kinison, I used to do things with Andrew Dice Clay, Pauly [Shore] was my landlord, I lived in his house for years. The people that I learned comedy from are all fucked up you know? I was just raised to do it the way I do it, and I can’t help it. And I don’t even think that my shit is dirty, but I guess it is.

I talk about how I was molested by a guy with Down syndrome, these things that are truthful, to the common ear might sound like I am being dirty, but I’m just literally talking about my life and how I feel. When I was a kid, older comics would be like, “You’ve got to wear a suit, every joke has to be clean or you’re not going to be able to do The Tonight Show.” And I’ve been able to do all the things that they said that I wasn’t going to be able to do, by just being myself. I did Leno, I was on a sketch show, I’ve done TV, I’ve done all those things. And yet, I haven’t really changed much about what I say, you know?

Growing up, I would look at something like Bill Cosby Himself, that special, and I could chuckle at it, but at the back of my mind, I’d be like, “I just wouldn’t be able to do this.” But when I used to see people like [Richard] Pryor, or Bill Hicks, I was able to go, “Oh, that’s more of my sensibility, I guess.”

I don’t know that its “dirty” per se, but on your Tiger Belly podcast you’re very open about your life — was that always your intention?

No, because as a young guy I was on MADtv, and then what happened was that got cancelled, I was on it for eight years. I did a couple of sitcoms after, I just got to a point in my career where I was like, I would just rather be honest. Years ago I used to do Opie and Anthony all the time in New York, and they kind of taught me how to be more real and also, I’m able to rip on myself. I feel like I know what my character defects are, and because I’m in recovery, I’m just trying to be honest, you know? And the podcast also kind of reinvented me, because I just…I would do shows, and i would sell some tickets, but now everything is sold out, and the people that show up to my shows are true fans, because they know me from Tiger Belly, and the connection is stronger because I’m trying to be more honest.

On a recent episode of Tiger Belly, you were talking about how people tell you it’s “your time now” because of the success of things like Crazy Rich Asians — have you seen that kind of bump in the comedy world?

No. No. No. It’s happening for everyone else but me! [Laughs] I was there when Ali Wong started, I went to Ken Jeong’s wedding, I’ve been a part of it, it’s just that I feel like my road has always been a little bit more difficult. I know these young kids are killing it right now, but I don’t see…I’ve always been pretty steady in terms of the way I make money or where I’m at in the business. I’m kind of under-the-radar, but I’m still killing it, it’s weird. But I’ve never felt a bump, you know?

On that same episode you talk about how important it was for you to see someone like Margaret Cho in the 90s — what did that kind of representation mean to you when you saw her coming up?

You have to think about what was there before her. In the 80s we had Johnny Yune and Tamayo Otsuki, Johnny Yune was Korean, Tamayo was a Japanese girl, she used to date Kinison. The way they did stand-up was heavily relied on the accent, you know? Like, Johnny Yune in the 80s used to get laughs by just saying a word wrong because of his accent. So I didn’t really relate to that because it was just boring, I don’t know any other language. And then when I saw Margaret for the first time, I thought, “Ohh, that’s more like me.” I couldn’t see a pathway until I saw Margaret go up. I had HBO as a kid, I saw her first HBO special and I went, “OK, now maybe there’s a chance that if I wanted to do this, I could.” So she was the first of our kind. And also, when I moved to LA, she found me. I was doing a show down the street on Sunset, it was at a dive bar, and Margaret came to that show just to say hi to me. I had never met her before. And when I met her, we became instantaneous friends. I love her so fucking much dude.

You’ve pursued so many different avenues over the years, from podcasting to movies, TV, stand-up, improv; is that because of the way the comedy landscape has changed over the years?

That’s another thing — when I started comedy, there was no internet. And there was no YouTube, or anything of that nature. So when I was doing it, those things were developed, and I had to learn to use social media, But these are things that just didn’t exist when I started. So in many ways, I’ve had to learn to be young and do things differently, which I think was harder. Because you don’t know how to create a YouTube channel, I just showed up at a comedy club and told some jokes, you know? But I was able to adjust.

Have you ever heard of Maker? There was this place called Maker Studios, and my friend Lisa started it. And she was like, “Come on board, and we’ll create a YouTube channel and you could do that.” And when I did it, I couldn’t get anyone to watch it. So I stopped. But then, what ended up happening was, it’s my podcast that’s getting traction on YouTube and these other platforms, you know? So I was able to do it this way.

Do younger comedians approach you because you’ve been successful in so many mediums? Do you have tips for them?

No, I always say “Learn to do everything.” I did like 80 Chelsea Lately’s, which is a panel show, I’ve done stand-up on TV, I can do sketch, I can do improv, I can do all of it. But then again, when I started, I knew that I had to learn those things. I just learned to do everything so I could survive.

Bobby Lee hosts The Nasty Show at Just for Laughs from July 17 – 27, with sets from Big Jay Oakerson, Andrew Schulz, Jessimae Peluso, Chris Powell, and Bonnie McFarlane. For the full schedule and tickets visit the official festival site.