The Belly Laughs Comedy & Food Festival concluded its inaugural two-day event with a love letter of tasty food and laughter addressed to the Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora.
The event featured over 30 Asian American comedians, including prominent stars such as Hasan Minhaj, Kumail Nanjiani, and Margaret Cho, who headlined along with other up-and-coming comics. To add to the celebration, the event also included some of the best Asian restaurants around Los Angeles.
The food lineup could have easily been a festival of its own, with restaurants featuring the best of their take on their home country’s dishes and other fusions. Asia boasts 48 diverse countries, each with its unique cuisine, and some of that food and culture have been thriving in Los Angeles, making the Asian food and comedy festival the perfect pairing for the eateries to shine. Guests had the opportunity to taste the flavors of Vietnam, India, Laos, Pakistan, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and more.
All of the festival’s food was set up and sold at the Chick Hearn Plaza, which was officially opened in May, effectively expanding the L.A. Live campus, connecting Crypto.com Arena and Star Plaza to Peacock Place, Peacock Theater and the rest of L.A. Live’s restaurants and entertainment venues.
While the food vendor grills were hot, so was the weather, but it wasn’t record-breaking, and it certainly wasn’t enough to spoil anyone’s good time. People kept cool with fans and other refreshing beverages like the Guava passion fruit lemonades, boba milk teas and iced coffees.
One of the benefits of hosting the event at the Chick Hern Plaza and the Peacock Theater was that it provided the crowds a choice to go inside the theater to cool off in the air conditioning and watch comedians, or find a shaded table to enjoy the summer breeze with more stand-up comedy and food.
While people ordered food, comedians performed at the Gold Stage House Stage inside of Peacock Theater and the Mama and Karaoke Stages in front of Peacock Plaza. Filipino-American comedian Andrew Orolfo hosted the Mama Stage, where he cracked jokes and kept the crowd hyped between performers, gathering crowds siphoned from the food vendor lines around the stage.
Jenny Yang was one of the first afternoon performers at the Mama Stage, where she called to action Asian Americans to be more politically active and jokingly vowed that in solidarity with Latin communities facing ICE deportations, she plans to become “the most Chinese-Taiwanese-Mexican person” before breaking off into a full Spanish monologue and revealing she’d spent two years learning Spanish.
“I moved from Taiwan, to Rosemead, to Hawthorne and grew up in Torrance,” she said to a cheering crowd. “If you went to school in Southern California, you grew up just a little bit Mexican.”
In addition to the stand-up comedy, the Mama Stage also incorporated a cooking demo by Chef Tuệ Nguyễn, who showed the crowd how to make Vietnamese tiramisu in under 30 minutes. Nguyễn’s down-to-earth and at times funny demonstration spotlighted the chef’s personality, making it all entertaining and educational.
She got her signature tiramisu done with seven minutes to spare and encouraged everyone who watched to try it at her booth and to cook at home. For those who got a taste, it was a decadent dessert with the first layer made with Biscoff cookies along with a complementary pasteurized egg batter topped with cinnamon.
Other activities on the Mama Stage included the Bibigo x Lakers eating contest, where a woman from the crowd competed against comedian Joe Wong for Lakers memorabilia and a gift card. Both contestants had to eat a dumpling and shoot a toy basketball into a small hoop from behind a line and their seat. There was also a live tuna cutting presented by Bluefina where the Riviera Seafood Club showed the crowd how to cut the fish.
Over at the Karaoke Stage, comedians such as Ismael Loutfi also gathered crowds, but by the evening, festivalgoers stepped up to the stage’s microphone to sing their hearts out to jams such as 2Pac’s “Changes.”
The festival also featured a few booths selling merch, including the 99 Ranch Market, which specializes in Asian groceries. Asians Never Die, a shop specializing in apparel, stickers, and pins that focuses on Asian culture, was also present with a booth.
Rohit Gijare of Los Angeles said that the representation of Asian culture being at the center of a festival of this caliber means a lot to him and others in his community.
“Growing up, we didn’t see events like this at this scale, and having Asian and Indian culture all in one place in the heart of Los Angeles is very cool to see come to life and be a part of,” he said. “Hopefully it’s something we keep seeing more of.”
By the end of the evening, most comedy fans were inside the Peacock Theater, watching comedian Derek Mio host the Gold Stage and introduce Hari Kondabolu, Joel Kim Booster, Asif Ali, and the remaining headliners of the festival.
Whether the comedians were South Asian, East Asian or Pacific Islander, one of the underlying themes of the jokes told to the predominantly Asian audience was centered on the comedians’ identities.
Kondabolu focused on his Indian-American culture, sharing his delight at watching Britain (which colonized India) struggle with Meghan Markle and Brexit. Cho joked about her bangs being “too Chinese” and how her family appreciated the success of comedian Whitney Cummings more than hers. Bobby Lee followed with jokes about being raised with Korean parents, including funny anecdotes about his father not fully understanding the “pull my finger” bit and hearing his father tell Korean war stories as bedtime stories.
Minhaj was the final act, but before he performed, he brought a few of his friends and fellow comedians Biniam Bizuneh and Nimesh Patel, who each performed a mini-set before Minhaj took the stage. His set also focused on cultural issues and the Asian diaspora’s experience growing up in America.
“This has been an absolute joy being able to headline Asian Coachella,” he joked. “What a way to bring it home.”