Candy & Smiley
Prime Video · 2021 · 67 min
A quiet, intimate family gathering disguised as a comedy hour.
Ed Hill performs without a microphone, sitting level with an audience of exactly six people. Filmed during the pandemic inside a spacious gymnasium in Vancouver, this debut hour does away with the usual theater stage, bright spotlights, and booming laugh track. Instead, Hill sits in a circle with his closest friends and family, delivering what feels less like a traditional stand-up routine and more like a support group meeting where only one person is allowed to talk.
The special gets its title from his parents, who chose English names when they immigrated to Canada from Taiwan when Hill was ten. He explains that his mother picked Candy after the dessert, while his father went with Smiley—a naming choice Hill disputes since the man almost never smiles. From there, Hill moves through slow-paced stories about his family, the death of a childhood pet turtle, and fixing a broken washing machine. It is a conversational, slow-burning hour that focuses on the quiet friction of the first-generation immigrant experience rather than chasing quick punchlines.
Released in 2021 by Comedy Dynamics, the special stood out for its stark departure from standard stand-up formats. Rather than trying to replicate a rowdy comedy club in an empty room, Hill leaned into the awkwardness of the pandemic’s restrictions, earning praise from outlets like Paste Magazine for his patient storytelling.
The set list
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Reflecting on identity and his relationship with his parents
Explaining that he is more than Ed Hill or Edward Chen, he is Candy and Smiley, followed by his parents appearing from off camera
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Growing up in a Taiwanese-Canadian community
Providing humorous insight into community obsessions like piano lessons and Kumon
How it plays
- Tone
- Relevant, realistic, personal, intimate, thought-provoking, and at times ridiculous and emotional
- On stage
- Personal, intimate, and emotionally vulnerable storyteller who connects directly as if confiding to trusted companions
- Pace
- Intimate and reflective, opening with a dramatic piano solo and structured around shared personal stories rather than high-energy conventional stand-up rhythm
- About
- Relationship with his parents (Candy and Smiley), First-generation Taiwanese-Canadian family dynamic, Asian-immigrant experience, Cultural identity and struggle in a new land, Growing up on Coquitlam's Westwood Plateau, Marriage to a white woman
What the critics said
Praised as the most personal and intimate comedy special yet, described as equal parts thought-provoking commentary, funny, vulnerable, and an emotional tear-jerker.
In the room: An intimate, quiet circle of close family and trusted friends in a group-therapy-style setting
Backstory
Originally scheduled to tape in March 2020 at the Chan Centre, the production was shut down due to COVID-19 provincial emergency orders. In July 2020, it was adapted into an intimate performance inside the ballroom of Vancouver's Italian Cultural Centre, performed for a circle of close friends and family, drawing on his background as a clinical counsellor and Indigenous family circle concepts.
Details
- Released
- Taped
- 2020, Italian Cultural Centre (main ballroom), Vancouver
- Runtime
- 67 min
- Where
- Prime Video
- Director
- Jeremy Podlog
- Honors
- Top 15 Stand-up Comedy Specials of 2021 by Paste MagazineBest of 2021 by NPR Radio
- Topics
- After
- Stupid Ed (2024)
More from Ed Hill
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Stupid Ed
Comedy Dynamics
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