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Philly Philly Wang Wang

Phil Wang

Netflix · 2021 · 63 min

A dry, deadpan hour of cultural critique and aging anxieties.

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Ambling across the stage with his hands in his pockets, Phil Wang spends his debut Netflix special quietly dismantling his own liberal pretensions and sending up Western anxieties about East Asia. He is a self-declared beta male who leans into a dry, aloof delivery that is more interested in measured irony than high-energy showmanship.

Originally scheduled to be filmed at London’s Old Vic in early 2020, the special was delayed by the pandemic and finally recorded to a reduced-capacity crowd at the London Palladium in June 2021. By that point in his career, Wang was a well-established fixture on British television, and the material here (some of which was carried over from his 2017 touring show Kinabalu) benefits from that relaxed screen confidence.

He is particularly effective when playing a mock Chinese supremacist, loftily parodying UK perceptions of East Asian men, diet, and global domination. Other standout routines cover the uneven burden of male contraception and his dread of turning thirty, which prompts a grandly theatrical rejection of older people trying to reassure him. His signature rhythmic repetition of key phrases gives the hour a distinct, almost musical pacing, even if his cool detachment occasionally borders on indifference.

The set list

4 bits

  1. Male contraceptive pill and birth control expectations

    Argues against the double standard of women carrying the burden of birth control, comically obsessing over the sonorous imagery and sound of putting 'a cork on my balls' / 'a cork on his penis'.

  2. East Asian heritage and pandemic branding problems

    Divides the East into 'Cricket Asian' and 'Eats-Weird-Shit Asian', places himself in the latter, and quips about his early 2020 visit to China ('Unrelated, it wasn't me!').

  3. The dos and don'ts of mocking foreign accents

    Uses his barber's Japanese accent as an entry point, joking that Westerners mocking Chinese accents is of little concern to a superpower aiming for global domination.

  4. East Asian male stereotypes on dating apps

    Mulls over dating difficulties for East Asian men, contrasting it with the irony that China was the only country that had to mandate laws to prevent its citizens from having too much sex.

How it plays

Tone
Witty, quirky, ironic, and playfully provocative.
On stage
Aloof, high-status, standoffish persona characterized by ironic distance and intellectual self-deprecation.
Pace
Static physical performance driven by deliberate phrasing and memorable one-liners.
About
race and racial stereotypes, mixed British-Malaysian heritage, COVID-19 pandemic and racism, ageing and entering one's 30s, male contraception and sexism, politics and capitalism

What the critics said

Praised for sharp one-liners, clever arguments, and nuanced observations on race, pandemic paranoia, and gender roles, though some reviewers noted that his standoffish persona and static delivery can create emotional distance.

In the room: A sold-out yet socially distanced, reduced-capacity theatre audience at the London Palladium.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, comedy.co.uk, theguardian.com, chortle.co.uk, decider.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Backstory

Filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic under reduced-capacity venue guidelines after an initial May 2020 taping date was postponed, incorporating contemporary discussions around pandemic fears, racism, and turning 30.

Details

Released
Taped
London Palladium
Runtime
63 min
Where
Netflix
Director
Barbara Wiltshire
Honors
Show material broke ticket-selling records at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Topics
After
Wang in There, Baby! (2024)

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