August 16, 2026
In all the fields of live, professional entertainment I would imagine that trying to pull off standup comedy is not only one of the hardest jobs but probably one of the most terrifying as well. It takes a lot of guts to stand up on a stage and try to get people to laugh. However, I think it’s only human nature to have a little comedian in all of us. I’ve actually gotten laughs at funerals while I was eulogizing my mom and dad. During their long lives my parents not only did a few things but also said plenty of things that solidly deserved a few chuckles. It was a deserving tribute to them. I’ve even got a few snickers at work during management presentations. Okay, I got a few scowls as well, but you can’t win over everybody with a Power Point presentation. Come to think of it, I cracked my buddy Paul up a few times last night while we were hanging out in Deep Ellum, but standing up in front of a paying crowd, trying to get laughs would be, in my opinion, terrifying!
I had seen comedian Yaqiao Yang in short videos on different social media platforms over the last year or so, and I couldn’t help but find her very nonchalant abusing kind of humor interesting. And as an added bonus, she’s pretty cute. In fact, she’s really cute! Okay, I’m not sure if that’s a good reason to go see a standup comedian, but for the time it worked for me.
Margaret figured that seeing some comedian she had never heard of wasn’t worth getting off the couch, so I was taking this venture on as a solo. Back in our fun days, we used to go to a lot of standup acts, but this had always been at the Improv Club. I’d only been to the Hyena’s Comedy club in Dallas once before, and it’s a nice place. However, when you think about it, there’s just not a whole lot of overhead involved when it comes to a comedy club. I guess you need a bar, a small stage, some tables and…well, I guess that’s it.
Like every place I go, I got there way early. The club is nestled within a little complex of shops and restaurants and apparently yoga. There was a “hot yoga” class going on outside the club on the lawn, and as I scratched my head wondering why anyone would want to do yoga in 102-degree weather, this little Asian woman walks by me carrying a camera. I thought, “That looks like the comedian I’m going to see tonight. Wait a minute, that is her!” I guess I was expecting these comedians to arrive like rock stars to a concert, riding in limos with a security team. Nope, she was walking in from the parking garage just like I was.
“Are you the comic?” another early bird asked the young lady once we were inside. She muttered out something like, “Maybe, we’ll see.” Who knows, perhaps she was having some pre show jitters. I asked her where she had performed the previous night, and she basically said, “Yesterday was Wednesday. Nowhere.” Okay, the woman’s nonchalant abusing was already starting, with me! She did take a photo with me, even though she said she conducted a meet and greet afterwards. So I guess she was basically telling me that I was screwing with her routine. I hadn’t even made it into the showroom part of the club yet, and I was already pissing off the performer.
Being one of the first folks in the club I got seated right in front of the stage. Now being down front at a concert can be pretty cool. Being seated down front at a standup show can be downright terrifying! The first comic at these clubs is usually some local who works for the club, and his act started getting into his sex life. He suddenly looks at me and asks me what my favorite position is. Now there’s a question that certainly slaps you in the face. I didn’t realize there was going to be a test or I would have studied. I threw out the term, “many” which technically isn’t a position. Maybe I should have said something like ‘perpendicular’ or something a bit more geometrically friendly. Then he told me that I looked like an old Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory. Okay, that was a new one. I guess I’ve been called worse.
When I saw Yaqiao Yang before the show, I asked her how to pronounce her name, but after studying her name a bit I guess I should have been able to figure it out on my own. At least I had the Yang part down. I’m sure she was thinking, “Oh gosh, what have I gotten myself into?” From the stage she said she was in her mid-thirties, but with the little, belly shirt she was wearing Yaqiao could easily pass for twenty, but even at thirty-five, I’d say she was probably the youngest person in the entire club. Like a lot of comics she gave a little rundown concerning herself and wasn’t shy about throwing out a few things regarding her very personal life. And also like many comedians, she wasn’t shy about diving into her audience’s personal life. Being Asian herself, she laid into the few Asian women in the audience. “Are those D’s?” she exclaimed as she targeted one of the women’s generous womanly attributes. “How does an Asian woman get those? I’ve got A minus here,” she said regarding her own feminine figure. Yes, there was plenty of nonchalant abusing for everyone, including herself.
After a while she muttered, I guess that’s an hour. I’ve never heard a standup mention a time limit, but with that being said she invited questions. A lot of comedians end their show this way, and I’m never one to turn down an opportunity to fire out some questions, but once again, I think I just pissed her off. I ask what her parents did, and if she went to college. She said her parents were teachers, and she dropped out of college. Uh oh! I think that I might have opened up a touchy, personal subject there. Now I was the one throwing out the nonchalant abuse.
When she asked me about my college, I told her that I had two college degrees I’d never used. To this, she told me that I was just bragging. That’s not exactly something to brag about though. When she asked about my former job, I threw out that I used to test semiconductor chips for a wafer fab. Okay, not even the greatest comedian on earth can find humor in that job. Well, the popular term for my job at Texas Instruments was called “multiprobe” because our testers probe tested. So I guess I could have told her that I used to probe for a living. She might have had a bit more fun with that one.
Someone in the audience asked about her role in Kill Tony, which she dove into with a little enthusiasm. Okay, I had never heard of Kill Tony, but apparently, it’s some kind of podcast that’s way above my head. That performance was short lived though, and then she asked if anyone wanted to jump up on stage with her. Well, I was already at the foot of the stage so I figured I might as well take the plunge, so up on stage I went!
Okay, can we all say, “Major mistake!” I’ve never been the best on the fly. I may consider myself a decent writer from time to time, but when I write I usually put my thoughts down and then come back and change most of it later…several times later. So, who knows what kind of off the cuff nonsense came out of my mouth while I was up there. She told me that I was good looking, so that completely threw me off and completely freaked me out. Then she starts asking about my college and what I did for kicks and why my wife wasn’t with me, and…oh gosh, everything seemed to go straight to hell really fast! Here I was standing on stage next to this super cute comedian who was hitting me about shoulder height, and I start blurting out stuff about grandkids and God knows what else! She basically told me that I was an average white guy and sent me on my way.
After a few more comments about how I was still an old Sheldon, the night was over. Yaqiao had a meet and greet after the show, and everyone seemed to be excited about getting their photo with her. I figured the young lady had already had enough of me for the evening, so I bolted out the door in a mad panic! On the drive home I started thinking of all the things I could have said during my stage time. I was basically screaming at myself inside the cab of my pickup truck. Even the two drink minimum that I sucked down during the show couldn’t calm me down. I should have gone for three or four…or five. I was basically panic struck all the way home. Next comedy show I go to, I’m sitting in the back! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay in the back!
As for Yaqiao’s act? I’d go see her again. Why not?
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