‘It doesn’t matter who I am, as long as I’m funny.’ A Q&A with transgender stand-up comedian Tan Hoang

Tan Hoang was never a funny kid. The stand-up comedian swears that even though she loved watching comics while growing up in Minnesota, comedy just didn’t come naturally to her.

“I completely had to learn. I learned how to be funny,” she said.

Hoang was born in Vietnam and moved to St. Paul, Minn. with her sister and aunt and uncle’s family when she was 8. “It was the single greatest thing that ever happened to me,” she said about the move. “I felt like I went on a rocket ship [to] another planet.”

She always knew that she was transgender, sometimes at a subconscious level. “There was [such a] wall of denial. [But] once that wall’s breached, it was so clear,” she said. Hoang was pursuing an acting career in New York City when she started to transition. It was hard to suddenly switch the kinds of roles she auditioned for; until that point, she’d been practicing and thinking almost exclusively about how cisgender male characters should act.

As Hoang navigated the change in her career and her life, she started exploring standup comedy. Hoang fell in love with the craft of writing jokes and what it felt like making people laugh, and has been performing ever since.

“I love to make people laugh. That’s all it is.”

She moved to Philadelphia in 2017, and now hosts the monthly comedy showcase, Tattooed Momedy, on the last Tuesday of every month at the Tattooed Mom bar on South Street. She will also emcee the Bucks-Mont Pride Festival, sponsored by the Welcome Project PA, on June 25 from noon to 5 p.m. at the Abington Art Center.

Hoang spoke to The Inquirer about her career, why she’s made her identity an integral part of her comedy, and how a good show makes her want to party.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

I’ve always like looked up to stand-up comedians. I thought that was so cool. I watched a lot growing up, but it never really felt like a goal I could achieve. I wasn’t even a funny kid.

I went to New York for acting after high school, to the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. And I still hadn’t transitioned yet, I still hadn’t accepted who I am.

So my first year in acting school, I was still a straight male. And it was during my second year that I came out and transitioned. So by the time I graduated, it made it hard to find roles or approach acting because I realized I was on a different journey with myself and with casting.

And I think that’s what pulled me into stand-up. They had stand-up as an elective class, and I took it and I realized, oh, I like this.

Because it felt freeing. It felt like it doesn’t matter who I am, as long as I’m funny.

And I struggled in the stand-up class. I remember writing my first joke and I just felt like I was solving a math problem. And then the wheel started spinning. It was like discovering a new muscle. And as soon as I graduated school, I was just like, all right, let’s do open mics and try to get all the shows.

It was really hard. Honestly, those were some of the darkest moments in my life because I was, in every sense of the word, a “golden” child. I was a good student. I went to acting school and no one batted an eye.

And then when I transitioned it was really hard to see your family look at you so differently. And you’re thinking to yourself, what did I do to deserve this other than just put on makeup and a wig? They weren’t mean. I could just tell that they wished I wasn’t like this. I could tell that you guys are uncomfortable with me at this Applebee’s. And that’s the thing that hurt the most.

But things with my family now are so good. I cannot stress that enough. Not only am I just a normal member of family, but the whole culture of my family has changed, too. It took a while, years.

And the thing that always stood out to me was when my mom finally, told me, ‘I love you. I will always love you. I’m just having a lot of difficulty with this because I’m afraid that the world would hurt you.’ That was the first step heading toward the right direction.

It was just exposure. That was all it was, them eventually being used to me. And now they’re like, ‘hey, I bought this skirt, it doesn’t fit. Do you want it?’

One show that always sticks out to me is when my mom and I drove all the way to New York together. She was living in Bucks County at the time. I did the show and I didn’t get one laugh at all. And that was a long drive back. It was clear, this is a very hard thing to pursue. We drove all the way up there just to watch me bomb, and it’s not like I got paid for that show, either.

That really did feel like a really low moment. But I’m so glad I stuck it out.

I just love it so much. I think that’s the thing, a lot of comedians are addicted to that feeling. Now, I’m making people laugh and it just feels amazing. And I love that feeling of after-the-show, because I could be so tired, I could have been working all day. But if I do well in that show, I’m up. I’m like, ‘who wants to go party?’

I remember a time when I thought, I’m not gonna address it. I just wanna be me. But one time after doing a show, the owner of the club came up to me and said, “You’re so funny. Do you have any transgender jokes?” And I told them, I’m trying to do this thing. I don’t want to mention it.

And the owner said, in a respectful way, “I think that’s really dumb because the moment you get on stage, everybody wants to hear about it. In fact, this is probably the only time ever that people are open to it. So if anybody make these jokes, it should be you.”

After that, I leaned towards it. I know that for some audience member at a lot of these shows I go to, this is their first time seeing a transgender person. I can just tell.

So I like to take the opportunity to represent. Because if I can make you laugh and smile, that’s a step towards the right direction. If that’s going to be your first impression of a trans person, well why not be me? I’ll make you laugh. And then now, this is your impression of us.

I don’t wanna come off like this trans person on a mission to change the world. I just love comedy. I love to make people laugh. That’s all it is. I don’t care if it’s six people in the room or 60 people in the room. I just love that I can put on a good show with just a microphone.