Today we’d like to introduce you to Yola Lu.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I got my start in comedy by doing stand-up in 2011. I didn’t grow up watching stand-up, so when I saw people do stand-up on TV, I was obsessed and told myself that I wanted to try doing stand-up someday. 2011 was the year that I was going to graduate college, and I felt like I didn’t get to do all the things in college that I wanted to do, so I decided to make a bucket list of all the things I wanted to do before graduating. Things on the list included being in a musical, performing in the Vagina Monologues, going to Greece, trying stand up and getting my nose pierced. I ended up doing all of those things, minus Greece and the nose piercing. I ended up signing up for a stand-up class and the class ended with a showcase where we got to invite all our friends and family. I remember not being able to eat for two days prior to the event because I was so nervous. I ended up having an amazing set and the feeling and high of getting that laughter was nothing like I’ve ever felt before. From that point forward, my goals changed and so did my post-college plans. I ended up in Texas because I went to a coding bootcamp in Houston. I ended up really falling in love with Texas but wanted to be somewhere where there was a bigger comedy scene so I took a Greyhound and went to Austin and decided to stay. I’ve been here ever since and have been loving it.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It hasn’t been very easy. Trying to work a full-time job and also doing comedy as much as possible has been a challenge on its own. Being exhausted from work and then going out to open mics or rehearsals or shows after was a lot. There was a lot of harassment as a newer comic when I started that made me question if this was something I wanted to be a part of. That, along with the crippling self-doubt made me question if this was something that I even wanted to do.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I do stand up, sketch, improv and I act, write and produce things. I am most well known for doing comedy, as well as my web series that I wrote and acted in, called ‘uncomfortable the series’. This web series has been in my brain for years and I was finally able to get it out and it’s one of my proudest achievements to date. I’m also one of the co-founders of Y’all We Asian Improv and one of the co-founders of Disoriented Comedy, which was an all Asian American stand-up comedy show that occasionally toured. I am very proud of these projects because for both of them, we’ve been able to give platforms to a variety of underrepresented groups of people and provide an audience for them. In terms of my stand-up, I mine material from my real life and so my jokes are very personal and vulnerable, which I think sets me apart from a lot of other comics.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
I’m a self-help junkie so this is embarrassing to share. But in terms of podcasts, I listen to the Tim Ferris show, as well as The School of Greatness and The Dave Chang Show. For books, I’ve been doing The Artists Way and following along with that. I’ve also found the book Atomic Habits to be amazing for life and The War of Art to help creatively. When it comes to comedy writing for jokes, I use Comedy Writing for Late Night TV. It’s helped me a lot with how to brainstorm ideas and structuring jokes.
Contact Info:
- Email: yolajlucomedy@gmail.com
- Website: www.yolalucomedy.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yolajlu/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/yolajlu
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/uncomfortabletheseries
Image Credits
Gabriella Parsons Dave Creaney Victor Tran Ziming Xie Quinn Russell Brown
