Interview with Aaron Chen
Thursday / October 1, 2026
About Aaron Chen
Stand-up comedian from Sydney, now based in New York. He won Best Newcomer at the 2017 Melbourne International Comedy Festival and appeared in Aaron Chen Tonight and Fisk.
Source: Mike Birbiglia on YouTube
These answers are taken from Aaron Chen | High Quality Comedy From a Low Capacity Kind of Guy | Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out on Mike Birbiglia's YouTube channel. You! Backstage did not conduct this interview.
What was your very first experience with comedy?
I think everything fell into place. I was just doing speeches at school, and I always did them funny. And then I was chasing that bug. A few gags, some stolen. I went to an all-Asian school. Well, not all Asian. It was maybe like 70% Asian, a lot. So it was a lot of Asian gags, that type of stuff. I would probably say hacky. Maybe some originality poked out, but I wouldn't claim that.
When did you start doing comedy?
I googled how do you do funny speeches outside of school, and it was a stand-up competition. There was one for kids that the Melbourne Comedy Festival runs. I entered at 15, and then I started doing mics and stuff after that. I didn't win the first year. I won the second year, at 16. Needed a year.
Party areas, they get real crazy on Friday, Saturday nights, packed full of people who work out a lot and are very drunk. And that's like a Venn diagram of things I'm scared of. One of these guys bumps into me, but he thought that I bumped into him, so he says, "Do you want to fight? Don't underestimate me." And I say, "I think you underestimate my ability to estimate." I'll still do that.
How did your career as a comedian unfold?
Professionally, I was maybe like five to seven years in. I don't know if there's that much of a benefit in doing it early, except just time. I don't think there was too much negative, because I didn't explode. So I still did the 10 years. I wanted to do the 10 years. I'm 15 years in now. You just learn all these little lessons all throughout. You see the cycle of doing an hour and dumping it and writing again. Five years in, I was maybe doing my first hour and then being like, where do I go from here?
Crowds here are really, really good. Australian crowds are good, but the club scene post-COVID in Sydney when I left was really scattered. There's only one club in Sydney and lots of bar shows. Here it's just so consistent. You can get every type of crowd. Someone can do a 10-minute set about Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and the crowd will be like, yeah. In Australia, you have to be pretty broad, because it's a young comedy audience and a smaller population.
Who is your favorite comedian, and why?
I'm jealous of this guy, Ethan Simmons-Patterson. One, he is so funny, and two, he has zero social media presence. Some people become big celebrities and then they get rid of all their social media presence because they don't have to do it, but he doesn't even worry about getting to that point before getting rid of it. He's an amazing comic. I feel like I tell everyone about him.
People can be scared when I go up, because I seem like I don't know what I'm doing. I look like I accidentally went to the Cellar. I feel like Daniel Simonsen's like that as well. People get worried for him for two minutes, and then he's just crushed.
Meeting Todd Barry, you know, these are guys from CDs. In Australia, I just know them from CDs.
Describe your style.
I get an idea, I'll put it in my notes app or a notebook or something, but it's always just one little idea. It normally comes pretty fully formed. I have to be pretty confident that the punchline at least is there, and it's pretty easy to work out from there. Then it's 50/50 whether it works or not.
It was Hedberg, Steven Wright, Dave Attell, the real setup-punch people. No one taught it to me. I never took a class. I was just like, okay, this part's true, and then this part is a turn, and just trying that out. And then realizing that when the part that's true has to do with yourself, that can have more impact.
I'm very low capacity. In terms of social things, I can do one, two maximum a day. I get worn out really easily. I can do stand-up, and then that will be it. That's why I kind of commit to that. I can't hold a script in my mind. I can only hold these little guys.
Tell me about a bit or a project that was hard to get right. What was it and why was it challenging?
In my special I do a joke about a visa. This is true: Australia got a visa called the E3 visa, and that was a gift from America to Australia because we helped out in the Iraq war. And then I say, "So for us it was not a pointless war." It used to go crazy. Now it gets a less crazy response, and there's a period in the middle, in the setup, where the air really leaves the room.
I've got one thing where I saw a news clip of these guys with AK-47s, but some of them are wearing a suit jacket when they fight. I think that's very intimidating, because they're confident. They know they're going to go do a Zoom meeting afterwards. "Yeah, I can make it to the ambush, but I can't do the skirmish, because I've got a 3:00 appointment." I maybe tried it one time, but it's just too sensitive. I feel like there was a shift.
Tell me something I may not know from reading your credits.
[Dad] and I would talk about just general things, like, what are you up to? We'd listen to music. It would always be late at night. When he was driving, sometimes he'd pull over and have a nap. He'd park at the curb, put his seat back, and sleep for like half an hour. He's like, "You sleep." I'm like, I'm a really young guy, I can't really pull that kind of thing off. So I'd just sit and listen to music. When I was driving, it was probably a lot about the driving, because I was learning, and he was like, "What are you doing with that? That's not conventional style driving."
In which area would you like to improve as a comedian?
There was a period in Australia for two or three years where I had to learn not to throw a set. There was a time in Australia where if you were doing bad, you'd tank it. You'd be like, "You guys suck. This is the worst night of my life." That type of thing. It took me a year or two to stamp that out. I wish I never did. I hate that I did.
If something is not working, I'm so eager to get it out of the hour and replace it with something else. So maybe I should sit in the bits a bit more and just work on them. By the time I'm sick of doing that 45, I think that's when you know it's ready.
Aaron Chen's Full Biography
Sydney boy Aaron Chen is a stone cold killer with exquisite mic technique, and he's going to bring you the freshest and most splendid comedy you will have ever seen.
Aaron made his mark on Australian comedy with his debut solo show entitled 'The Infinite Faces Of Chenny Baby'. He toured nationally in front of sold out crowds and rave reviews earning him the sought-after award for Best Newcomer at the 2017 Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Sydney Comedy Festival.
That was a very interesting year for Aaron. Quite by accident back in May he became the face of Snoccer after his live reporting at the Liverpool vs Sydney game caused controversy among fans. The unconventional interview went viral and was loved by viewers that got the joke and hated by others. Aaron also starred in his very own Tonight Show, aptly named Aaron Chen Tonight filmed live in Café Lounge, Surry Hills earlier in the year and broadcast on ABC TV.
Previous to this Aaron has amassed quite the collection of awards including Melbourne International Comedy Festival's Class Clowns in 2012, the Director's Choice Award alongside a couple of other troubled boys in 2016, and the 2013 Raw Comedy State final landing himself in the National Grand Final when he was just 17.
Aaron has also performed at the popular music festival Splendour in The Grass, supported International Comedian Ronny Chieng on his Live Australian Tour, had a featured role in ABC's Ronny Chieng International Student (ABC) and has been cast in a brand new TV show in production.