“An actor can do no matter they need so long as they imply nicely once they do it.”
Christopher Tung Shieh, or Chris Grace as he is extra broadly identified, is an actor, comic, vocalist, and the fats, homosexual baby of immigrants. Our readers probably acknowledge him as a certifiable, “Hey, that man!” character performer on comedy TV, together with his roles as Jerry on “Superstore,” the wrestling coach on “PEN15,” and extra just lately, as himself on the Dropout reveals “Um, Truly,” “Play it By Ear,” “Soiled Laundry,” and “Make Some Noise.” However itemizing credit can’t and mustn’t ever be handled because the totality of an individual. We aren’t what we do. Who we’re is outlined by a lot greater than that. However precisely who’s the individual whose job is to fake to be another person? How does one be true to themselves once they should curate how the world sees them so as preserve a occupation as an entertainer?
Comedians utilizing the medium to dissect their relationship with identification is nothing new, and Bo Burnham’s “Inside” grew to become a worldwide phenomenon in 2021 when numerous folks noticed themselves and their struggles mirrored within the specificity of Burnham’s identification disaster that was on full show within the particular. If we lived in a simply, equitable world, Dropout Presents’ “Chris Grace: As Scarlett Johansson” could be met with the identical acclaim, consideration, and outpouring of accolades.
Primarily based on the sold-out, one-man present Grace carried out on the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Competition (it has been a giant 12 months for Edinburgh present variations, huh?), “Chris Grace: As Scarlett Johansson” sees Grace portraying “the best dwelling Asian actor, Scarlett Johansson.” Combining comedy, private storytelling, theatre artistry, and the music of Tom Waits, what begins out as an apparent declaration that “Scarlett Johansson taking part in Asian in ‘Ghost within the Shell’ was a Unhealthy Transfer, Truly,” rapidly transforms right into a touching and infrequently painful meta probing of Grace’s identification as mirrored by Johansson’s mainstream profession and transcends into among the finest comedy specials of the 12 months.
The fourth wall is for cowards
“Chris Grace: As Scarlett Johansson” is an beautiful examination of assumptions. He trusts that we’re conscious of the gorgeous baffling run of public mishaps Johannson had, together with defending her casting in “Ghost within the Shell” and her defensiveness about desirous to play transgender man Dante “Tex” Gill within the since-canceled movie “Rub & Tug,” which prompted the now notorious quote, “I ought to have the ability to play any individual, tree, or animal.”
As Grace communicates a number of instances all through the present, “This isn’t a success piece.” What it’s, is a nesting doll of regularly stacking wigs and poignant ruminations that ultimately pinnacles in “Chris Grace: As Scarlett Johansson: As Chris Grace: As Scarlett Johansson: As Chris Grace: As Scarlett Johannson …” The deeper he dives, the extra widespread floor he finds with the Marvel celebrity and their mutual utopian want that we might permit actors to play something and anybody.
However as a society and as an trade, we’re simply not there but.
Being burdened with that information — that the trade is unjust and inequitable — has contributed to not solely a disaster of self for Grace however a disaster relating to his personal complicit participation within the very habits he and the remainder of the world rebuke folks like Johansson for exuding. “Chris Grace: As Scarlett Johansson” was directed by “Thriller Science Theater 3000” star Jonah Ray, which may be some of the impressed directorial selections for a self-aware, fourth-wall obliterating, metatextual comedy particular, ever. Ray is aware of greater than most that combining comedy and evaluation makes for a wonderful methodology of analyzing profoundly advanced and existential themes, and the way in which Grace employs the pre-recorded format (and the historical past of Dropout/CollegeHumor as firms) is, at instances, jaw-dropping. Because the nesting doll continues to stack, this comedy present about Asian illustration in Hollywood plunges headfirst right into a recursive nightmare.
Getting out requires wanting inward
Simply as Black Widow served as one of many unstated anchors of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Grace incorporates most of the main gamers that exist already within the Dropout comedy universe to hammer dwelling that, to some extent, we’re all in a multiverse. We’re ourselves, the way in which we’re perceived appropriately, the way in which we’re assumed incorrectly, the way in which we’re terrified to be seen, and the realities we have constructed for ourselves simply to outlive.
I do not assume I would like to supply a historical past lesson explaining Hollywood’s points with Asian illustration (however this is a hyperlink for the naysayers), however Chris Grace is not right here to lecture — as a result of he acknowledges the uncomfortable actuality is that generally the leisure trade finds a strategy to make one thing that appears reduce and dry into one thing much more difficult than we’re keen to confess exists as such. These points are greater than Chris Grace and larger than any of us watching at dwelling. However Grace tears himself open and stands earlier than us naked. If we will not wrap our arms across the gravity of the scenario, at the very least we will wrap our arms round him.
None of us have the solutions, and all of us are complicit not directly. Hell, I am complicit even with this very article, as a result of to get folks to really click on on this and examine this particular, I needed to dangle the “TITLE OF SHOW YOU RECOGNIZE” in entrance of your faces. The truth is that giving this a headline that claims “A ‘Superstore’ Star” will carry out higher, appease the algorithm extra, and get extra eyeballs on this piece than together with the title of his particular in a headline. I needed to strip away Chris Grace’s title and identification to make folks care about this sufficient to need to learn extra. I hope it labored. On the very least … I meant nicely.
“Chris Grace: As Scarlett Johansson” is out there to stream on Dropout.