“美国像是我的妻子，中国则是我的母亲。现在她们相处得不太融洽，而且两边都有核武器——而我在努力让她们都能笑。”这是华裔美籍脱口秀演员黄西近年来经常提及的段子。在《联合早报》“有客到”栏目专访中，持续十几年穿梭中美、跨越文化的他说，希望能为搭建中美文化的桥梁尽一份力，“这两个国家的人吧，除了外表之外其实没有其他什么区别，可能就是所处的地理环境不一样而已。所以我也希望能够用脱口秀来表达这个观点”。

首度来新加坡表演中英双语脱口秀《水土不服》和《双重关税（The Twin Tariff Show）》，黄西幽默解构全球政治、移民生活、职场失业，甚至人工智能。他在访谈中直言：“脱口秀演员不可能解决社会问题，但可以让人们宣泄一下。”这一理念贯穿他20余年的喜剧生涯，“能让沮丧的人接下来几天甚至一个星期心情都很好，这是比较积德的一件事”。

从2010年在美国记者年会上调侃拜登“一书胜真人”一举成名，到回中国十年见证脱口秀在华崛起，再到如今频繁重返美国舞台揭示亚裔处境，黄西从未放弃用笑声对抗偏见。在他看来，笑话是沟通的语言，更是对抗刻板印象的一种温柔而坚韧的武器。他所欣赏的幽默有深度、有温度、余韵悠长、耐人寻味：“犹太语里边，‘幽默’和‘智慧’是同一个单词。我挺欣赏这种说法，有点智慧、有点内涵的幽默”。

或许，正如他自嘲“脱口秀在天之灵”，错过中国热潮也未能在美国主流市场持续高光，但他始终坚持用一口不紧不慢的中式英语，在两个世界之间讲述真实、讽刺却又温暖、睿智的段子。让观众笑出声，也笑出思考。

点击观看完整专访视频，感受脱口秀如何成为这个戴着眼镜、外表木讷的理工科博士跨文化、跨时代的生存方式。

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Chinese-American comedian Joe Wong (黄西) makes his Singapore debut with two bilingual stand-up shows, Out of Place (《水土不服》) and The Twin Tariff Show, and sits down with Zaobao's Be My Guest (《有客到》) for a candid interview on comedy, culture and identity.

Best known for his 2010 White House Correspondents' Dinner performance, which made him a breakout name in American comedy, Wong has spent more than a decade moving between the US and China. He jokes that America is his wife and China is his mother, and that he is trying to make them both laugh. In this interview, he explains why he sees comedy as a bridge between the two cultures: "Apart from appearance, people in these two countries aren't that different."

He also talks about his comedy on global politics, immigrant life, job loss and artificial intelligence, the rise of stand-up in China, and the realities Asian Americans face on US stages. For Wong, stand-up cannot solve social problems, but it can help people let off steam. The humor he admires has depth, warmth and staying power. As he notes, in Yiddish the words for "humor" and "wisdom" are the same.

Watch the full interview to see how a soft-spoken, bespectacled engineering PhD turned stand-up comedy into a way of crossing cultures, with his signature unhurried Chinese-accented English.