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EXCLUSIVE: Rising young comedian Ali Wong has landed her first regular TV role, joining the cast of NBC’s upcoming comedy series Are You There Vodka, It’s Me Chelsea, which is based on the books of another female comedian, Chelsea Handler, who executive produces the series. Are You There Vodka centers on Chelsea Hanson (Laura Prepon), an alcohol-loving, oversexed cocktail waitress. Wong will play a new character, Bianca, the daughter of immigrant parents and Chelsea’s best friend since grade school. She is now a fellow cocktail waitress and Chelsea’s partner-in-crime. Chelsea had a best friend in the pilot, Ivory, played by Natalie Morales, but that character has been replaced by Bianca as part of the retooling of the the project. Wong is the second major addition to the cast of Are You There Vodka after the pilot, along with fellow new regular Jake McDorman, who was tapped as a new male lead character after guest starring in the pilot playing a different part. Wong’s castings comes in the same week NBC has been facing some scrutiny over cast diversity of its new shows. This is Wong’s third acting gig after an arc on the Fox comedy Breaking In and a role in Oliver Stone’s upcoming Savages. Last month, Wong made her standup debut on NBC’s The Tonight Show. Here is the video:
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Sorry, I don’t get it. I guess if you talk slowly and pause long enough the audience will fill the space with applause.
she uses the fake purse grab/not going to pay for dinner stint way too many times everywhere.
Ali Wong is so naturally beautiful. Refreshingly so. But is she funny? And will this show be funny? I’m willing to bet on Ali ….but on the show I am less than sanguine.
she is? i guess if you’re into that bobble-head midget look (huge heads, tiny bodies) she is “refreshingly beautiful”…
Good grief. That stand-up was horrible. The long quiet moments, the easy Asian/small tit “jokes”, and she waited for laughs! At 3 minutes, she was out of steam. Producers LOVE these no self-esteem female comics and try to paint them as alternative. What makes her alternative is that she really doesn’t have an act!
Congrats to her, but that was not a good set. Not even close.
This is basically NBC trying to fulfill its diversity initiative here.
And good for them.
I love Ali Wong…she is hilarious!
Not funny and not cute. Hmmm….sounds like a perfect match for Chelsea Handler.
Anything from Chelsea Handler is not funny.
As tepid as that set was I have a bigger problem with NBC going through the entire pilot season, picking their crap shows, setting the schedule only to shoehorn some random “ethnic” character into one of the shows after the Hollywood chapter of the NAACP lodges a formal complaint which. they. do. every. year.
Look what Janeane Garofalo inspired – anyway, she’s not bad, but then again, all Asian, Female, Comedians in Hollywood are so great. I like her though, she has my attention as someone to watch.
I have seen her perform dozens of times, and have never found her funny. And this is one of the better performances I have ever seen her give. Also, the fake grab for the purse joke is a Whitney Cummings line if I am not mistaken. At the very least I can end with positivity by saying that I am very happy for her landing a show, as it gives hope for the struggling comics that are actually funny out there just knowing that Ali can land a TV role.
I saw Ali Wong perform at the Comedy Studio in Boston earlier this year and she was frickin’ hilarious. Perhaps it was because half the comedians bombed before her set that night, but she had me dying. I hope she kills it on this show — even though I think the show is probably going to suck. Anything based on Chelsea Handler is sure to make me vomit.
Some of these comments are a little too harsh man. It’s just comedy. If you don’t like it then stop the video. Don’t waste your energy trying rip a comic apart. Ali is a hard worker and she has paid her dues, working the SF comedy circuit for many years. She is most deserving of this opportunity.
To “rob”… you NAILED IT!!!
I have a great time out, EVERY time I go to see Ali perform. The rest of these TROLLS need to listen to their mothers… “If you can’t say something nice, SHUT THE FUCK UP TROLL!”
You obviously have no sense of humor
What isn’t mentioned in the article is that there were three other actors dropped from the show after the pilot.. and two of the three (Jo Koy and Natalie Morales) were Filipino-American. So, like her or not, Ali wasn’t inserted into the show to fill some sort of diversity clause. The show is bound to suck, regardless.