Last Things First: Helen Hong

Episode #391

You may have heard Helen Hong as a regular panelist on the hit NPR quiz show, “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me.” Hong also has appeared on the big screen in Inside Llewyn Davis, and in recurring roles on TV in sitcoms and comedy shows including HBO’s Silicon Valley, The Unicorn on CBS, and The Netflix Afterparty. And as a stand-up comedian, Hong has grown up from her start as a “Little Ethnic Girl,” releasing her debut comedy special, Helen Hong: Well Hong, via Comedy Dynamics, which she recorded in the summer of 2021 as part of the Tribeca Film Festival. Hong sat down with me over Zoom to talk about her early days and nights as a TV producer behind the camera, how she moved to Hollywood without a steady gig and lived to joke about it, filming a nationwide TV commercial with a Muppet, and her life as the daughter of Korean immigrants.

Helen Hong: Well Hong came out this week via Comedy Dynamics, available for rent or purchase on multiple platforms. Here’s the trailer!

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If you’d like to read the condensed transcript of our conversation below, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription!

So Helen Hong, I've been asking you to be on the podcast for years.

Yes. And I’m very snobby. So I'm like, la-di-da, I’m just too busy. No, it's because I'm a mess, is the real secret, Sean. I’m a mess.

Wait, wait… don't tell me that you're a mess.