“An actor can do no matter they need so long as they imply properly 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 youngster of immigrants. Our readers possible 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 shouldn’t ever be handled because the totality of an individual. We’re not 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 id is nothing new, and Bo Burnham’s “Inside” turned a worldwide phenomenon in 2021 when numerous individuals noticed themselves and their struggles mirrored within the specificity of Burnham’s id disaster that was on full show within the particular. If we lived in a simply, equitable world, Dropout Presents’ “Chris Grace: As Scarlett Johansson” can be met with the identical acclaim, consideration, and outpouring of accolades.
Based mostly on the sold-out, one-man present Grace carried out on the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Pageant (it has been a giant yr 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 Dangerous Transfer, Truly,” rapidly transforms right into a touching and sometimes painful meta probing of Grace’s id as mirrored via Johansson’s mainstream profession and transcends into probably the greatest comedy specials of the yr.
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 be capable of play any individual, tree, or animal.”
As Grace communicates a number of instances all through the present, “This isn’t successful piece.” What it’s, is a nesting doll of frequently 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 famous person and their mutual utopian want that we might enable 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 concerning his personal complicit participation within the very conduct he and the remainder of the world rebuke individuals 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 choices 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 technique of analyzing profoundly advanced and existential themes, and the best way Grace employs the pre-recorded format (and the historical past of Dropout/CollegeHumor as corporations) 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 lots of the main gamers that exist already within the Dropout comedy universe to hammer house that, to some extent, we’re all in a multiverse. We’re ourselves, the best way we’re perceived appropriately, the best way we’re assumed incorrectly, the best way we’re terrified to be seen, and the realities we have constructed for ourselves simply to outlive.
I do not suppose I want to offer a historical past lesson explaining Hollywood’s points with Asian illustration (however here 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 typically the leisure trade finds a method to make one thing that appears lower 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 greater than any of us watching at house. However Grace tears himself open and stands earlier than us naked. If we will not wrap our arms across the gravity of the state of affairs, not less than we will wrap our arms round him.
None of us have the solutions, and all of us are complicit in a roundabout way. Hell, I am complicit even with this very article, as a result of to get individuals 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 identify of his particular in a headline. I needed to strip away Chris Grace’s identify and id to make individuals care about this sufficient to wish to learn extra. I hope it labored. On the very least … I meant properly.
“Chris Grace: As Scarlett Johansson” is accessible to stream on Dropout.
