Jimmy Yang - How to American

That was the take that made the cut. It always feels great when an improvised moment makes it on the screen. But it felt even more satisfying to leave a part of my immigrant experience on the screen. I was a lost and confused immigrant like Jian Yang.

When we wrapped that day, I was sad that this would be the first and last time I got to be Jian Yang and work with these hilarious people. When I packed up my bag and left my trailer, Zach Woods came up to me.

“Really funny stuff today, man,” Zach said in his always genuine tone.

“Thanks! It was so fun to get to work with you guys.”

“Have you seen your other stuff coming up?”

“What?” I had no idea what he was referring to.

“Yeah, you have another really funny scene coming up.”

“Really!?” I almost shrieked. This was amazing news to me.

It turned out the scene Zach was referring to was the “I Eat the Fish” scene in the following episode. I was stoked that I would work another day at scale for another nine hundred bucks, but more importantly, I got to be Jian Yang again. I was over the moon.

The “I Eat the Fish” scene would be the first time I worked with T. J. Miller and his character, Erlich Bachman. Something about our difference in size and mannerisms just instantly clicked. There was something naturally funny about the juxtaposition of a small deadpan Jian Yang and a large loudmouthed Erlich. Mike Judge came up to me between takes and gave me one simple note: “Before you say your first line, can you stand still and don’t say anything for a few seconds?” In the next take, I stood still and stared up at TJ for a good five seconds, re-creating the same confused look I gave to the girl in eighth grade who said, “What’s up?” to me. Then I slowly uttered, “Yes, I eat the fish.” The crew cracked up. “I eat the fish” became one of the most popular lines from Jian Yang. People still scream that out to me in public: “Hey! You’re the ‘I eat the fish’ guy!” To which I always respond, “What’s up?”

JIAN YANG: UBER DRIVER

I guest starred in a total of three episodes on the first season of Silicon Valley. I was paid a grand total of twenty-seven hundred dollars. I invested the money as a down payment for a used 2006 Prius, so I could drive Uber. As the old saying goes, “Give a man an acting job, you feed him for a day; teach a man to Uber, you feed him for a lifetime.” I was still sleeping in the living room of the one-bedroom apartment with Tarrell occupying the bedroom and Guam quartered in my closet. Not much had changed. We still couldn’t afford to go to Red Lobster. I was hoping Silicon Valley would bring me back for season two, but I surely didn’t count on it. I drove Uber eight hours a day, and went to auditions and acting classes in between customers. I once fired up my Uber Driver app after leaving my acting class and I was matched to pick up one of my classmates. To make matters worse, it was the pretty girl I had a crush on. Then just as I was pulling up, the trip was canceled for some reason. So I rolled down my window and asked:

“Hey, Jessica, did you call an Uber?”

“Yeah, but I canceled it. My boyfriend’s coming to pick me up.”

I wanted to drive my Prius off of a cliff.

Four months and a hundred Uber trips later, I received an audition email from Wendy O’Brien’s casting office, which had cast me on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia before. Wendy and her partner, Jeff, are two of the kindest casting directors and have championed me since day one. They believed in me before I believed in myself. This was a callback audition for a new Yahoo series called Sin City Saints. The show was about a fictional expansion basketball team in Las Vegas. It was one of the first original series from Yahoo, an attempt to position itself as a new streaming platform like Netflix. The audition was for a series-regular role on Sin City Saints. This was a big deal. Being a series regular would surely be the big break in my acting career. The difference between a guest star and a series regular is the difference between driving UberX and taking UberBlack. My friend Fred Stoller, a longtime character actor, who guest starred as Raymond’s cousin in Everybody Loves Raymond, said it best: “You know what the difference is between playing Raymond’s cousin and Raymond’s brother on the show? About forty million dollars.” Brad Garrett was the series regular that played Raymond’s brother on the syndicated sitcom. Fred is also the author of the great book Maybe We’ll Have You Back: The Life of a Perennial TV Guest Star. As someone who was also passed around guest starring in different shows like an unwanted foster child, this book resonated with me. I dropped off an Uber customer and drove to Wendy’s casting office with a potential forty million dollars at stake.

The character was named Byron Summers. Byron was a basketball statistician much like Jonah Hill in Moneyball. The character was written to be African American. I had to go in and change their minds. Two black actors and I waited outside of the audition room at Wendy O’Brien’s office. I thought to myself, Shit. They are definitely looking for a black dude. Doesn’t matter how much BET I’ve watched, I have no chance. But I stayed focused, knowing that getting this role could be the big break of my career, and it’d be a huge win for the Asian community. The pressure was on.

One by one, we went in the room to read with Wendy, Jeff and the director of the series, Bryan Gordon, who’s best known for directing Curb Your Enthusiasm. I can always tell how well another actor is doing in an audition by how long he has been in the audition room, and my goal is always to outlast that person. When the last guy was in there for a good thirty minutes, I started to panic. This guy must be killing it in there. When he came out, he gave me a smirk and said, “Break a leg.” I should have Tonya Harding’ed him and broken his leg right there. Then it was my turn. Wendy and Jeff gave me the usual warm welcome, but I was flustered to meet Bryan for the first time. I fumbled through the sides on the first take. The pressure of a possible forty million dollars and a billion Asian people came crashing down on me. Bryan kindly gave me some directions and asked me to do it again. I got more comfortable after every take, until I was rolling off basketball statistics like Marv Albert at the NBA finals. Next thing you know, we were all chatting in the audition room like four friends at a picnic. I looked at my watch; I had been in there for an hour. Byron Summers was about to be Chinese.

My agent, Jane, called me at eleven in the morning the next day.

“Congratulations!” she exclaimed, “you got the job! You are going to be a series regular!”

I didn’t know what to say, so I just screamed. She continued, “It shoots for ten weeks in Vegas, they are going to put you up at the Caesars Palace!” I was planning to drive Uber that day, now you’re telling me I get to hang out in Vegas and stay at the Caesars Palace? And get paid for it?! From the Comedy Palace to Caesars Palace. My little head couldn’t even process this gigantic news. I ran around in my pajamas repeatedly screaming, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” My neighbor must have thought I was having the best sex of my life.

“But there is one thing,” Jane said. “If you do this show, you can’t do Silicon Valley anymore, because Yahoo wants you exclusively on their show.”

Nothing is ever perfect, is it? I wasn’t sure if I was going to be back on Silicon Valley, but if HBO called me to be back on the second season, I knew it was something I couldn’t pass up. The first season of Silicon Valley was already nominated for the Emmys and Golden Globes; it was on its way to becoming a big hit. It meant everything for my career to book my first series-regular job, but how could I turn down a possible second season of an Emmy-nominated HBO show with Mike Judge? I was torn. I knew I’d make at least twenty times more money as a series regular on Sin City Saints than the union minimum nine hundred dollars guest starring on Silicon Valley. And trust me, I cared about the money. My economics degree told me, Take the series-regular money, go to Caesars Palace. But I ignored that econ degree the same way I did when I left Smith Barney to do stand-up. I followed my gut.