Page 19 of The Sitcom Star
MADDIE:See you on Saturday at three?Just tell me where to meet you.
He couldn’t help smiling as he typed a response.He had anot-a-datewith Maddie Ng on Saturday.His thirteen-year-old self would have been very impressed.
Since she was on his mind, and since he had no idea what to watch on Netflix, he started rewatchingChu’s Restaurant.In some ways, it was hard to believe that the Maddie onscreen was the same Maddie he’d seen on the weekend.Just the way that she held herself when she played Waverly was completely different; she was a good actress.
In the first episode, “The Sign,” Waverly’s life fell apart and she had to leave her Toronto penthouse.When her friends refused to take her in, she turned up in Frankfurt, just as Mike was in the process of taking down the “Chu’s Chinese Chuisene” sign and replacing it with a sign that said “Chu’s Restaurant.”Although Waverly never wanted to return to Frankfurt—her family had visited her in Toronto every year, but she refused to spend even a few hours in her hometown—she was distraught that even in Frankfurt, things changed, and it was a little different from the town she left.For example, there was now a brewery called Frankie’s, and every single beer label had a picture of frankfurters.Plus, the town hall had been renovated to look slightly less phallic.(Emphasis onslightly.)
Adrian thought about how much work must have gone into making a single twenty-two-minute episode.You’d devote so much time to making a season that people could watch in less than five hours.What would that be like?How many takes were required to get everything perfect?
Definitely not his thing, but he wanted to see Maddie at work one day.She was brilliant onscreen.Magnetic.And he loved the world that she’d help to create.
He imagined telling his thirteen-year-old self that in 2022, Maddie Ng would have her own TV show—a show that started airing during a global pandemic.
His younger self wouldn’t have known what to do with any of that information.
Jimmy Poon: “It’s Never Too Late”
Mostpeopledon’tbecomefamous at the age of eighty-six.
But most people aren’t Jimmy Poon.
“Famous?”He chuckles.“I’m not sure I’d call myself famous.”
Poon was born in Hong Kong and came to Canada in 1970 with his wife.They wanted a better future for their young children.He worked for thirty years as a mechanical engineer, and when he retired in 2001, his daughter encouraged him to pursue his childhood dream of being an actor, something he’d first admitted to his family the previous year.
“She signed me up for acting classes without my knowledge,” he says.“So sneaky!I enjoyed the classes, but I didn’t imagine it would lead anywhere.How many roles are there for elderly Asian men in North America?And why would anyone pick me over James Hong?”
Poon had his first role in a TV movie at the age of seventy-one.
“I only had two lines,” he says, “but it was very exciting.I guess it’s never too late to have your dreams come true.”
From there, Poon appeared in a handful of Canadian films and TV shows.One of those was a Christmas TV movie in which Maddie Ng played the heroine’s sister.
“And she told me”—he pauses to laugh—“that she was developing a TV show with an experienced showrunner, and she’d write a part just for me.I didn’t believe her.Well, I believed she was working on it, but so many people are working on TV shows that never get picked up, and I couldn’t imagine someone actually writing a part for Jimmy Poon.That sounds like something that happens to Michelle Yeoh.But several months later, Maddie called me up and told me aboutChu’s Restaurant.”
Poon plays Gung Gung, the maternal grandfather of Waverly Yu, Maddie Ng’s character.He spends much of his time sitting on the porch or at the back of the restaurant, but occasionally, he displays some incredible, unexpected skill.In the first season, he shows the neighbor’s kid how to use a slingshot and hits a walnut from 30 m away.When his family thinks it’s a fluke, he does it again.He also juggles knives and plays a sonata on the piano at a talent show.
No one knows how he learned to do any of those things.
“Yes, it’s played for laughs,” Maddie Ng says, “but it’s something that many people in Asian immigrant families can relate to.There are often large parts of our family history that nobody talks about.”
—Phillip Chin,Asians Onscreen
Chapter 6
@daninphilly: Apparently Season 2 of Chu’s Restaurant isn’t on Netflix yet??I know Canadians can watch it elsewhere, but I tried and it won’t let me.Geo-restrictions suck.
@notthatasiangirl: Have you never heard of VPNs?
@notthatasiangirl: Or you can just wait another week.
AssheheadedtoOsgoode Station, Maddie Ng felt nervous.
She shouldn’t be.She wasn’t performing.Nothing was riding on this.
But meeting a guy for a casual walk and having no idea where that would take them…it was outside her usual experience.
When she saw Adrian waiting for her at the corner, it felt like her heart both sped up and slowed down at the same time, which shouldn’t be possible.He was wearing khaki shorts and a black T-shirt, hands slung in his pockets.He hadn’t noticed her yet; he was smiling at a street musician playing the saxophone.There was something about his easy smile and broad shoulders that felt comforting, reassuring.
