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Google PlayAli Wong is back on Netflix with Don Wong, her third stand-up comedy special for the streaming outlet. It’s a raunchy, intimate, hilarious piece of work that manages the difficult task of being both accessible and niche. On the surface, it’s a relatable treatise on ambition–on reconciling youthful progressivism with parenthood and the traditional institution of marriage. On a deeper level, it’s a celebration of Asian American sexuality and love–one that frames Asian men as desirable and Asian women as self-determining. It feels good to feel seen.
Wong’s rise to comedic stardom has been meteoric. Her first Netflix special, Baby Cobra (2016), was a crude-but-clever thesis statement. In Wong, Netflix had discovered a bonafide star—someone who was bubbling just underneath the scene’s surface and needed the right audience and the right push to attain mainstream success.
Things moved quickly. Her second Netflix special, Hard Knock Wife (2018), affirmed her comedic talent. And in 2019, Wong starred in and co-wrote the Netflix romantic comedy Always Be My Maybe. That same year, Wong signed with Netflix for another two comedy specials; the first was intended for a 2020 release, to coincide with her national tour. But then, COVID-19 delayed everything. She resumed the “Milk and Money” tour this past summer, and she taped Don Wong in November 2021.
