Behind Closed Doors with Dylan Adler
Dylan Adler, from the Bay Area and based in NYC, is a musical comedian who will be performing in our upcoming Keepsake show, Unmute Yourself. Tickets are on sale now! In this interview, Dylan chats with Jay and Hailey about his start in comedy, performing in a pandemic, his famous mom, the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, experiences in the LGBTQ+ community, and surviving rape and sexual assault.
In this semi-weekly blog series, we post in-depth interviews that take you behind closed doors (or #BCD) with independent artists, many of whom have performed or will perform in a Keepsake show.
Trigger Warning: Parts of this conversation are personal and pertain to race and rape. All topics and shows discussed are linked within the post, and resources are provided at the end.
Jay:
Interpret this however you’d like: when and why did comedy, or musical comedy, “begin” for you?
Dylan:
Comedy began for me when I went to an improv jam with some friends in an acting class at the People’s Improv Theater, where I fell in love with improv, then I fell in love with stand-up. At the time I was going to NYU for music composition, but I was falling in love with comedy while doing that. For my degree, I had to write songs, and so sometimes I would try to write comedy songs. That’s how I was introduced to musical comedy, but I really got into musical comedy when I was doing open mics, mostly just jokes, and then one time I tried a song and it got a bigger response than any of my jokes ever did, so I thought maybe I’ll double down on this. And now musical comedy is what I mostly do.
“I would seek out places that had pianos, or you know, I was kind of screwed when it came to musical material. Or I would do it a capella and just eat shit.”
Hailey:
Do all of these comedy clubs and performance venues have a piano?
Dylan:
They don’t! So, the place that always had the piano was called The Creek and The Cave, and they had open mics and shows all the time. So that’s where I would go to try out my musical comedy material. The venue closed, RIP. I was devastated when I heard that. But yeah, not all of them do, so I would seek out places that had pianos, or you know, I was kind of screwed when it came to musical material. Or I would do it a capella and just eat shit.
Hailey:
Flashback to summer 2019: You were booking two to three comedy sets every Friday and Saturday night in New York City. I don’t know if you did this for every show, but I (one of your venue hosts) received a thank you note after every one of your performances, as well as many hugs during them, and my audience would always ask when you were coming back. You were killing it but always stayed humble and kind. How are you doing now, and how can we and the rest of your fans return your kindness in this new, virtual world?
Dylan:
First of all, thank you for saying that. Also, this is seared into my mind. The audience at the Museum of Chinese in America was so great, but I remember there were some old Asian ladies in the front row, and I was like, I respect that! I love it, I love it.
But yeah, comedy shows have basically moved to Zoom, which is good. Some Zoom shows are actually super, super fun, and it feels like a real show if the audience is unmuted. I mean, some shows are super rough, like other regular shows, but that’s how I’ve been able to be connected and still perform and work on material. When I was in New York, I was doing some outdoor shows here and there, at The Tiny Cupboard, and other outdoor venues. Again, some of them were super great, well attended, and felt good. Some of them were, you know, a little rough. But it felt really cool to perform in an outdoor setting.
Also, I’m just remembering this old Asian lady who came up to me at the Museum after one show and I was so afraid, but she was like, “That was terrific! I didn’t expect that!” And then I thought, honestly, I could die happy now.
Hailey:
Those women are the toughest critics. I have so many memories of them too! They would always come early, to grab the front row seats. They would sit there, sometimes during sound check, and save those seats.
Dylan:
That was so great! Like, in the back with the youngsters, I felt like my set was doing pretty well, but in the front there was just dead silence. But, you know, I stan. I stan.
Dylan performing in Music + Mic Night at the Museum of Chinese in America.
September 2019.
Photo by Hailey Savage.
Jay:
You co-composed a musical called “Good Morning New York,” which had its Off-Broadway run in the nick of time, back in February 2020. How did you get this gig and what was it like seeing your music performed in theaters, only for the whole world to shut down a few weeks later?
Dylan:
I actually met the creator of the musical, Jacklyn Thrapp, at an improv jam at the People’s Improv Theater. She needed help with transcribing the music for the musical, and I needed a job! So we found each other and she showed me the musical and the lyrics, and I loved it so much, so I helped with the chords and the songwriting. We had a run off-off-broadway in 2018, at the People’s Improv Theatre, which was super fun and successful. Then she submitted it to The Player’s Theatre to get it off-broadway, and they accepted it. It was really her initiative to produce and get everyone together to make it happen. I was just lucky enough to have her and to help her with the music and the transcriptions and orchestration.
But seeing it be performed off-broadway with the band and sitting in the audience was a different kind of experience. It’s a different kind of nervousness, because you’re watching something that you wrote, and you can also feel the audience’s feelings. There were moments I felt very, very proud, and then there were other times that made me understand why off-broadway shows go out of town before their New York run. Then they have edits! And I could feel where the audience was like, this could pick up, this could slow down. I could really feel that. But I was still really proud of the production and everything I saw. It’s so different from performing!
Hailey:
I know you mentioned one of the reasons you did the musical was because you needed a job. Are you able to do comedy full-time? How has the pandemic changed that?
Dylan:
“Twitter doesn’t pay! TikTok doesn’t pay.”
I wasn’t full-time during the musical. I was doing accompanying work on the side, dog walking too. And for comedy, it was a part-time job. Definite part-time money. My goal was to make more full-time comedy money, and before the pandemic, I was making a little more solidly, but then the pandemic was like BAM! So now I’m making zero.
Hailey:
It’s so unfair to live performers in general, but for comedians specifically, the pandemic seems like the worst situation. At least musicians can release material and work on recording, but how do comedians make any money if you can’t perform live? Twitter doesn’t pay!
Dylan:
Twitter doesn’t pay! TikTok doesn’t pay.
*Editor’s note: To support comedians like Dylan, follow their personal social media channels (linked at end of post) and buy tickets to their virtual shows. Entertainment has been one of the hardest hit industries during this pandemic. Every kind of support matters.
Jay:
What are your top three favorite musicals?
Dylan:
I love this question! I have so many favorites. My top three? Okay, these are generic, but I love “Hamilton” so much! Who doesn’t love “Hamilton?” It’s so brilliant, it’s so moving. Every single number is such genius and is crafted so brilliantly. I feel like every number in “Hamilton,” even the “less memorable songs,” would be the most memorable in any other musical.
My second one is “Wicked.” When I first moved to New York, I saw it with my mom, and the music and the performance and the story! I just love it so much. I love Steven Schwartz.
My third would be a tie between “The Color Purple” and “Pippin,” also by Steven Schwartz. I mean, when I saw Cynthia Erivo live in “The Color Purple,” I’ve just never seen such a powerful performance from someone. She got a standing ovation in the middle of the show! I’ve never seen that in my life. On a Tuesday! When people are not even feeling that energized.
And then “Pippin,” because I just love Steven Schwartz and his music. Those are my favorites.
Jay:
What was the worst set you’ve ever done? Tell us that story!
Dylan:
I love this question! I actually love asking other people too. The one that sticks out the most is when I was asked to perform comedy in the middle of an ice skating rink in Queens.
Hailey:
What?! Why?
Dylan:
I mean, there was money involved, so it was a yes.
Hailey:
But where is the idea from?
Dylan:
I don’t know! It was this pop-up skating rink, and I think artists came. It was a very New York art kind of thing. So we were setting up and doing sound check, and I got into the skating rink and opened singing, “Maybe this time, he eats parfait and my AAAAASSSSS!”
Jay:
That’s my favorite line!
Dylan:
Thank you so much! A fan!
So then, there was a mom skating around me. While skating around me, she was like, “I have a daughter! Hey stop, I have a daughter!” She’s literally skating around me and yelling about my profanity. And I’m also bombing, because everyone’s just skating. And I remember during the set, I got so desperate. There’s a character I have called The Avant-Garde Artist, and near me I saw a broom, so I grabbed it and in character went, “I’m cleaning up America! Aha!” To no avail. And then at the end of the set I had to pack up my piano and just lug my huge piano off of the stage, dodging all the skaters who hated me and wanted me killed. So it was so horrible.
I got paid $50 that night and I spent it all on Budweisers to help forget the experience. But my body still remembers.
Hailey:
Is it normal to have comedians perform at a skating rink?
Dylan:
It’s really not normal at all! It is really not a thing and should not be a thing. I mean, seriously, the worst thing for comedy is when the audience is literally moving. Moving around or away, that is bad!
“At the end of the set I had to pack up my piano and just lug my huge piano off of the stage, dodging all the skaters who hated me and wanted me killed.” -Dylan on performing musical comedy in the middle of a skating rink.
Comic by Jeff Deng.
Hailey:
Your work is typically very current and can be personal, especially when you discuss race and your experience being Asian American. How have your performances been influenced by your identity, and vice versa, how has your identity been influenced by your performances?
Dylan:
I think both are influenced by each other, for sure. I think, race-wise, there’s a song that I wrote for a show called Asians Strike Back that was put on by Kyle Marian and Esther Chen, two amazing comedians, about the anti-Asian racism at the onset of Coronavirus. So I wrote a song about that, as well as just shitty anti-Asian racism I’ve experienced before that. So that’s one way my material is influenced by race.
“Something that I have felt, and a lot of Asians have felt, is this kind of racial imposter syndrome.”
And a lot of my material is directed at the shittiness of racist gays. There’s a lot of racism in gay spaces, not just when it comes to the sex life or the clubs, but just in general. A lot of my comedy material points at that, and of my experiences of being weirdly fetishized by some white people, or being flat-out rejected. I think that’s something I focus on.
And when it comes to performance shaping my identity, I guess what it’s done is made me really find myself and my voice a little more than before.
Jay:
Going off the last question, anti-Asian hate crimes have increased since COVID-19 overtook this country. As you mentioned, you opened Asians Strike Back with that parody song about coronavirus and the way Americans were using it as an excuse to discriminate against Asians, while also addressing the fact that anti-Asian discrimination has existed prior to Coronavirus. What do you think about the lack of news coverage on this topic, and do you think it is the responsibility of Asian Americans to spread this news? And on a personal note, what has it been like for you off the stage this year?
Dylan:
Absolutely! I feel like it’s been horrible. And you know, something that I have felt, and a lot of Asians have felt, is this kind of racial imposter syndrome. We’re thinking, is it really that bad? I don’t really know, because compared to what Black Americans face, it just can’t compare. But I think that kind of sentiment, and not speaking on the actual number of racist attacks, is not the way to go. What’s happening is horrible, and it’s just scary to see such a huge spike.
And also, at the beginning of quarantine, I was attacked by a crazy white guy in New York on the street. And I even thought then, was that a hate crime? Was that real? It felt so surreal, was it really a racial hate crime? It took me a while to realize that yeah, that was really fucked up. And I know a lot of other Asians that have been attacked as well, and so it really is something that I think Asians should speak up about. And national news should really speak up about it and address how wide-spread it is, because I also don’t think a lot of Asians report it. I actually didn’t report mine because I had such an imposter syndrome about it, but I really think that it’s horrible and it should be discussed.
Jay:
I think what you said about having imposter syndrome is dead on. My boyfriend and I have talked about it, and we ask ourselves, should we be so scared? We bought pepper spray for his parents, because his mom rides the bus everyday to go to work. It’s weird because we don’t know the pattern of these attacks. They happen everywhere. They happen in communities like Flushing, where everyone is Asian. That’s a place where you expect to feel so safe.
Dylan:
Exactly! The Chinatown in Oakland! The Chinatown in San Francisco. Yeah, it feels like it’s very much not random at all.
Hailey:
You were saying that as an Asian American you feel that responsibility to speak up for your own community, and I’m sure it feels like that for your family as well. But also as a performer, or as someone with a platform, do you feel like you have to talk about it in your material?
Dylan:
Personally, when I perform, I do feel compelled to talk about it, because it is on the forefront of my mind. It’s something that I feel like I should talk about, and it’s something that I experienced first-hand. But I do know that some performers or entertainers don’t feel the same way. The guy from “Bling Empire,” Kevin--which, actually, my family and I love that show--posted that he felt like he was pressured to post about the racist attacks and he felt like that was performative. I got really angry reading that! I do know people should use their platform however they want, but it has been really inspiring to see people who have huge platforms using them, like Daniel Dae Kim and Ronny Chieng and other hugely famous Asian people. That makes me have huge respect and admiration for them.
Hailey:
Your “Japanese mom,” otherwise known by her name Yoshiko, is a star on Twitter, after your tweet about her America’s Got Talent plan went viral . Tell us about her!
Dylan:
“[My mom is] very supportive when it comes to my comedy, and she comes to a lot of my shows. I’m very grateful for that. But she’s definitely a character.”
She is the only reason I have a following on Twitter, literally! I tweet about the things she does or says because I think they’re hilarious. It’s so funny, because sometimes I’ll tweet about something she says and she’s like, “So, Dylan, how’s my tweet doing?” and I say, “It’s doing okay, it has like 2,000 likes.” And she goes, “Ugh, nothing compared to my viral tweet! Don’t even come to me if it’s not viral!”
She’s very funny and she also likes to pitch material to me. For my opening song “Maybe This Time,” my mom will pitch to me, “No! It shouldn’t be ‘swim in cum,’ it should be ‘win in cum.’ It doesn’t make sense when it’s ‘swim in cum!’” I joke that she’s like a tiger mom when it comes to my comedy.
But it’s cool. She’s very supportive when it comes to my comedy, and she comes to a lot of my shows. I’m very grateful for that. But she’s definitely a character.
Jay:
Your hour-long comedy show, “Rape Victims are Horny Too” with Kelly Bachman, was just beginning to take off on a tour in early 2020. You’ve since performed the show online, but do you have any future hopes or plans for the show?
Dylan:
Yeah, right before quarantine, Kelly and I were going to do our second performance of the show at Caveat. And we do plan on continuing to perform it when everything opens up again. We wanted to tour it around the country, and we still do. That’s something we are absolutely going to keep doing.
Hailey:
I remember when the video of Kelly confronting Harvey Weinstein at a New York bar went viral. She wrote in her The New York Times op-ed about it, “People keep asking me what I want to say next, and I’ve had a fear of saying the wrong thing for a long time.” She also spoke of the fear of not saying more, not fighting hard enough. That dichotomy--a fear of saying the wrong thing, and a fear of not saying it--must be such a present thought for comedians all the time. Do you deal with those fears as well, and if so, how do you find the courage to perform through them?
Dylan:
“However anyone wants to speak about their own experience or what feels true to them, at whatever time, is good. You don’t have to do it right at the moment, it’s whatever feels right to you.”
Totally! I mean, I feel that daily too. Should I include this in my set, should I not? Maybe I’m not doing enough, when it comes to Asian stuff or also being a survivor of rape and assault. Should I say less? That’s something that’s always going on. But when Kelly and I were writing that show, we thought about how there isn’t a perfect victim. We always wondered, is this something a victim would say? But there’s really no perfect victim, and whatever feels right and good to us, I think we should put in the show and speak about. It feels right, and if we follow that, that’s what we should go with.
But when it comes to being a rape or assault survivor, there’s this terrible societal pressure to be the perfect victim, and there’s also this question of, why didn’t you report this earlier, or at all? And a lot of people don’t report because they’re so in shock, or they have the imposter syndrome themselves, so we were working through that. However anyone wants to speak about their own experience or what feels true to them, at whatever time, is good. You don’t have to do it right at the moment, it’s whatever feels right to you.
Jay:
You talked about how you are a survivor of rape and assault. How do you navigate that part of your life experience and find or fight for representation of your story in a space that often feels dominated by white women? And have audiences been as receptive to your stories about surviving rape as they have been to the stories of women?
Dylan:
Thank you for this question. I remember when I first met Kelly, it was because she put me on her show “Rape Jokes by Survivors.” And I remember when I was in the back room there, I was feeling that imposter syndrome, because I was the only man on the lineup. Voices in my head krept in, thoughts like, you’re not a real survivor, people won’t believe you, you’re co-opting this thing that actually happens to women. The same voices I heard immediately after I was raped had resurfaced, but then when I went on stage and sang about what happened to me, I felt so warmly received and believed. That was a life-changing experience for me. Everyone deserves to feel believed.
“The same voices I heard immediately after I was raped had resurfaced, but then when I went on stage and sang about what happened to me, I felt so warmly received and believed. That was a life-changing experience for me. Everyone deserves to feel believed.”
I haven’t seen a lot of gay men speak about that sort of experience. I know it’s such a prevalent thing--rape and assault in the queer community, just across the board. I really do want to see more people in the LGBTQ+ community come out about their experiences with this so that they feel less alone too, because it’s such a huge problem.
But I also felt inspired to do those jokes in the first place because I was seeing so many amazing women talk about their experiences with rape. I was so impressed that they were able to take something so dark that happened to them and make a joke about it, so that inspired me to do the same. And when Kelly and I came off the stage after our show together, Kelly said that it used to be a lot of women that came up to her, but now a lot fo queer and non-binary people will approach her and share their stories too. I’ve been really happy to see that and be a part of that.
Hailey:
I’m so glad that has been well-received, because it’s such a terrifying thing to come forward and speak about. And I’m glad we are starting to see these stories, even in mainstream media. I just watched “I May Destroy You,” Michaela Coel’s show on HBO.
Dylan:
YES! I love that show! It captures so many variables and so many parts of the whole experience, and is so inspiring to watch.
Hailey:
“It’ll be totally musical comedy craziness. There might be material about anti-Asian racism, about shitty white gays. There will definitely be some rape material here and there, some impressions. It’ll be an absolutely crazy range of things!”
And it shows so many different types of consent, rape, and assault. It was educational, on so many levels, as well as entertaining of course. And I appreciated all of the queer stories that were included. I was watching with my partner, who is a straight man, and we would stop mid-way through an episode and talk about consent and about our respective experiences with it. That is SO important!
Dylan:
It’s that kind of show that brings up those conversations about consent. And that’s the broadest conversation that we need to be talking about.
Hailey:
What can audiences expect from your set in the upcoming Keepsake House show?
Dylan:
It’ll be totally musical comedy craziness. There might be material about anti-Asian racism, about shitty white gays. There will definitely be some rape material here and there, some impressions. It’ll be an absolutely crazy range of things!
Dylan will be the closing performer in Keepsake’s first show, “Unmute Yourself,” airing live on Zoom Sunday, March 28. Buy tickets now!
Poster by Jeff Deng.
Hailey:
At Keepsake House, we talk a lot about the magic in live shows and the communities they help create, almost like every live performance is itself a keepsake that you cherish from a whole house of life experiences. Tell us about your most memorable or fulfilling live performance, the one you would grab first in a fire.
Dylan:
The one that comes to mind is my show with Kelly, “Rape Victims Are Horny Too,” when we performed at the Caveat right before everything shut down. We performed to a lot of survivors and non-survivors in the audience, and speaking so truthfully about the gamut of our experiences in an hour-long show, I still feel so happy to have done that and am so proud. That’s the show that I would grab in a fire, that’s my keepsake.
Follow Dylan:
Website | Instagram | Twitter | Youtube
Resources on the rising anti-Asian hate crimes:
PBS News Hour addresses the surge
The Anti-Defamation League reports the rise
Stop AAPI Hate: the center tracks and responds to incidents of hate, violence, harassment, discrimination, shunning, and child bullying against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States
Alameda County Special Response Unit announcement
NAPABA (National Asian Pacific American Bar Association): pro bono legal resources
Resources for rape and sexual assault survivors:
RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network): the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization and home of the National Sexual Assault Hotline
Planned Parenthood: delivers vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of people worldwide
The Trevor Project: the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning youth
The Center: The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York, NY
NYC Anti-Violence Project: empowers lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and HIV-affected communities and allies to end all forms of violence through organizing and education, and support survivors through counseling and advocacy
Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence: national resource center on domestic violence, sexual violence, trafficking, and other forms of gender-based violence in Asian/Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities
Native Son: a movement and online platform for Black Gay Men who inspire, empower and celebrate each other
