A version of this was originally posted on cpluscomedy.com in 2020.
No matter what anyone says, representation is important in any field of work. In the entertainment world, this point has to be hammered home daily. However, like any other form of industry, the notion of diversity tends to slip by the wayside. Just look at any awards show. One year, the nominees are complaining about the lack of diversity; the next, movies like Little Women and shows like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel are lauded for their performances but the completely white casting is overlooked.
Sherry Cola (I Love Dick, Claws, Good Trouble) is comfortable in representing three sects of diversity. She’s an Asian American queer female comedian after all. But she’s also a multitalented funny person with a lot to say on Asian diversity in entertainment.
Usually, I like to start out the conversation. This time was different. After a failed phone call just minutes prior, Cola comments on the sound quality of our previous interaction.
Sherry Cola: Hey Chad. Okay. I can hear you!
All right. That’s good. That that would’ve been terrible for all of us.
Cola: Yeah, you were, you sounded like you were underwater, which is pretty cool.
You know, it’s funny, I can’t even swim. So it’s weird that it sound like I was underwater.
Cola: I’ll be honest. I have been known to drown in my day as well. I’m not exactly a good swimmer either.
Have you seriously drowned before??
Cola: That’s a strong word, but legitimately -- especially when alcohol is involved – I legit have had my my face in the water and somehow [I’d still be alive] like drunk. I don’t know. like legit, my friends have found me-- not found me, but you know what I mean?
Like there’ll be around the corner and suddenly I’m like face floating in the water. I’m laying my head on a deck or something. You know what I mean? Like that. It’s all very fun for the drunk memories, but yes. No, I am not a swimmer by any means.
Are you in New York right now? Or LA.
Cola: I’m in LA. What about you?
I’m in Atlanta, so there’s not a body of water anywhere near us, so that’s good.
Cola: That’s good. That’s a good sign.
So how are things in LA? Are you a busy shooting the show at the moment?
Cola: Oh, we aren’t shooting currently, we wrapped season two in November, which is such a trip because our show has only premiered for a little, like a maybe a year-ish. I think January 2018 is when we first premiered and we’ve already finished shooting season two. So I’m extremely grateful for that turn around and we just keep putting out Good Trouble content for y’all.
[Good Trouble] got 18 episodes this season plus two specials. I think Freeform’s a really good platform for especially people of the younger generation because they’re willing to go ahead and go outside of the regular season schedule and make something special.
Cola: Oh, 100%. I think Freeform is doing everything right and it’s such a cool place to be, especially for the young audience. The dare I say woke audience. The new generation that fights for what they believe in…
Freeform really gets the importance of social issues and just kind of making that impact especially as the youth takes over the future, etc. It’s a really cool place to be. Especially with what they used to be as ABC Family. They really rebranded to be this fresh a new platform; a new network.
I think my favorite thing about Freeform is that it, like you said, it has this ability, this -- I don’t want to “courage,” but for lack of better word -- courage to air shows like Good Trouble, Alone Together, and The Bold Type and have them be female driven. And also be just as dark and dirty and disgusting as [It’s Always Sunny in Philidelphia] or South Park. Any other of those male driven, male focused shows.
Cola: Totally. I love that our show is female driven because that’s something that’s really important to me. And, and we have so many people of color. We talk about stuff that you know, needs to be onscreen. I think storylines are really overdue, especially characters like mine.
That’s someone who I never saw on TV growing up. Being that example now -- portraying that character -- [has led to] a lot of Asian girls […] in my DMs talking about how they actually finally feel represented. And that means the world.
It’s like when Margaret Cho, when she got her sitcom. It’s kind of like that kind of revolution. And then now we have Fresh Off The Boat, which is sadly going off the air, but, that had finally an Asian family in the forefront. Whereas it was mostly on, especially on ABC -- no offense to the mother network -- but on ABC, when that usually had bunch of white families plus Blackish, which is a black family. It just wasn’t that much representation across the board, but now we have it all over the place.
Cola: Right. We’ve seen some progress in the Asian American representation world on the screen, but I feel like we still have miles of work to do. What I would like to be is not so much of a gap between Margaret Cho’s show and Fresh Off The Boat.
Or even Joy Luck Club and Crazy Rich Asians. There was such a big gap for no reason, truly. I mean, [during] my upbringing I had no representation. It’s kind of mind blowing when we really think about it because Asian people exist in this country and we’ve been here yet our perspective our experience wasn’t taken seriously.
And I feel like we’re finally at a time where the world is catching up. So the fact that we have culturally important things to say… We’re also relatable human beings […] who deserve to have this point of view. I know in my heart that this wave of Asian-American content is not a trend.
I truly feel like we’re here to stay and, and I’m very excited for that. And I’m lucky to be a part of it.
Yeah. Like in the past year alone, there [have been] two or three major movies -- even if they’re on Netflix -- but major movies starring Asian American people. And then [we] even got The Farewell, which was getting all the awards hype and then Parasite is over there doing good work for a different sect of Asian people. But, still, it’s great that we can finally see this white male driven world of ours.
Cola: Absolutely. And it’s extremely it’s truly a thrill [seeing] Asian stories actually getting attention, the attention that it deserves.
In the last couple of years, there’s been a handful, but that’s the keyword handful compared to all the white male driven stuff. Hopefully one day it will be equal. I think about the things that I watched when I was growing up and it didn’t even occur to me that I didn’t exist. Truly my favorite shows where Friends and Living Single, [Fresh Prince of Bel Air], and Boy Meets World. I didn’t even realize it. I truly did not realize it to the point where I thought this career path must not be for me.
had these passions and these interests when I was in high school; hosting talent shows and making funny videos. But it never occurred to me that I could actually do it for real because I didn’t think it was possible. But now that we’re seeing more and more openings and presence on screen, I’m really hoping that will change the mindset of Asian kids going up. And naturally give them hope.
Thinking about that and I read that you are [bi-sexual]. When you were coming up in the comedy world, did that have any effect? Especially not seeing a lot of Asian representation in comedy. Did you feel like an outcast as a queer woman doing comedy in a world where you weren’t a part of a group in that comedy world?
Cola: I don’t know if I felt like an outcast, but I was very aware that the percentage of what I was representing was low. I think there’s a category of not that many female comedians that get the sign, and then it’s even smaller that you’d be Asian females getting attention.
And then there’s queer Asian females. That’s even a smaller group. I’m very aware of it. Of course, I have my community of comics. I wouldn’t say “outcast,” of course. Just in genera,. I think being a new comic [can be rough]. Because I’ve only been doing stand up comedy technically for three and a half years.
I think more so because being a comedian -- a new comedian -- that’s already nerve racking. Just the step into that world and kind of learn what your place is. With standup comedy, it’s something that’s not overnight. I feel like sometimes as an actor maybe you could look really [good in a] big role.
Your very first role could be life changing; could be something that completely turns your world around. But with stand up, you have to put in those hours. There’s no overnight when it comes to standup. I’ve just been really hustling in that way… [by doing] standup and like slowly trying to climb my way up and make a name for myself, especially because I do feel like I have a unique perspective.
I’m still grinding out here in the sand of streets. I’m aware that my perspective is unique and rare.
Uh, what was that first step like? You were an improv. Uh, correct. And then, uh, so what was that first step like going from a stage with a bunch of people making stuff up to a stage where you’re by yourself and, uh, telling all of these jokes that you have pre-prepared.
Cola: Actually I dabbled. I dabbled in improv. I did a UCB and I love it. And I did all that. But technically that was after I started doing standup.Both of them are really cool. I feel like it’s almost like comparing standup to acting in a sense where stand up is this solo sport and acting and improv is team work -- all about working off of each other.
I’m very excited to do both. To have that in my range, if you will. I do a lot of stuff around town that’s live performance whether it be musical comedy, rap battles where we make up songs on the fly and then I’m doing standup.
It is very different because you’re not relying on anyone except the audience when you’re doing standup. You kind of there on your own and, and it is kinda scary. I have the feeling of I want to throw up every single time I get up on stage, but it disappears and I’m having so much fun and right when I get off stage. It’s like cloud nine.
When you’re with a group, it is cool. Group performance is people have your back. That’s the cool thing like that when I’m performing in a group, I always have the feeling of someone has my back and I’ll have someone else’s back.
Lil Tasty from the Luber online series hit pretty hard on Facebook. Why do you think that is? Especially since you were coming from a world of acting or a world of standup. And now you’ve got this thing that is you essentially, just in this rap form. Why do you think that hits so hard in Facebook?
Cola: Lil Tasty was a character I created on a whim. We didn’t expect this to go viral. You know what I mean? I think a lot of the audience was so blown away by Lil Tasty because she was nothing like they’d ever seen.
She wasn’t your typical Asian girl; she broke stereotypes. She was obnoxious. She was wild. She said the darnedest things. She was optimistic, she was really a sweetheart. You didn’t really know how to define her, which is why I really want to keep her alive.
She’s so dear to my heart. She appeals to Lakers fans. She appeals to hip hop fans and she appeals to Asian people. I think she was just so out there and fresh, truly refreshing. I think that’s why people really, really enjoyed [doing] those videos. She’s definitely someone I want to keep alive as well. I have things up my sleeve that are circled around Lil Tasty. I think truly because she broke stereotypes and she was just a breath of fresh air. That’s why people love Lil Tasty. She was adorable and hilarious. I talk about her as if she’s not even me. It’s weird because this character comes so naturally to me and it’s like second nature.
All those videos were improv, like nothing was written. It was just me out in the world going off the top riffing. Some of the stuff that comes out of her mouth surprises me sometimes. Bu it’s like a part of me, but it’s a whole other person, you know?
I understand. You opened for Ronnie Chieng for his for his Netflix special. How was that? That’s a huge accomplishment for anybody at any level. What was that like for you?
Cola: Oh, absolutely. It was so amazing. And I’m so grateful to Ronnie because Ronnie and I met early 2018 at Laugh Factory. I was hosting the show he happened to be on, but we were on the same show. I got off stage and we met. He was on the East coast mostly because he’s on The Daily Show so I’d never met him. He was in LA for a couple of days and we did the same show. And he was like, “you’re funny.”
It’s funny because I was actually doing standup and Lil Tasty at that show. So he just was watching me doing a whole bunch of random crap. He said something really nice. It really meant a lot because obviously he’s someone I look up to in the comedy game. We followed each other on Instagram and Twitter.
And then a few months later he just asked me if I was down to do a couple of shows with him in September. And he didn’t even say it was as Netflix taping. I was just like “Oh, sure, I’m down.” Then, when I found out it was a Netflix special, I was thrilled for him. This is so well deserved. We need more Asian comics on Netflix.
I was talking to people behind the scenes and they were telling me that Ronnie was really adamant on having me open for him. They asked who he wanted as an opener and he said, “Sherry Cola no question, final answers.” Even though the people behind the scenes didn’t necessarily know who I was, or they hadn’t heard of me, he was really pushing for me to open for him.
It was just so amazing to hear because I feel like we’re at this time where as Asian Americans enter in entertainment we can truly support each other. That’s what he was doing with meby letting me open for him for the Netflix taping. So that really meant a lot. I feel like we’re at this point where there is more opportunity where we can put competition behind us and truly empower each other. There really room there is really room for everyone. Ronnie’s a vet and he’s brilliant. So unapologetic. Truly an inspiration.
Follow Sherry Cola on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Watch Good Trouble on Freeform.