when you're like I'm not feeling this one at first I was like oh what's wrong with Ally but oh this one's spicy hey what's going on everybody for first we Feast I'm Sean Evans and you're watching hot ones it's the show with hot questions and even hotter wings and
today we're joined by Ali Wong she's an Emy golden Global award-winning actor bestselling author and comedian you know her from the dark comedy series beef films like always be my maybe and of course her many acclaimed stand-up specials on that note she has a brand
new hour of Comedy her newest special single lady set to drop on Netflix October 8th Ali Wong welcome to the show oh I'm so excited and scared what's going through your mind as you prepare to take on the hot ones Gauntlet okay honestly what's going
through my mind is that I can't eat this many wings to the Bone and I pride myself on eating like the cartilage the marrow the gristle that that's what's going through my mind well are you ready to get started I'm ready to get started [Music] [Music] [Music] okay M that's not very
spicy is is that supposed to be spicy we onramp you over here okay so take your wins where you can get them on the show okay all right great yummy so it's funny to me how many comedy specials start with a comic pensively smoking a cigarette backstage
or walking heroically through a city but you you get right to the heart of the matter with a walkout song yeah from Beyonce to wuang what role do the musical cues play in setting the tone for Ali Wong special as you can tell maybe my first special I think we got this beat that
costs like ,000 because and my dress cost $8 I mean it was a very low lowbudget special but then once I could have a music budget then I was like I'm going for wout now yeah I just felt like having Beyonce was like appropriate how we feeling after Wing one fine
shockingly fine but that's how everyone feels after Wing one does any anybody fall apart after Wing one well you know I like to check in just in case all right oh [Music] okay very sweet up front mhm I ate a ghost pepper once by mistake cuz it was mixed in with a bunch of
other shishito peppers at the farmers market and then I I really felt it like move down my esophagus and then when is this too much information no no no no and then you know when I I'm fascinated the next morning burning you're telling me yeah the
butthole specifically was burning it does that you yeah so I read that the first place that you ever did stand up was at the brainwash Cafe on fulam Street in San Francisco yes can you paint the picture for what an open mic showcase hosted by Tony Sparks might
have looked and felt like for a performer on stage my God gosh this is a deep cut I am sure you must be a are you a PhD that's a crazy that is Tony Sparks wow um so there was this place called the brainwash Cafe and it was like literally half Cafe half
laundromat 100% homeless shelter and the show would start at 5:00 p.m. and you do 3 minutes to like you know people jerking off into their eggs and folding their laundry and um and a lot of comics judging you and it was great thinking back on that time which venue do you remember as
more of a nightmare Marsha's M cafe or our little theater in the tenderloin District my gosh well why do you know these things my gosh okay probably our little theater cuz it was in the tenderloin which if you know San Francisco those loins are not so tender
right in that neighborhood I mean you like if you step outside of our little theater you will step in human feces for sure that's that's human [ __ ] that's not dog [ __ ] that's human [ __ ] so um yeah it was like gross and scary to enter and exit every single time and then my God
the audience that poor audience like always I mean they got they got trapped they got catfished into being there and and they knew it and I knew it and I felt bad for [Music] them Neil's Real Deal again you would say like not it it's like spicy in the way maybe people
ketchup might be spicy to people it's like this is but you know I should really stop flexing talking no I like it I like it then I'm going to have diarrhea you're battle tested you took out that ghost pepper it prepared you for this moment
Ally okay so when you were on David Chang show Ugly delicious you made a funny point about how you wish that Yelp told you the percentage of five-star reviews that came from Asians oh yeah do you have any other pet peeves or improvements that you'd make to
restaurant review platforms like give me specific dishes too I don't want to just he like it was great and I don't care about the service right yeah same with me by the way I don't give a [ __ ] or the Ambiance when they're like the lighting this is a restaurant this is not a
bathroom you know this is not a living room we're not doing like interior decorator reviews we're doing food reviews and I'm also looking for if they serve if the chicken is white meat or dark meat I I I don't I'm really not into white are you do you have a
preference you know listen I have eaten close to 4,000 chicken wings just on the internet all right over the course of doing the show I'm approaching 4,000 my God dark meat white meat yeah I am proud of that I am proud of that I exhausted by it that's a little more
spicy I like that one cuz it's more like a little Tangy mhm so in my opinion beef is a near perfect TV show and delivers so much more than you might expect from just the premise alone my favorite scene is the one where you just become full of Rage
after discovering that Danny is piss on the floor right and you're walking into the apartment you [ __ ] that gun at the squawking Crow and tell it to shut the [ __ ] up is there a scene that was the most fun or cathartic to shoot I like that one a lot yeah I do too uh and that
was a little that was scary because it's it's a Warner you know and it was like a lot of dialogue and I had never done something like that before before and we were really limited on time so I knew we only had like three takes I liked
getting a piggyback ride from Steven at the end that was really funny that was fun because every time I would get on his back he would like he would go like this and so he would like he would pop and then he would like pump a little bit um so I have fun memories of that the
whole show I mean I'm so delighted and shocked that people were into it because I mean I always loved it but I was like I don't know if everyone else is going to like it and that's how standup is too you know you're like I I really love these jokes I don't know if other people
are going to like them but with stand up you test them you know and beef like we didn't test any of that just trust it [Music] yeah another fruity one is this where it ramps up this this where people say it like I guess only time will tell and
then there's some late life on it you know like sometimes these sauces kind of grow on you but I can tell already nothing you can a grower not a shower that's this one okay so in your book dear girls you say that the only way to become a successful comedian is to
mostly bomb what do you see as the value or positives when the jokes fail to land in the room well I think that you know how like a lot of people they don't remember their successes they just focus on their failures so then when you fail you like can't help but think about it
and then hopefully it will motivate you to improve it you don't want to be one of those Comics who just like is always killing always doing the same stuff all the time uh and then also I think like getting embarrassed is a really powerful motivator too you know
cuz you're like God that was so embarrassing I don't want to be embarrassed [Music] again was Padma the most calm M like there's one I think there's one episode of season where someone just sort of eally floats in here and then does better with this than me on my own
show it's interesting cuz I hung out with her one night and went into her bathroom and while she was filming Top Chef and she had a giant thing of Pepto-Bismol M cuz she you know trying all these people's food and she was like yeah sometimes I get in real trouble I was
like you can say frothy diarrhea in front of me that's all right Padma L me on your list of career superlatives where does having the dress that you wore on the baby cobra special exhibited in a Smithsonian exhibition alongside Muhammad Ali's robe and Prince's guitar
where does that fall on your list of career accomplishments I would say pretty up there it was like very and what was really sweet is that I did the Kennedy Center uh last summer and my k kids were with me and then my ex-husband was with me and then uh bill came to
visit my boyfriend came to visit to have all of them with me just as meaningful as like the dress itself you know being in the museum and then we went there and uh I got I was shocked I was so emotional and uh my daughter Mari who I was pregnant with at the time she
pointed at it and she was so excited and she was like that's me in there and um so that's probably but and I think maybe even more meaningful than that is when when people dress up in a striped dress and shove a pillow under there for Halloween like
that happens it's happened every year since and the influence and uh that's probably like my favorite thing that's that's my favorite superlative that's happened yeah know about that title all right Ninja napom sizing it up I feel feelings mhm I feel a feeling yeah this one uh kind of
announces itself you know just Kicks Down the door I don't I don't taste flavor I feel feeling that's exciting right I kind of have like feel alive I have like a smokiness that's filling my chest right now kind of that's what's going on over here I like
it I can see that yeah it's like a nice I feel some bake yeah yeah yeah that's a good way to put it did you have I feel my upper lip's getting sweaty it's a there's going to be a lot that goes on here okay physiologically to the finish line but you're doing
great it's going to get hotter that's by Design you know okay great wait do you have a favorite piece of medical jargon that you had to learn for your role is Dr Lena Stark in the ABC medical drama blackbox that's so funny that you mentioned that show nobody has
ever come up to me and been like oh my God I loved you as Dr Lena Lark on uh blackbox for those of you who don't know I played an agoraphobic radiologist who has a love Arc with the plumber oh my God I had to learn about oh the occipital lobe and the the occipital and
the frontal cortex and the oh my God yeah and I still know the difference I don't remember the difference between left brain and right brain but that's all right one's creative and one's mathy I I but I could never yeah all right Ally yeah this next Wing is the bomb
Beyond Insanity okay I don't want to lie to you it's uh it's an experience all right I'm excited look at that marketing who wants to to this Breaking Bad toxic [Music] no it's it's spicy yeah this one spicy completely different level spicy when
you're like I'm not feeling this one at first I was like oh what's wrong with Ally but this on spicy [Music] yeah I'm going to join you this one's Atomic yeah this one's oh it keeps going it's beyond Insanity right it it grows you want to talk about Growers one right
here but I know that you are an adventurous eater this is really spicy yeah I know I know I know but you're holding on and I'm here right along with you just be careful around the eyes be careful you know cuz you've been touching that napkin we might have some
fresh ones over there that might be better in a situation like this yeah Bird Box yeah do you have a Mount Rushmore of noodle soups a top four of all time m I do I would say um I really love the new Roman the beef noodle soup at die ho in the San Gabriel
Valley the F at fah Hanoi in San [Music] Jose doesn't exist anymore but I love Turtle tower in San Francisco that had great chicken F and and then I could order it with dark meat only W right up your alley and then my other one is when I used to live in Vietnam there was like
a snail tomato crab soup that this woman would serve on the street and uh and it was so cute because I loved her so much and she was so mean to me and she was so cranky but then um I I took a picture of her and then I gave it to her one day and it meant so much to her because I
don't think anyone had ever taken a picture of her at work like that and she was smiling and she was like she was like oh my God this is so beautiful and she like and she she didn't give me free soup she just smiled at me from then on yeah I've been
humbled I thought I was tough until the bomb Beyond Insanity you know what you're not the first person is that where it usually gets people that's that one it usually gets people way earlier than that Al okay all right your battle tested okay with that being
said are you ready to move on to the next Wing okay yeah all right so this is arble [Music] Scorpion oh I like the flavor on that one this one does grow it's not so fun but after the last one I feel like it makes everything a little bit easier at
least yeah wait a minute I would say that and then it's like the hot sauces they can hear you you know yeah I feel I feel vibrations around H so you joined Vince vaugh as at least the second high school student body class president that I've interviewed in the last year no way I
didn't know that about him what was your motive for seeking office like for him it was all a pooy because his grades were a little iffy but he thought there's no way the school can flunk out the sitting class president what was your motive it was really great
because I mced like essentially an all school meeting every single week for my entire senior year and it was great practice in uh in in being on stage and I didn't even realize that's like what I didn't even want to be a stand-up comic then and um I maybe I'm not even realizing until
now like what a big effect that had on me because you know there's nothing scarier than being a high school talking in front of your peers so yeah and then and and maybe nothing will be as scary as that ever again you know well look it you're here today yeah
taking on these SC Beyond Insanity Sauce yeah oh [Music] okay oh no the Seal's too hard to open that's going to take too much time never mind all right all right cheers fine [Music] cheers I like the way that you're like you almost I can tell that you're thinking
about the sauces you know thinking deeply about them it's all right because Ally the good news is we've reached the end of the line you've taken on the hot one's Gauntlet and just one more question here before we roll credit okay you know I've heard that if you
didn't pursue a career in comedy you might have ended up in education I know that you majored in Asian-American studies at UCL yes I realize that this is a big ass considering the circumstances and the way that hot sauce might affect one's recall but I'm
curious is there one film one novel and one painting that you'd be sure to have on a syllabus of an Ali Wong Asian American study survey class oh okay yes real Amer Real Americans by Rachel Kong that is her latest book so good I read it just recently one painting and one
film one painting I would probably have something uh by Barry McGee who's a graffiti artist who's I think his graffiti name is Twist one film a movie called Saving Face it's very good that's directed by Alice woo Ali Wong taking on the wings of gosh we did it living to tell the tale
and now there's nothing left to do but roll out the red carpet for you this camera this camera or this camera let the people know what you have going on in your life oh I have uh my Netflix special's out and my uh fourth Netflix special single ladyes out now and then
um I'm relaxing being a mom and I have a an animation show coming out too uh coming out I think in December and it's called Gentry thank you oh this is so fun are you still rolling cuz I really P myself and eating my to the Bell yeah like like see I I'm going to
get this little nub here the cartilage wa putting on a show over here I'll get in there it's going to be like people tast like a a vulture pretty good what do you think there's there's some Nubs on there this is usually how I eat my meat pretty
good pristine yeah that's another round of applause yeah cheer leaders could use that as a baton there you go this one spicy hot ones fans Sean Evans checking in to remind you new season means new sauces and if you'd like like to live the experience of season 25 you can do
it right now with the hot ones what do we call this with the brand new hot ones season 25 10 pack heatness.com heatness.com that's heatness.com to get your hands on the season 25 hot Ones hot sauce Gauntlet get them while they're hot and be careful around the eyes