Subscribe to Lemonada Premium for Bonus Content

Description

Actor, comedian, and writer Ronny Chieng is here to tell Ku and Su about how he’s trying to live his minimalist life – a hard thing to do in America when you’re constantly sent a lot of free things. He gives examples from tiny gifts to tiny swim trunks. Plus, how to fit into the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu scene!

Please note, Add To Cart contains mature themes and may not be appropriate for all listeners.

To see all products mentioned in this episode, head to @addtocartpod on Instagram. To purchase any of the products, see below.

• Ronny’s newest Netflix special is out April 5th! It’s called Ronny Chieng: Speakeasy (watch the trailer here)

• Ronny’s Hóng Baō was still available when we recorded! Act fast!
• Show off that man thigh with your Chubbies
• Show off how you fit in with Shoyoroll – although you wont find the Gi’s that Ronny has
• Ronny loves a small wallet like this Bellroy pouch
• This is the zero stain, zero waste deodorant from the two surfer ladies in Honolulu
• His hair journey landed him at Layrite hair pomade
• Ronny’s favorite everyday carry items are  Fisher space pen and Field Notes notepad

Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.

Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our show and get bonus content. Subscribe today at bit.ly/lemonadapremium.

Click this link for a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this show and all Lemonada shows: lemonadamedia.com/sponsors

Transcript

SPEAKERS

Ronny Chieng, Kulap Vilaysack, SuChin Pak

Kulap Vilaysack 

Hello and welcome to another episode of ADD TO CART, a show about the things we buy and buy into and what it says about who we are. I am Kulap Vilaysack.

SuChin Pak  00:19

And I’m SuChin Pak. Today, an icon, a guest joining us. He has such a huge list of things he’s added to cart. We have no time to spare. So let’s get right into it.

Kulap Vilaysack

We have an incredible guest today. Maybe you know him from his big screen roles and Crazy Rich Asians, Xiangxi and the legend of the 10 rings or maybe his many TV roles and Doogie Kameāloha, M.D, and NBCs young rock and Ronny Chieng, international student. Definitely. You know him from his role as the correspondent for The Daily Show, or his amazing hilarious Netflix special Asian comedian destroys America. Please welcome to the show the many threated performer writer, actor comedian, Ronnie Chieng.

Ronny Chieng 

You blew out the microphones. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

Kulap Vilaysack 

We like to start off with asking our guests like what type of like shopper are they? And just from a brief kind of scan of the list you send us tell me if I’m wrong. I feel like you’re a man of technology. And dare I say a retro sexual?

Ronny Chieng 

What? What is that?

Kulap Vilaysack 

Well, you’re somebody who’s familiar with like an REI. Familiar with the outdoors.

Ronny Chieng 

I’m more of an EDC sexual. Yeah, I’m not so much an outdoors dude. I’m more of an everyday carry.

Kulap Vilaysack

Okay, so. All right. Okay, that makes more sense. Because when you said EDC, I thought you meant the Electric Daisy Chain, which is that raver world, so that I was so confused.

Ronny Chieng  02:12

No, no, everyday carry about, the everyday carry stuff. I hardly get any of it by just like scrolling through it.

Kulap Vilaysack 

Okay, okay. So sounds like you don’t buy you look, more.

Ronny Chieng

Over the last. I would say, maybe eight years, I’ve kind of tried to live a more minimalist lifestyle, which is very much at odds with living in America. Because in America, it’s actually very easy to accumulate things, the things you don’t want things you don’t need. Like every week, someone’s giving you a t shirt for some dumb cause that you don’t really believe in. Or like, I’m very lucky that people try to send me stuff. Oh, to celebrate the premiere of this and this will send you our kid, our gift pack full of all this garbage, that no one uses, movie branded crap that I don’t want. And they accumulate man, the whole house does accumulate to the point now when people when people offer it to me, I just I just straight up say I’m so sorry, I live a minimalist lifestyle. I will watch the movie; I will pay for the movie. But just don’t send me any of this stuff, please. Because it’s just too much. You have the Daily Show, The Daily Show, we have like a free pile that we have to like put all this crap on the free pouches for people to take and people take it. I can’t believe people take the crap I put on this free pile. Because in America is like, just having stuff is like a thing. Like to say no to a gift in America is like crazy. Why would you say no? Even if you don’t need it? Why would you say no to it? You know, and I don’t know, I just bring a lot of nose. And so yeah, that’s a long way to answer your question about like, I scroll through it. I don’t buy. I don’t buy as much as an American consumers should on a podcast about consumerism.

SuChin Pak

Is that something that you’ve always leaned toward? Or is that something, you know, since we’ve moved here and lived here full time.

Ronny Chieng  04:06

I think since I was a kid, we always hated wasting anything and that applied to food, and anything else. And so part of not wasting is don’t throw it away and if it’s still usable, even if you don’t like it, and so that results in like, my mom would like hoard all this stuff. And I didn’t know it was hoarding until I kind of got older and I was like, man, we’re hoarding all this crap. Like it’s okay, so like the cell phone, the mobile phone as we call in Asia, like the mobile phone might not be broken, but it’s essentially obsolete. So we have to get rid of it. You know, I mean, like just because it’s still is not broken doesn’t mean we have to hold on to these things, especially things like technology, which moves so quickly. So, I don’t know, just that hoarding mentality. I guess that’s where it came from that like idea of not wasting stuff. So because of that. I never we never throw anything away unless it was completely, like destroyed or broken beyond repair. And because of that we never, we never threw anything away. And so I’m very reluctant to bring new things into my life. You know, I think that’s kind of where it came from.

Kulap Vilaysack

I can relate to that. SuChin and I both moved our mothers into new homes, and it’s just this constant battle of like, I mean, SuChin had to, SuChin had to throw something away.

SuChin Pak 

Oh, yeah, classic. And it shows up, you know, I’m like, is that the pillow I threw away in the garbage can two weeks ago, it was covered in pizza sauce, and maybe a can of beans on top of it. But here it is on […] n your sofa. And I also am laughing because we get free stuff, obviously, too. And I look at my mother and she is a walking billboard of all the things that I have gotten for free. She’s wearing the Neterium sweatshirt, but that is true. I mean, you know, I think a lot of immigrant households, you know, I saw this hilarious post of this woman who was like, oh, no, this is the this is the eco life of a T shirt, you get a t shirt, then right turns into a night shirt. Then it turns into a dish rag.

Ronny Chieng  06:15

Sometimes it goes become straight into a night shirt because it’s just unwearable, because the fit and the look and also by the way, it’s so funny people go like it’s immigrant things immigrant thing. My mom’s not an immigrant, yet. She never left. She never left Asia. It’s not an immigrant thing, man. This is just some Asian shit. They do that back home. It’s not an immigrant, you know? It’s like glorifying them that is like, glorifying, like, oh, man, you guys came with nothing. And so yeah, you adopted a frugal mentality. Nah, man. This is you guys. You live that life for no reason.

SuChin Pak 

You’re ruining my fantasy because I always imagined my Korean relatives like living you know what I mean? Like Kpop. Korean drama style, you know, just like polished and little Fendi bags.

Ronny Chieng 

Maybe in Korea, Korea’s very high class. Yeah, I mean, like what Southeast Asians, right? Singapore is a first world country, but you won’t find people more cheapskate than those people. So there you go.

Kulap Vilaysack 

Let’s get into your add to carts. First of all, straightaway, your Ronnie hongbao. Sir, I tried multiple times, multiple times to purchase your Hongbao, you print it how many times this year, how many times?

Ronny Chieng

Man, we printed it up. my producer wife handles it now. So I don’t actually know. But it was like at least like literally like five times, we had to go through five print runs.

SuChin Pak  08:00

And tell our audience, the audience who don’t know what a hongbao is.

Ronny Chieng

Oh, hongbao is a red envelope that you put money into when you give it to people, usually during Chinese New Year. But really, during any special occasion. You can whip it out. And it’s just kind of like an elegant way of not showing how much money you’re giving someone. But I mean, all these talks about consumerism, like man, money is still the best gift of all, I think it’s the most environmental, it’s the most portable. It’s the most flexible, everybody loves it.

SuChin Pak  08:37

I love how yours is also you guys printed with “hope you get rich”. So just in case, some folks were wondering, Ronnie’s version of the envelope was fantastic.

Kulap Vilaysack 

Wait a minute, so now I can buy it now? Hold on.

Ronny Chieng 

So I mean, the background to it was like I did a joke about that phrase, the phrase […] which you usually put on not necessarily but it’s a very much associated with Chinese New Year. And it’s kind of loosely translated to hope you get rich and so we made a red packet that says that and the designer is a great designer […] based in New York City. He’s came up with a design that was That looks great. And then I found like an actual New York City, Asian American owned printer to print it in New York City. And so that’s why it cost so much money. Because we printed it in New York like idiots and it costs like […], yeah, and that’s what it is. It’s a limit. It’s an it’s an exclusive premium product. And yes you could for the amount you buy you could buy like 200 made in Asia, but you know what, go buy that shit then, go buy it. If that’s what you want, then go buy that.

SuChin Pak  10:07

View yourself, go buy that. Yeah, that’s the energy you want to bring into your new year be like, be my guest.

Kulap Vilaysack

Ronnie, what is this Bellroy wallet?

Ronny Chieng 

Oh, the Bellroy Wallet. So, for the last, most of my adult life, I’ve realized that the smaller the wallet, the better. And a lot of that is also on myself to like, keep the wallet empty. So I found this wallet that is this little leather pouch is really portable, and there’s a zip on it. So you never have to worry that stuff is dropping out. You could put your keys in there, you can put coins in there, you can put cards, and you can put notes, obviously, and I gotta be honest, I haven’t used coins in America since I moved here. So seven years I haven’t used a single coin literally. And so it’s all just cards and now it’s on your phone now so the wallet is getting smaller and smaller now. And just as an added bonus, the Bellaroy wallet, leather wallet happens to be made by a Melbourne company. So you know, I feel some affiliations that I used to live in Melbourne, Australia. So they’re like Australian company, they done very well for themselves. They are a lot of different designs. If you don’t like a small zip pouch, they also have like, like normal wallets, but their whole gimmick is like a slim leather wallet.

SuChin Pak 

it’s beautiful and the prices right, it’s on sale by the way now if you’re listening, so love that.

Kulap Vilaysack

We have to be ourselves you guys at all times. Now, I like the name Chubbies shorts. I want to know more about chubbies shorts. Oh, they’re swim trunks.

Ronny Chieng  12:12

Yeah, they’re swim trunks, there are just some guy just figured out that if you make shorts, like three inches shorter, they just look cooler. Or they just looked more vintage for some reason I don’t know what it is, people in the 50s or 60s. They just wore short shorts and then it kind of got longer into the 90s and then it’s time to go back up again.

Kulap Vilaysack 

I love this guys. I just want all the men to hear this from me. You know what everybody talks about ladies legs. Let me be a lady talking about dude’s legs. All right? Y’all deserve some shine.

SuChin Pak

It depends on the legs. Let’s be honest. I love my husband, but we’re gonna go for a full coverage right down to the ankle in the house. You know? Chicken legs.

Ronny Chieng

No, you never know. You never know who can pull it off until you wear them and I gotta be honest, like it started the chubbies shorts started off as like, what was it five-inch seams or something or four-inch seams? Man I got it all the way down to like three like that the shortest one is like three inch seems or something the shortest version. And man like I’m public, sometimes you have like a wardrobe malfunction you know, I mean, just a little bit pops out.

Kulap Vilaysack 

That’s dangerous.

Ronny Chieng

Side ball is just like side boob. As long as you don’t as long as you don’t see the line down the middle of the scrotum. That’s like the nipple. No, that’s the nipple part. So if you don’t see the nipple, it’s fine if you don’t see the line down the scrotum, yeah, it’s fine. It’s fine.

Kulap Vilaysack  14:01

It’s okay and it’s like people are always talking about like cleavage you know on the boob, it’s like let’s talk about ball cleavage.

Ronny Chieng 

Yeah, ball cleavage. Ah ball cleavage. So these shorts really play into that because um, you can and you know when it pops out it’s like a total accident. Right?

SuChin Pak 

Is it an accident is it seems like an inevitability? You are one of the most stylish you know out there.

Ronny Chieng

Men should be freed, don’t body shame men. Men should be free to do what they want their bodies don’t body shame them, though. So we can’t dress the way we want. Like, just show off some side ball, side ball for life.

Kulap Vilaysack

And again, in case people forgot, side ball is just like sideboob.

SuChin Pak  15:00

It’s gonna take me a minute to recover from that image in my head. But I’m going to concentrate on the rest of this recording. Yeah.

Kulap Vilaysack 

I want to know about the Shoyoroll Brazilian jiu-jitsu gi, and I have to assume that you do jiu-jitsu.

SuChin Pak 

because it’s gonna be really awkward.

Ronny Chieng 

So I started doing jiu-jitsu and then I very quickly realized that this is actually this like subculture of Brazilian jiu-jitsu street wear, if that makes sense. So there’s all these like brands that specialize in making Brazilian jiu-jitsu gi’s, which is the, well not I wouldn’t say it’s a uniform. It’s just a training gear that you’re supposed to wear.

Kulap Vilaysack 

You can’t wear chubby shorts.

Ronny Chieng

Actually you can so in America the NoGi, the NoGi style of Brazilian jiu-jitsu is very popular among white guys for some reason they love the NoGi like you’re wearing like a rash guard and shorts and you’re just wrestling with people which is super cool you know actually like watching that as a spectator but me personally I just like the ritual of like putting on a Gi and also the geese kind of like a weapon. A lot of the submissions, you actually use the, the opponent’s clothing against them to choke them out. Not to mention get grips and all that like, so the Gi is like a training, but it’s part of the fight and you actually use it to fight. So I found this, all these really cool kind of streetwear jiu-jitsu brands and Shoyoroll is the kind of like the go to it’s like the supreme of jiu-jitsu gi’s. Yeah.

SuChin Pak  16:41

Now all Asian people listening are like, Oh, got it. Got it. Got it. Got it. The Supreme.

Kulap Vilaysack 

So I waited in line for it.

Ronny Chieng 

You can’t buy even if you wanted to. You, bajillion dollar properties. You know, Producer Director, you wanted to get this you couldn’t get it? You can’t it’s extreme. It’s exclusive.

Kulap Vilaysack

Makes me I don’t even do jiu-jitsu. Just ride around in LA? Actually, you know?

Ronny Chieng 

None of us on this podcast could get it. The only reason I can get it is because I kind of am friends with the owner. But if I wasn’t friends with him, no, no, no one could get it. No one can. Oh, it’s ungettable, yeah, it goes like that. It’s the they drop it and then it goes.

Kulap Vilaysack 

How many Gi’s do you have?

Kulap Vilaysack

Yeah, I got like 10, I give them away. Yeah, I try to give them away after for a while.

SuChin Pak 

Yeah, he can’t take your free shit. Because he has too many Gi’s in his closet. He lives in New York, man.

Ronny Chieng 

I’m very I’m very lucky. They send me gifts. And I wear them and I’ll train with him. And then like, they’ll have a new one. Right? Which is Yeah, and so I’m like wanting one out. So when I get a new one, I’ll try to give away the old one.

Kulap Vilaysack  18:07

You know, I like that. I like that. How long have you been doing jiu-jitsu?

Ronny Chieng 

Four years. Yeah, four years but yeah, the pandemic was a bit of a wash but yeah, I would say four years.

Kulap Vilaysack 

Yeah, it really was I’m just getting back on my kickboxing, was a long time taking a break just watching TV.

Ronny Chieng 

If you meet anyone who does Brazilian jiu-jitsu and you just want to like mess with them you just go like oh yeah, Shoyoroll, I love that brand is great. You know Shoyoroll? it sparks conversation immediately.

Kulap Vilaysack 

Thank you so much those circles and those circles you know I see eyes to the top SuChin knows I love some light small talk. I like to dip in deep and then get the fuck out that’s perfect. It’s a hot tip hot tip for me. SuChin mentioned that you are a very fashionable man you’re you look like you know like, you come across a sort of like a James Bond figure you know very you know tailored, very put together let’s get into some men’s beauty let’s get into this Layrite Hair Pomade.

Ronny Chieng 

Oh yes it’s just a hair pomade of choice. Very gettable. This not like Shoyoroll. This is like you go anyway, I get it. Very effective. washes out like gel holds, holds like gel but dries like clay I guess is that. I don’t know. If you guys know Pomade, It’s like rich people’s gel, I guess it’s like hair gel for rich people.

SuChin Pak

It is, it has like a softer touch. But you know, I mean, I have to imagine you’ve been through many hair products to get the perfect, you know what I mean? Because that kind of stuff when you find the thing, especially when it’s about your hair, there’s been a lot of research. So I want to hear how you got to this.

Ronny Chieng  20:11

I started out with like all 14-year-olds, I guess with light hair gel, and then I chest out with mousse, and then move into gel. And then we discovered clay. And we’re like, oh my god, clay, you can put clay that sounds so fancy. And we start putting clay in our hair. And then we discovered wax and we’re like, oh, wax, it’s like a strong because you know, Asian guys hair is pretty tough to manage. So you need something pretty strong. And then wax was like a stronger version of clay. And then we were using wax for a while, but then wax doesn’t wash out easily. And then one day, someone just showed me Pomade. And I was like, oh, this sounds super fancy. And let me just try this. And I just got hooked. And I start using pomade. Although there’s different types of pomade one time I use the there’s this like, orange tin pomade like Black people on it. I’m not sure if you’ve seen this one. That thing is like glue. That was like glue. So I was using that. And it was like gluing. It was like super gluing my hair to my head. It’s a very vintage kind of brand and product. But it was too strong. So Layrite was like just perfect. That’s the hair journey. Also, I recently found out that I’m actually putting my hair on the wrong the wrong way.

Kulap Vilaysack 

Who told you?

Ronny Chieng 

Well, I’ve been putting my hair a certain way. And I had three barbers in a row independently telling me that the grain of my head is actually going the other way. And I should be actually putting the other way. So I’ve been fucking up my head for, like seven years, going the wrong thing.

SuChin Pak 

But changing the part of your hair. Like I’ll bump into walls. I’ve tried to do that and been like, I mean, how it’s not the craziest thing. I’ll just flip it the other way. And suddenly, I’ve lost all equilibrium, I’m like, eating things I’ve never eaten before. I mean, changes your personality. Like you have to really kind of be like, alright, you’re gonna have to change some things to part your hair or the other.

SuChin Pak 

It’s a concerted effort. Absolutely, absolutely. Not to mention just the motion of it is already you’re like, it’s like wiping your ass with the wrong hand. It’s already, you already like backwards, throwing with your other hand. I mean, like, well, I’m left-handed but like you’ve already you’re throwing with your left hand.

Kulap Vilaysack  22:39

I mean, but how does it feel now? How does it look now?

Ronny Chieng 

don’t know. Because I did it for a bit and then it was fine. And then now my hair’s too long, so I can’t I have to do it the way it was cut, you know, I mean, otherwise it just fucks it up too much. Anyway, I’m gonna cut my hair soon. I’m gonna try to change it the other way.

Kulap Vilaysack 

You got to keep us updated. This is a huge transformation.

SuChin Pak

On the edge of our seats here at Add to Cart. This is the stuff we care about. We don’t care about your career or your marriage. We don’t care about your family. We want to know how is the part affecting your daily life, so we’ll get that update.

Kulap Vilaysack 

Okay, so what’s this zero-waste deodorant.

Ronny Chieng

So this ties into the trying not to waste things and add to the crap that’s floating around the Pacific Ocean. So trying to use like refillable products in this case, I managed to find this refillable deodorant in Hawaii that works great. So the number one thing with deodorant is organic deodorant, is when they say it’s organic, or like zero waste packaged free. It always fucking stains white. So you will put it on and then you’ll put on like a white t shirt or white shirt and then next thing you know the whole shirt is ruined forever because you got like yellow stains that won’t go away. And so a big thing with looking for deodorant for guys is finding stuff that doesn’t stain white. The chemicals never stain white. It’s always like when you’re trying to do some organic shit. So this is the first, it almost feels homemade deodorant, I guess it is homemade. Because these two girls in Hawaii I think they make it from scratch and make like they make it in bulk. And then you go to their shop, you scoop it out of the bulk jar, you put it into your jar and then you bring it home and then you smear it on and it’s kind of gross because you’re smearing it on like, like you’re smearing it like a pap smear. You have to like smear it. Anyway, the point is you’re smearing it and then..

SuChin Pak 

Like cream cheese on a bagel, you’ve got under your armpits.

Ronny Chieng 

But then the benefits are that it first of all, you got no packaging to deal with. You’re not contributing to waste. It’s super effective. There’s no chemicals in it. It’s kind of like, I can’t remember what it’s made of, but it’s essentially chemical free. It’s like everything they do, it has essential oils in it to give it a smell. And it’s effective man, like it doesn’t. I use it all day filming. Very effective. So I highly recommend this.

Kulap Vilaysack 

I got to know your baseline though. Okay, so for example, SuChin, East Asian generally doesn’t smell, Kulap, Southeast Asian, a strong, pungent if I let it go, you know, where do you fall?

Ronny Chieng

I’m pretty smelly, I use something that works. Yeah, I can’t fuck around with deodorant. That’s something which is like, I will use chemicals. And I’ll kill baby dolphins with plastic. Like, that’s how serious, so I’m saying this thing works.

SuChin Pak  26:15

We will put this in the category of game changer because I think when it comes to something like deodorant, which is such a personal choice, and like you said, people aren’t going to mess around with body odor. Like they will buy the recycled mascara, they will buy the recycled socks, but then they’re going to go to you know, old Spice and they’re just going to use the thing that works. And so I’m just shocked that it’s not only chemical free, the application is interesting and that it’s zero waste so there’s nothing here that says it should work, any of those things, generally like we, I mean Kulap and Claire test a lot of deodorant. Yeah, I mean, yeah, we certainly have never had anything zero waste.

Ronny Chieng

Yeah, this deodorant, give it a try. I’m very picky with it. I’ve tried all the organic ones. The all the zero waste all the paper packaging deodorants, none of them work. They either, they either don’t stop the smell or they stain. This thing works. So I bought like a whole jar. Like last time I was in Hawaii. I was like, give me the biggest jar you have. And I brought it back to New York with me. I’m just slowly like scooping it out. And I’m smearing it into my armpits.

SuChin Pak 

Does it take a minute to dry? Like, do you have to like?

Ronny Chieng 

No, no, it’s hard to explain. Like, I’m gonna say it’s pasty, which doesn’t sound appealing, but it doesn’t, it’s quite solid when you put it on and then it kinda like sets.

Kulap Vilaysack

I mean, I gotta try it.

Ronny Chieng

Keep It Simple Honolulu, I think is the website. And not that anybody cares. But the shop is run by like to surfer girl, Hawaii girls who are just you know, doing like zero packaging, like bulk refill shop in Honolulu. Hawaii is really cool. It’s a cool little place.

Kulap Vilaysack  28:13

People care. I care about that stuff. If it works.

SuChin Pak

This is gonna be this is gonna be a big one for us. Okay, fantastic.

Kulap Vilaysack  28:27

Okay, so I am because you did mention that you live an EDC lifestyle. And I’m just curious, like, what, in that regard? Like, what is a game changer for you? You know, as you’re walking around New York.

Ronny Chieng 

Yeah, so game changer for me was a combination of field notes. The Notebook, and space pen. So this Space Pen you can kind of carry around with you everywhere, it’s super reliable. It’s a bullet size. So you can, it’s the size of a finger, and then you can open it up and it kind of doubles in size. So it’s very portable and easy to write with, again, super reliable, they frickin use it to go to the moon. You can use it when you’re in your goddamn you know, when you’re on the plane is gonna, it’s gonna work for you, you know, and again, the small notebook just let you kind of write down any ideas you have and really like not to exaggerate the importance but the like, our jobs ideas, you know, about, we make money from ideas like whatever, maybe it’s not a ton of money, but we still make money from ideas. So it’s important to kind of have tools that let us kind of capture that and because it’s like printing money right there. If you can write down a good idea, if you can capture a good idea and execute on it. That’s kind of what our jobs are, so having the tools to kind of capture that, and over the last couple of years, I’ve kind of gone back to pen and paper. I think it’s been way more productive for me in every sense. Creatively, memory wise. Reefing everything. And I’m like, the biggest tech guy, you know, I mean, like, I’m not even I’m not. I’m like the opposite of a Luddite. And even I’m like, oh, we have to writing on the phone. writing on phones wasn’t doing it for me. I didn’t realize until I started going back to pen and paper and it just was so much more effective. So every day carry space pen, Fisher space pen and field notes just right size to put in a guy’s back pocket.

Kulap Vilaysack  30:44

I understand you got an upcoming special, please tell us about it.

Ronny Chieng

Oh, yeah. It’s called Ryan Chieng Speakeasy. It’s on Netflix. It’s my second Netflix comedy special. It’s just under an hour long. I filmed in New York City. We tried to do something pretty special with it visually. So we shot it in a Chinatown restaurant in the round. So hopefully, I hope people like it as much as the first one. I think it’s out now as we’re talking so thanks for advertising.

SuChin Pak 

This and the deodorant. They’re gonna just see spikes in sales. Like these guys in Honolulu have no idea.

Ronny Chieng

I’m trying to put placement in Netflix specials actually, I’ve been discussing it with them. And apparently, the technology exists but it’s something about it’s too complicated to like, implement. Wouldn’t be cool if you could just buy shit as I talked about it in the special. Very dystopian.

Kulap Vilaysack  32:08

Very much. I mean maybe you and the surfer girls could collab on this like, you know deodorant. I don’t know.

Ronny Chieng 

Yeah, I love to have like a scent named after me, right? Oh, you’re insane.

SuChin Pak 

Just like smear it on your pit.

Ronny Chieng

If you’re smearing it on your paps, then it’s by definition a pap smear.

Kulap Vilaysack

But we don’t call our armpits paps.

Ronny Chieng

Maybe I my armpits paps. Maybe that’s my nickname for it.

SuChin Pak

As two women, we’re gonna go ahead and give you some really good feedback on that. We’re gonna keep that here, right here on this pod.

Ronny Chieng

Do you ever have sweaty paps? We’ll put some deodorant on them. You don’t want stains on your paps.

SuChin Pak 

He’s road testing in it. He’s trying to see if he can turn us.

Ronny Chieng 

Yeah, maybe paps is Malay for armpits. You don’t know, do you speak Malay? Does anybody here speak Malay?

Kulap Vilaysack

Ronnie, I have a question, I ask you, in Malay, is it called paps?

Ronny Chieng

Maybe?

SuChin Pak

I’m getting a glimpse of what it’s like to be in an intimate relationship with Ronnie and get into an argument about you know, let’s say I don’t know what you want to have for dinner. I see he’s gonna hold on. He’s gonna be you know, strong and wrong. We like to call it here, you know? And we appreciate that.

Kulap Vilaysack 

Ronnie, thank you so much for being on the show. You’re Ronny Chieng on everything right? On Twitter? On Instagram?

Ronny Chieng

Yeah, but don’t worry about following me. I’m okay. Don’t worry about following me. I’m fine. Carry on with your lives.

Kulap Vilaysack  34:10

Oh, Ronnie, thank you so much for getting me show you a […] and offering that as a beginning of our friendship. I really appreciate you. And so I will appreciate it and I’ll take the one that you are. That’s fine.

Ronny Chieng 

Do you know what’s weird? I just Google pap, and according to the dictionary, paps is a woman’s breast or nipple. What?

Kulap Vilaysack 

No.

Ronny Chieng 

Yeah. That was the dictionary says yeah, paps is a woman’s breast or nipple.

Ronny Chieng 

So I guess we’re both wrong in a weird way.

SuChin Pak 

Now listen, no now. Now, it’s an archaic dialect, you failed to see that line there. So perhaps, perhaps in 1642 English, the Old English they were calling it, can I get a peek of your paps my lady, bit here in 2022 New York and LA. It’s just, Ronny, I’m sorry. You know, we got to protect you. You got your two Asian aunties are telling you do not go out on the streets and start calling your pits, paps.

Ronny Chieng 

It’s a slang term for breasts used by Jesus Christ. No, for real in the urban dictionary.

SuChin Pak 

Are you gonna write that in the field notes?

Kulap Vilaysack 

Hid his disciples like tweet that? That’s so crazy.

Ronny Chieng

Apparently it’s found in the Gospels. Jesus. Whoa, hey, you want to go against Jesus? Be my guess, Su.

SuChin Pak  36:16

All right, well, that is it for episode. Wow. So many learnings in this episode. See everything Ronnie added to cart, at @AddToCartPod, check out our list of links to purchase in our link tree. All the information is there. There it is.

Kulap Vilaysack 

Yeah, I mean, look, I learned today that money is the best gift but money can’t get you everything, including a Shoyoroll gi. There are some things that are more valuable then money. Turns out so if you have a hook up, because I don’t actually think Ronnie’s gonna give me a Shoyoroll gi. If you can leave us a voicemail with your hookup at 833-453-6662. I mean, I guess that’s what I need now. That’s all I need now.

SuChin Pak 

Yeah, just the outfit. Not the actual practice.

Kulap Vilaysack 

But here’s the thing. I get the gear. I’ll probably start doing it.

SuChin Pak 

That’s right. That’s my Ku. Alright, we’ll see you next week. Bye, guys.

CREDITS

ADD TO CART is a production of Lemonada Media. Our producer is Claire Jones and our mix is by Ivan Kuraev and Veronica Rodriguez. The music is by Wasahhbii and produced by La Made It and Oh So Familiar with additional music by APM music. Executive producers are Kulap Vilaysack, SuChin Pak, Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittels Wachs. Be sure to check out all the items we mentioned today on our Instagram at @AddToCartPod. Also, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcast.