Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.

I'm Jesse Thorn, it's Bullseye. My guest is Joel Kim Booster. Joel is a writer and

comedian, he's written for Billy on the Street, problematic with Moshe Cashier and Netflix's

Big Mouth, and as a stand-up he's appeared on Conan on Comedy Central at Midnight and

more. These days he's starring alongside Cal Pen in the upcoming NBC sitcom Sunnyside.

He's also one of the most exciting new comics around. Why? Well for one thing, there's

his unique biography, which he works into his act. He's Korean American. He was adopted

and raised by a white family in suburban Illinois. His upbringing was conservative and extremely

religious. He was homeschooled until he hit his teens. And as if that weren't hard enough,

he came out at 17, moved out of his parents' house shortly after. There's also his

stage persona, which is confident almost to a preposterous extent sometimes, and also

sometimes vulnerable. He's not afraid to show flaws. And besides all those things, he

really sincerely loves chain restaurants. He's that guy. Take a listen to this clip.

It's off his debut album Model Minority, which dropped last year. Joel is talking about

one of his biggest pet peeves, when white people try to guess his nationality.

I do have to say I actually, I hate it when they guess correctly though, because it's

almost always worse for me. Because for instance, I waited tables at the Olive Garden for

two years in college, pulled for applause. Again, when I have to ask for it, it means less.

No, I worked there for two years. And I will always remember this. I walked up to a table.

It was like a table of three older white guys. And I introduced myself and got them their

red sticks. And then at one point, one of them just turns around and looks at me and

says, hey, son, are you Korean? And I was like, yeah, I am. That's an amazing guess.

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