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Michael Hing\u2019s comedy special, Long Live the Hing<\/i>, recorded live during the Sydney Comedy Festival, covers a lot of ground. With his trademark apologetic goofiness, The Project<\/i> co-host shares the indignity of sleeping with a mouthguard for grinding teeth, a dubious acupuncture session, the time he emceed a nudist wedding in the nude and his disaster-plagued proposal to lawyer and comedy writer Humyara Mahbub at the flooded Splendour in the Grass festival (she said yes). What he doesn\u2019t much talk about is his Chinese heritage.<\/p>\n
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Michael Hing says he \u201ccan understand the criticism\u201d people have of The Project, of which he is a regular co-host. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere was a time, from about 1990 through to the early 2010s, when if you weren\u2019t a straight white guy, you had to deliver your comedy in relation to how you weren\u2019t a straight white guy,\u201d Hing says. \u201cThere\u2019s very little Chinese material in my special. There\u2019s been an upswing of comedians who look and sound different to the old tropes, and the audience has changed. Fifteen years ago, the expectation was, you\u2019d have to do two or three jokes at the top of every set, almost to reassure the audience that, \u2018Hey, I know I\u2019m Chinese, as well\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n As he explained in his 2018 SBS documentary series exploring multicultural Australia, Where Are You Really From?<\/i>, Hing is multi-generational Chinese-Australian. Last month, he married Mahbub, showrunner of ABC\/Netflix comedy series Why Are You Like This<\/i>, in a Chinese-Bengali ceremony on Sydney Harbour. Mahbub is a significant presence in Long Live the Hing<\/i>, and not just through Hing\u2019s intimate anecdotes about their relationship. Book-ending the broadcast are home videos of Mahbub reacting to the material.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I\u2019ve written something that involves her, I will run it by her to make sure she\u2019s OK with it,\u201d says Hing. \u201cBecause you hear stories about people talking about their partners on stage and their partners getting pissed. And we\u2019re a team. We write stuff together. She\u2019s very much a part of the process, so it\u2019s important for her to be part of the show.\u201d<\/p>\n Since joining The Project <\/i>in December, Hing has learnt he\u2019s \u201cnot a very aggressive person\u201d. He has clashed mildly with conservative commentator Steve Price over disgraced Melbourne restaurateur George Calombaris\u2019 attempted comeback, but, \u201cno one actually got mad at me or anything\u201d. The highlight of the program for Hing so far has been interviewing Chris Pine from the Dungeons and Dragons movie Honour Among Thieves<\/i>.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter 10 years, everyone knows about The Project<\/i>,\u201d says Hing. \u201cSome people think it\u2019s this leftist communist propaganda show. Other people think it\u2019s this racist, alt-right show. There\u2019s been a real variety of panellists and guests and hosts, so I can understand the criticism that people have of it not agreeing with their values.<\/p>\n The Project\u2019s line-up includes (clockwise from left) Sam Taunton, Michael Hing, Hamish Macdonald, Georgie Tunny, Waleed Aly and Sarah Harris.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn my experience, it\u2019s been the best. I mean, we joke about how the ABC has no money, but there are so many brilliant ideas at the ABC and there\u2019s just no ability to execute them because of more than a decade of funding cuts. So the first thing I noticed at The Project<\/i> is how incredible it is to never have to knock back a guest because you can\u2019t afford to fly someone in.\u201d<\/p>\n Alongside comedian Lewis Hobba, Hing is now touring Australia with Hobba and Hing\u2019s<\/i> Last Show Ever<\/i>, marking the end of their Triple J Drive show after four years.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been incredible. You don\u2019t realise how many people are listening,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cRadio is not like other mediums. People don\u2019t sit down to listen to the radio any more \u2013 you\u2019re in and out of their lives. They might hear you in the car or in a shop, or they might hear a snippet on social media.<\/p>\n \u201cI notice, when I listen to radio, you become friends with the presenters. But when you\u2019re presenting, it\u2019s easy to forget that because you\u2019re in a room with one other person, and someone\u2019s on the text line, and it\u2019s hard to put faces to that. The tour has been meaningful and genuinely very touching.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n