I live my life not to please my pastor or my church or fellow Christians. I live my life according to my own convictions and morals and core values and principles, and a lot of times, that's not going to add up to other Christians.
People want to call me racist for doing the Bon Qui Qui character, and I'm like, 'Look, Bon Qui Qui is a representation of a hood chick. That's it.' There are lots of hood chicks out there: some are black, some are Mexican, some are Salvadorian, and some are white.
There's a joke that I do where I make fun of myself for being bow-legged, and I compare myself to a camel and how a camel walks and sits, and that has become a joke that people - when I deliver that joke, people are in tears.
I stay far away from political humor.
When I really started just giving them the truth of who I was, that's when my fan base really started to grow.
I'm from San Jose, CA, which is very diverse, and I grew up around a lot of different types of people.
I like to be the only one who uses my toothbrush.
Nobody wanted to help me get my start, not to mention it's tough being a female in a man's world of stand-up comedy. It's a very competitive world, and it was a challenge to find my own voice, stick to my guns.
One of my best friends growing up was Vietnamese, and he and his mom would teach me how to say certain things so I could impress my nail girls. Then the nail girls would teach me how to count to 100 and basic things like 'Thank you' and 'You're welcome.' It's funny, because any accent that I do now always turns into Vietnamese.
I've realized that I can never not do the nail salon joke, and I will have to talk about Bon Qui Qui for eternity.
I've been doing the Vietnamese nail lady impressions since my mom first took me to get my nails done when I was 12.
You don't want to let people down, and that's so hard because you're never going to please everybody. There's always going to be someone that's a naysayer.
I love sharing my life with people.
I'm a very observational storyteller, and I'm always relational - a lot of stories stem from relationships, whether it's me with my husband, me with my mom or my siblings.
Don't try to be anybody else, because that's what I do. I do me. I'm not trying to impress anybody. I'm not trying to please my pastor at church. I'm not trying to even please my mom, to be honest.
It's always nerve-wracking when people say they look up to you or that you're a good role model. It's such a double-edged sword, because you realize you've been put on this pedestal, and you have to make sure that you don't do anything to get torn down.
I went to L.A. to become an actress, and I started from the ground up. I worked as an extra, and then I started taking this joke-writing class because it was free. I didn't want to be a comedian, but I was like, 'Free education? Yeah, I'll take a class.'
I do a joke in my stand-up where I say I'm a Christian, but I'm not a Christian comedian. I think that's definitely how I see my acting. I'm an actor who happens to be a Christian.
There's been roles that I have turned down. There's no rule book or handbook... It's just... whatever I'm comfortable with.
I never thought I was going to be a comedian.
