Maybe this stand-up comedy thing just isn’t for Jimmy O. Yang. In his new comedy “The Opening Act,” the “Silicon Valley” and “Crazy Rich Asians” star learns the tough reality of life on the road as a comic.
The film directed and written by Steve Byrne and produced by Vince Vaughn and Peter Billingsley follows Yang as Will Chu, an aspiring stand-up comedian who gets the opportunity to open on the road for his hero Billy G., played with flair by Cedric the Entertainer.
“You look at the road ahead of me right now, and it’s in a cubicle selling things I don’t believe in,” Yang says in the trailer. “The only silver lining is I can’t possibly hang myself in a cubicle.”
But things get off to a rough start quickly when he can’t impress some morning radio DJs, hecklers or other drunk comedy groupies, forcing him to decide what he really wants in life.
“You bombed. You bombed hard too. Your ass should be on the TSA watchlist,” Cedric the Entertainer says in the trailer. “The thing about stand-up is you have the chance to be better today than you was yesterday.”
Byrne stacks his cast for “The Opening Act” with a cavalcade of other comics, including Ken Jeong, Alex Moffat, Neal Brennan, Debby Ryan, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Jermaine Fowler, Russell Peters, Tom Segura and Iliza Shlesinger.
Yang actually recently released his first ever stand-up special on Amazon, “Good Deal,” back in May.
RLJE Films is releasing “The Opening Act” in theaters, VOD and on digital on October 16. Check out the first trailer for “The Opening Act” above.