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Youngmi Mayer

Biography

Youngmi Mayer

Youngmi Mayer is a standup comedian and host of the podcasts "Feeling Asian" and "Hairy Butthole." She has been on the "Today" show, ABC News, Rolling Stone, CNN, "Vice Munchies," "Eater’s Guide to the World" and "The Mind of a Chef." Her work has been featured in "Netflix is a Joke" and on Comedy Central and BBC. She has written for Lucky Peach, Cherry Bombe, InStyle and Women’s Health Magazine. She is one of the rare comedians working today who has obtained success both on online platforms and in the mainstream. She lives in New York City with her son, Mino Bowien.

Youngmi Mayer

Books by Youngmi Mayer

I'm Laughing Because I'm Crying: A Memoir
by Youngmi Mayer - Humor, Memoir, Nonfiction

“Do you know what happens if you laugh while crying? Hair grows out of your butthole.” It was a constant truism Youngmi Mayer’s mother would say threateningly after she would make her daughter laugh while crying. Her mother used it to cheer her up in moments when she could tell Youngmi was overtaken with grief. In I'M LAUGHING BECAUSE I'M CRYING, Youngmi jokes through the retelling of her childhood as an offbeat biracial kid in Saipan, a place next to a place that Americans might know. And with humor and irreverence and full-throated openness, she jokes even while sharing the story of what her family went through during the last century of colonialism and war in Korea, while reflecting how years later, their wounds affect her in New York City as a single mom, all the while interrogating whiteness, gender and sexuality.