It's Diwali week and we are in a festive mood. We chat about Diwali, call centers, the mysterious Indian man walking around Soho, Vivek auctioning himself off and the process of bringing touring comedians into HK.   One of Indians' top English comedian Daniel Fernandes is performing live in HK Friday Nov 10 for only one night, grab your tickets for this special night of comedy here:  https://t.ly/leZMt Get tickets to Backstage Comedy live shows here: http://thebackstagehk.com/ Subscribe to...

Comedian Adam Hopkins started out his comedy career in Shanghai, where he was also working as a journalist. We chat to him about what it's like working a journalist in China, the coolest interviews he's done and why he eventually moved to Taiwan.    Get tickets to Backstage Comedy live shows here: https://linktr.ee/backstagecomedy Subscribe to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/hohopod Leave us a review: (please!) https://www.ratethispodcast.com/hohohkpod Follow Adam Hopkins on Instagram:...

Mohammed is back from Australia and has a lot to vent about. Despite Melbourne having the reputation of being one of the most liveable cities in the world, why is nobody working? How is everyone so relaxed and why is the HK public transport system so superior?    Come to Backstage Comedy shows this week and enjoy a complimentary drink from Artifact    Oct 26 HKAF show tickets: https://t.ly/TXB3e Oct 27 Sam See tickets: https://t.ly/a8_-Y   Subscribe to our...

On this very special edition of Ho Ho Hong Kong, we have returning guest and co-host of ABC's China Tonight Annie Louey back on the pod!  Mohammed is currently in Australia visiting Annie, doing shows and traveling around. Annie and Mohammed drove from Melbourne to Sydney and back. They catch up on the podcast to chat about about roadkill, good ol' Australian racism and Annie's career taking off.   Get tickets to Backstage Comedy live shows here: https://linktr.ee/backstagecomedy Subscribe to...

Hong Kongers love their holiday travels. Favorite destinations list include Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and Korea. Bali, Indonesia? Not so much. Luckily one of our hosts Mohammed has been to Bali multiple times and after his last trip there and his first one since the pandemic, he comes back with a full report. Should you visit Bali?   Get tickets to Backstage Comedy live shows here: https://linktr.ee/backstagecomedy Subscribe to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/hohopod Leave us a review:...

We had a busy week performing standup comedy om Friday at Basehall, Jardine House then on Saturday at Better With Beer Festival on the Central Harbourfront. Also, last week Clockenflap announced the lineup for this December's edition. We get into it all then we get to our guest Ben Volchok. Ben is an award-winning comedy writer and performer from Melbourne.  We catch up with Ben while while he was in HK performing his award-winning show "The Final Hours Hour" at the Jockey Club Creative Arts...

Jinx Yeo is one of the top standup comedians out of Singapore.  He was nominated "Best Comedy" at the Fringe World Awards 2018. We chat to him about HK vs. Singapore, white people being offended on behalf of minorities and his weirdest gig ever performing for the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea   Get tickets to Backstage Comedy live shows here: https://linktr.ee/backstagecomedy Subscribe to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/hohopod Leave us a review:...

Only a few days after typhoon Saola ravaged through Hong Kong, claiming some trees and forcing expats to cancel their dinner reservations which caused them big distress, we get hit with the longest black rainstorm alert ever recorded in Hong Kong, causing yet more expats to cancel their junk boat parties, which made them really upset. How is Hong Kong so unprepared for the heavy rainfall?   Get tickets to Backstage Comedy live shows here: https://linktr.ee/backstagecomedy Subscribe to our...

Beginning with just eight companies of performers in five venues, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (known as “the Fringe”) is now the biggest arts festival in the world, and welcomes tens of thousands of performers across over 250 venues every August. Our host Vivek Mahbubani just came back from his first time visiting and performing at The Fringe and we get a full report.   Get tickets to Backstage Comedy live shows here: https://linktr.ee/backstagecomedy Subscribe to our...

Both our hosts are self-employed. Vivek Mahbubani runs two companies. He runs Hallf of Laughs with Comedian Tim Chan and he also has his own company representing himself. Mohammed Magdi owns and runs Backstage Comedy.  This week we get into all the nitty gritty of what it means to have your own startup in Hong Kong, the day-to-day life of running a one-man company and why "being your own boss" may not as freeing as it sounds.    Get tickets to Backstage Comedy live shows...

By now we can comfortably say that Hong Kong is back to normal, and by normal we mean bizarre news and most of us complaining about our first world problems. While most of the world is still reeling from an economic crisis and feeling its effect on a daily basis, we are getting on boats to get way too close to see a whale who was unfortunate enough to lose its way and come to our shores. This week we have a returning favorite guest Cassi Thomas (the mastermind behind Chaotic Hong Kong Expats)...

The Hong Kong comedy scene is picking up a lot of steam these days, it's not unusual now to find 3 different standup gigs happening on the same night! This week we chat about managing our time running between gigs, the dynamics of doing shows for corporate events and office parties, how to set up your office party for a comedy show and why your next company event should be a comedy show!   Get tickets to Backstage Comedy live shows here: https://linktr.ee/backstagecomedy Subscribe to our...

Our guest this week is Chinese Canadian comedian Tim To. He is one of the fastest rising stars in The HK comedy scene. Tim has led a very interesting life before he started doing comedy, from owning a bar and a Chinese buffet in Toronto at the age of 20 to getting arrested in Hong Kong for trying to do the right thing, the man has endless stories and he is thoroughly entertaining to chat with.    Get tickets to Tim To's headliner show Aug 3: https://t.ly/pGQRQ Get tickets to the Backstage...

Our guest this week is comedian Bryan Bentley. Before starting doing standup, Byran regularly attended live standup shows. He would always sit in the front row and quite often the comedian on stage would recognize him from a previous show. One day Bryan decides to take the leap and try his hand at standup himself. We sit down with Byran to chat with him about being a leap taker/getter, being sober and his obsession with David Goggins.   Get tickets to the Backstage Comedy live shows...

Hong Kong has been having a pretty brutal heatwave (it's also T8 the day this episode drops). Seems like every summer now we see the same headline "This is the hottest July HK has seen since Julius Caesar". This week we ask our indoors expert and notorious outdoors hater Vivek Mahbubani on what the hell to do when it's this hot out? What are the cool indoor entertainment options in Hong Kong?     Get tickets to the Backstage Comedy live shows here: https://linktr.ee/backstagecomedy Subscribe...

We are back with a classic episode of travel tales, air travel failures and Chinese airport shenanigans. Mohammed takes the lead on this one as he recounts why he had to buy three different airplane tickets to make his show in Singapore on time, then he goes home to Egypt for the first time in 5 years on a trip that wasn't drama free because of course. But then the tides completely turn and he's met with many pleasant surprises in his native country. This one is a doozy!   Get tickets to the...

This week Mohammed flies to Egypt for family duty and we just couldn't get our schedules to align before his flight so Vivek finds himself all alone in the studio and you, our dear listener, get a very high concentrated dose of Vivek-ness. Vivek covers everything from "A week in the life of a comedian" doing gigs and balancing personal matters to reaching the point in your comedy career where the comedy performance itself is the easiest part of the show!  Then he tries to guess what Mohammed...

If you ever pass by Soho or go up the mid-level escalator, it's highly likely you're familiar with the delicious bakery smell. You know that bakery smell so good it makes you think "whatever this is, I want it" and it draws you in like a zombie. Well, that's Bakehouse. The darling of Hong Kong bakeries and the uncontested champion in our opinion. We chat to Bakehouse Managing Director Liam Collette about the story of Bakehouse, his journey from Australia to Hong Kong and what the most...

As we gear up for Dr. Jason Leong's sold out shows this Saturday at PMQ, there are so many moving parts to producing a comedy show, one of those parts is the light fixtures and their position on the ceiling. Turns out, you can't just get up to the ceiling via a Scissor Lift if you wanna adjust the lights yourself, you need a certificate! So, we took the training and we are now officially certified, only within PMQ premises! In other news, Vivek is performing a show in a movie theater for some...

If you have been living in Hong Kong fore more than a few months, there's a very high chance you received one of those "recruitment" Whatsapp messages asking you to complete a survey or offering you a part-time online job for easy money, and if you thought "well, that's too good to be true" you are correct. It's a scam. Luckily Hong Kong comedian Garron Chiu took it upon himself to not only expose the scam but also scam the scammers back! And it was as glorious as it sounds. He joins us this...

Our hosts Vivek Mahbubani and Mohammed Magdi have combined experience of more than 30 years in live performance, and when it comes to Hong Kong venues they have a lot to say. We go through all kinds of performance venues this city has to offer, a bit of their history, what they have to offer and what is wrong with them, then we get into the really weird ones. Did you know there was a venue in Sai Kung that had a public pathway cutting right through it?   Get tickets to June 8 show at Basehall...

Vivek's viral video continues to blow up on Instagram and with that came a lot of wanted attention, some unwanted attention and some bizarre interactions. Vivek got accused of stealing the joke from someone, only to find out the person he's accused of stealing from is himself! Mohammed to return to Singapore for a headliner show next month and we announce a bunch of new cool stuff coming up!   Get tickets to Mohammed's show in Singapore on June 20 here: https://masala20june.peatix.com/ Leave...

We are back after a quick one week break and we have a stacked episode this week with our guest comedian Ollie Horn. Fresh off performing two headliner shows in Hong Kong, we catch up with Ollie on his transition to a fulltime plus-size person and a fulltime pro comedian. Mohammed and Ollie remember the one time Mohammed performed in Fukuoka, Japan with OIlie then Mohammed went to the wrong airport, missed his flight then somehow missed his flight again and Vivek shares how he tripled his IG...

Kavin Jay is one of the biggest standup comedians in Asia and the star of the Netflix special "Everybody Calm Down". We catch up with Kavin ahead of his Hong Kong show at PMQ and we cover everything from comedy politics, to how he thinks Hong Kong has changed since his last visit then we get into the details of what the hell happened at Crackhouse Comedy Club in Kuala Lumpur that caused the Malaysian government to shut it down and permanently ban its owner from ever holding any (!!) business...

This week we have a classic Ho Ho Hong Kong episode with our OG hosts Vivek Mahbubani and Andy Curtain. Recoded in Melbourne, Vivek and Andy talk  everything Melbourne Comedy Festival related and the bright future lying ahead for the Asian wave of comedians.   Check out Andy's podcast This one friend here: https://apple.co/40Xee8a Leave us a review: (please!) https://www.ratethispodcast.com/hohohkpod Follow Mohammed on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theothermohammed/ Follow Vivek on...