As the offspring of an upwardly mobile Singaporean immigrant, a kid who was pushed to fulfill her mother’s American Dream of playing Carnegie Hall by age 12, Charlene Kaye’s career instead as a rock star makes her every Tiger Mom’s worst nightmare. Fortunately for Fringe audiences, her fraught familial relationships make funny fodder for this autobiographical stand-up set, supported by a slideshow of archival photos and embarrassing text messages.
Taking the stage in a gold lamé jacket, Kaye (under Jennifer Monaco’s direction) exhibits exuberant physicality, whether she’s slinging around her electric guitar, throwing a temper tantrum on the floor, or crouching at the apron to interact with the audience. She shares choice anecdotes from her Asian-American adolescence with a Jewish-Russian stepdad, as well as from her time touring with San Fermin and Starkid (starring Darren Criss), but her desperate attempts to win mom’s approval form the emotional throughline.
A few topic transitions could stand some tightening, and I wish we got to hear more than just a brief sample of Kaye’s musical talents. But Charlene’s delirious depictions of her meddling mom’s epic eccentricities — from her eternal helmet-head hairdo to her propensity for taking thirst-trap photos in doctors’ offices — are relatably ridiculous regardless of your background, as are universal observations like, “You don’t have to understand somebody to love them.”
Orlando Fringe: Tickets and times for “Tiger Daughter”
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Seth Kubersky
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