Comedians who were interviewed
People who think Bangkok is only temples, traffic, and tuk-tuks have clearly never been cornered at an open mic by a drunk Australian determined to share his new ladyboy joke. Open mic, you ask? Yes, stand-up comedy exists in Thailand, and it’s not just a hobby. It’s a stubborn, funny-looking, unkillable organism. It’s survived military coups, floods, Covid-19 and more changes to cannabis laws than anyone can track without a flowchart.
This city has a long, weird relationship with laughter. From traditional Thai café comedy (think Vaudeville, but with more slapstick and fewer pants) to English-language stand-up brought in by expats, Bangkok’s comedy scene is equal parts passion project, business venture, and community therapy session.
We spoke to three club owners who’ve been building the scene sometimes together, sometimes in polite rivalry, to find out how we got here, and why it’s still growing.
Jonathan Samson – The accidental architect
Jonathan or จอนนี้มกจ๊ก started comedy at 16 but spent much of his early career doing improv, sketch, and commedia dell’arte (Comedy of art or play of professional artists) that ancient Italian form of improv theatre responsible for stock characters like the miser, the pompous professor, and, presumably, the guy who still thinks pull my finger is comedy gold.
His career in Thailand began when he stumbled into the local ‘café comedy’ scene, a fast-paced, variety-style performance tradition that was the backbone of Thai entertainment for decades. Within 48 hours of arrival, he met Katanyu Swangsri (owner of the first Thai-only stand-up comedy club), then started doing five shows a night and a daytime TV appearance, which is more stage time than most American comics get in a month.
Jonathan’s role in English-language comedy here began with a few pioneers, the late Eric (remembered mostly for his foreskin poem) and Matt, hosting open mics at the Bull’s Head pub. That eventually led to opening his own venue in 2017, a proper, brick-and-mortar comedy club where he laid the bricks himself, creating Khaosan Comedy Club.
Once the doors opened, Bangkok went from having maybe two comedy nights a week to comedy every night, attracting more visiting comics and growing the local scene.
Interviewer: How did you end up making this place your comedy home?
Jonathan: “I started the English language comedy scene here, together with a guy named Eric, who has fortunately passed away. What’s his full name? I wish I could remember. I remember his jokes more than I remember his full name, but he had a joke where he did a song to his foreskin,
“Anyway, a poem, not a song. It was me, Eric and this guy, Matt, who has long since moved back to America. And after Eric passed away, Matt and I continued the scene. Then I started teaching improv lessons, which is how Chris (Chris Wegoda) would go to get started in comedy … and for a while, there wasn’t a whole lot of English language comedy in Bangkok, but I started shows on this street 13 years ago.”
Interviewer: 13 years! So it’s safe to say you love comedy?
Jonathan: “I’m passionate about it. I love it. It’s been since I was a kid when I first saw Monty Python, it’s been what I knew I wanted to do. I didn’t know before that making people laugh could be a job.”
Over these years, Jonathan’s résumé spans plenty of projects worth watching. From the Netflix series Tomorrow and I (original title: Anakhot) to the film Pattaya Heat. To Jonathan, Bangkok has always been a comedy city; he points out that during the Thai comedy boom, the city once hosted over 500 live comedy performances in a single night, more than anywhere in history.
In his mind, the mission is simple: give comedians stage time, push them to improve, and make audiences laugh no matter what’s going on outside the club’s walls.
Chris Wegoda – The importer of big laughs
Chris came to comedy through improv, starting with Jonathan back in the late 2000s, running jams, and eventually hosting open mics. His big leap came in 2014 when he opened The Comedy Club Bangkok, which has since hosted everyone from Jimmy Carr to Eddie Izzard.
Chris was named Comedy Promoter of the Year in 2019 for essentially making Western-style stand-up a regular part of Bangkok nightlife. His club balances intimate shows with big-name imports, working with international promoters to bring in acts like Jim Jefferies and Neil Brennan.
Interviewer: So, what would you say then was your goal for this comedy club, to be like a big venue or more of a local spot?
Chris: “When I started the Open Mic in 2011, I started the Open Mic because I felt, basically, if you’ve won, you’ve got tickets to see the professional show where the club is now. … So I went to another one of the Open Mic, met some other people, probably most notably like Tristan Botley, who then was like the local comic on the first show we did at the Comedy Club Bangkok,
“And the short of it is, I started the Open Mic because I met people who enjoy comedy, doing comedy, and I thought, well, there’s also the kind of, if you want to put it that way, selfish reasons of like, well, I want to do comedy, and there’s nothing regular. So like, opening the club itself, on the other hand, to be really honest, I don’t think we had a specific, there was never like a really specific objective. You know, in life, things kind of happen. Like you go with them or you go against them.”
Interviewer: The last question is, what is your hope for comedy in Bangkok?
Chris: “ I hope it continues to grow and become like a positive force. There are a lot of comedians and people who still come into Bangkok and not realise that there are so many comedians or people interested in comedy. Bangkok isn’t like New York… Bangkok does not have that market. But I feel like it’s still growing with the expats and tourists coming in, as they’re more interested in different nights,
“But I think the ultimate goal is to have a positive impact on Bangkok itself, because unfortunately, a lot of people don’t like to travel through Bangkok. And everybody in the tourism industry has been wanting to change it. And I think that’s a big part of what we want to continue to do as well, is to show that this is like New York. You can come here and find comedy. You can come here and find theatre, I’m hoping one day.”
Chris also focused on Level Up, a Tuesday-night spot at PJ O’Brien’s Irish Pub where local and visiting comics can try new material without the pressure of a polished set. Chris sees comedy in Bangkok as still growing, with the potential to become a true hub for Southeast Asia.
The challenge? Competing with richer markets like Singapore for big acts, while also training Thai comics in Western-style stand-up so they can take it global.
Alex Latour – Fuser of cannabis and comedy
Alex’s comedy career began barely two years ago, but he wasted no time creating stage opportunities for himself. Leveraging connections with Bangkok’s cannabis dispensaries, he launched Leaf Laugh Love, a weed-and-comedy hybrid that expanded from one night a week to three shows a week across multiple venues. They have Royal Queen Seeds, Golden Hour and The Loft Sukhumvit 22
His hosting style is quick, loose, and interactive, designed to warm up a room and set other comics up for success. Running shows in a seasonal, tourist-driven city means constantly hustling for an audience, but Alex embraces the challenge.
Interviewer: How long have you been doing comedy?
Alex: “Two years and three months or something. I started running shows pretty early on because I heard the advice, if you want more mic time, make your own mics. So I just went and did it.”
Interviewer: So you created your own kind of environment, yeah? And how’s that been?”
Alex: “It’s been good. Yeah! So I had an existing relationship with a lot of the cannabis dispensaries around Bangkok, and so I thought I could leverage that and be like, you guys want to put on a comedy show, like, Yeah, f*** yeah! It was such a natural fit between the two, cannabis and comedy, natural allies. It started to grow from there. I started doing one night a week, and then it snowballed into multiple nights a week. And now we do three a week here in Bangkok, and we do the show on the road too.”
Alex started during the pandemic, when the comedy scene, like most industries, was on life support. He helped jolt it back to life from a complete standstill.
While big names like Jim Jefferies returned to the stage, Alex focused on building a reliable weekly schedule for local comics and visitors in the downtown scene of the city. He believes the Bangkok scene is still young, full of untapped talent, and worth the grind, especially if it keeps producing those “How is this not on Netflix?” moments.
Here’s the punchline
Bangkok’s comedy scene isn’t one person’s creation. It’s part improv fever dream, part rushed business hustle, and part “we just really needed something to do on a Tuesday.” From Jonathan’s brick-by-brick club, to Chris importing stadium-worthy names into intimate rooms, to Alex turning dispensaries into laugh factories, it’s a patchwork stitched together by people who love making strangers laugh.
Will Bangkok ever be the New York of Asia for comedy? Maybe yes, maybe no. But if you wander into the right room on the right night, you’ll see why it doesn’t have to be. The city already has what it needs: Microphones, misfits, and a shared understanding that bombing on stage still beats sitting in Bangkok traffic.
But then someone asked, “What about the comedy shows that weren’t mentioned?” Ah, you must mean the pop-ups. That’s a whole other story, saved for a future column: Bangkok’s Pop-Ups and Laughs.
The story Land of smiles, punchlines, and open mics as seen on Thaiger News.
