The TV show, KIM’S CONVENIENCE, has kept Canadian fans on CBC in stitches (as well as Netflix fans around the world) since it made its debut in the fall of 2016. Starting out as a play at Toronto Fringe Festival, it now has three season’s under its belt. The show is gearing up for its fourth season set to air in January 2020. Cast members Paul Sun-Hyung, Jean Yoon, Andrea Bang, Andrew Phung, Amanda Brugel, Ben Beauchemin and Michael Musi, talked about their humble beginnings and how their show is universal to all Canadian despite it being about a Korean-Canadian family who run a convenience store.
Can you talk about the show’s early beginnings when it was a struggling play?
Paul Sun-Hyung: They had been working on this play since 2005 and when Ins Choi finished it he shopped it around to every major TV company in the city and they all said ‘no’. He’d been working on it for so long and he needed to see it up on stage just once, which is why it was entered in the Toronto Fringe Festival. A lot of people didn’t count on the fact that it would strike so many nerves of not only the immigrant experience, but the weight of expectations from parents to children, the fear that your children are not going to succeed. But the flipside of that is the children want to break off and do it on their own terms.
Jean Yoon: It was such a thrill because the Korean jokes were getting the laughs from the Korean sector and then then every joke is going and that is the moment that we strive for. That’s the same moments in the show where you’re crying and you’re laughing at the same time. Those moments that were there at the heart of the play.
Andrea, how did you get involved in the show?
Andrea Bang: I’m from Vancouver and I just put myself on tape doing three scenes. I sent it in and I ended up getting a callback. A week later I ended up getting a chemistry read with Jean, Paul and Simu (Liu, who plays her brother Jung on the show).
Andrew Phung: I walked into the room and I recognized one of the actors from a very popular show that starred Drake. Pardon my language, but I was like, ‘Holly F, you’re a real actor!’ I sent a text to my wife and I said, ‘I’m so screwed.’ Then she reminded me, ‘You got a free trip to Toronto out of this.’
Amanda, what’s it like to bring the comedy on this show, where on your other show, THE HANDMAID’S TALE, it’s very different?
Amanda Brugel: I always call KIM’S COMVENIENCE my summer camp because I’ve just gotten out of Gilead and I’ve just gotten out of my slay costume in HANDMAID’S TALE. KIM’S CONVENIENCE is such a wonderful light experience.
Ben, how did you treat yourself since this was your first big TV gig?
Ben BeauchemIn: As soon as I got the job I went into work (at the pizza place) and I quit and I got two pairs of shoes because all of my other sneakers had holes in them. Then my agent said, ‘They shoot in a month.’
What is it like working with Nicole Power, who plays Shannon?
Michael Musi: It’s really hard a lot of times. We want to make the other person laugh. It just gives me so much joy when I can screw the other person’s take. The thing about Nicole is she gives it her all on the day, but she’s actually quite timid and shy, and doesn’t like being the centre of attention. But when it’s time to deliver, she delivers.
What do you think makes the show so universal?
Paul Sun-Hyung: We’re normalizing an immigrant family as being the same as all of us. We have hopes like anybody else. We have fears and dreams and we’re not perfect but we love each other, and I think that is really important. There is something that uniquely Canadian about that.
About the Author: Terri-Lynne Waldron has been a journalist for over 20 years and you can follow her on Twitter @tw1976