"Mighty Warriors Of Comedy"

Almost two years ago, the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors came back to the Bay Area for several performances after spending a couple of years in Southern California.   This was to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the group's founding.   I went with a friend to watch one of the performances and blogged about it here:

15 Years Of The Mighty Mountain Warriors

This past week, I found out that the group's documentary "Mighty Warriors Of Comedy" was available On Demand on my local cable system.   The documentary had been out on DVD since 2007 and even want an local Emmy award.  Despite being a big fan of the group, I had never purchased the DVD.

However, my curiosity finally got to me and I plunked down the $1.95 to watch it on cable.  I'm not going to review it here but as someone who likes history and appreciates independent artists in all forms, the documentary was both revealing and a bit sad.

The documentary talked about the history of the group and what they represented (especially in the late 1990's) when Asian representation in the media was so lacking.  Yet, despite putting in 12 years of hard work (at the time of the documentary) and having a solid fan base in the Bay Area and Southern California, the group never really broke out as they hoped.

The documentary showed me that independent groups like the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors and other independent artists really do these things for the love of their craft.  Being rich and famous would be nice but I'm sure that is not the ultimate goal.

These days, it seems the majority of the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors group have moved on to other things.  The three remaining performers (Michael Hornbuckle, Greg Watanabe, Peter Wong) continue to press on though.   They have a new show coming in August in Los Angeles.  The group has also been putting out YouTube videos like this:

The History Of China in 3 1/2 Minutes

In closing, the Warriors have been around for years and continue on.  I don't know what the future holds for them but I am hoping their long standing dedication to their craft and the Asian-American community pays off.

15 years of the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors

I have been a fan of the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors for a long time. The Warriors are a Asian American comedy troupe that was formed back in San Francisco around 1994. Over the past 15 years, they have performed all over the world and won several awards for their efforts. The first time I saw the troupe perform was at San Francisco State university around 1995 or 1996. Since then, I have followed the troupe heavily and attended many performances.

Several years ago, the troupe decided to perform in Southern California exclusively. I don't remember the exact reason for this. However, it's not hard to imagine that the troupe wanted to be closer to Hollywood and perhaps get bigger gigs than what was available in the San Francisco Bay Area.

However, as the troupe was celebrating it's 15th Anniversary, they made a return appearance to their home in the Bay Area after a three year absence. There were three shows scheduled for this weekend (Friday 7 PM, Saturday 7 PM & 10 PM) in San Jose.

As soon as I found out the troupe was performing this weekend, I asked a friend to go. We attended the Saturday show at 7 PM. Overall, the show was entertaining though it felt short to me (running around 1 hour and 20 minutes or so). There were a few skits that were great and a couple of that felt flat to me.

However, I'm not here to review the show. I want to commend the group for staying together for fifteen years. I don't know how much money the various members of the group make for each show they perform. My friend and I agreed that the performers probably don't make much. Most of them probably have regular jobs and do these performances as a labor of love.

From what I saw tonight, even though the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors have been around for 15 years, they still have the creativity to create new skits and retain a great passion for their work. As someone who watches many Asian-American independent films and listens to underground Asian-American musicians, I appreciate the work that the Warriors do. I fully support the many people who work to present more positive representations of Asian-Americans in the media.

Congrats on 15 years and here's to many more!