Dat Phan Quotes

#1. I was doing gigs to stay alive. I worked two or three jobs at a time, there were times when I stayed up for 36 hours straight. I slept in shopping mall parking lots. A stand-up gig paid $35; then I could eat for another few days until the next gig. Literally, I was performing to live.

Dat Phan

#2. Us Asians look like we're twenty until we're fifty. Once we're fifty, we look like Yoda.

Dat Phan

#3. Vietnam, we take over by doing pedicure! That's how we take over. We take over one foot at a time, damn it - that's the plan of attack right there. We take over from the toe up, that's the plan. We spread over USA like fungus from the toe.

Dat Phan

#4. It's a constant battle between what your heart tells you, and what your brain tells you.

Dat Phan

#5. When you grow up poor, you have to either work really hard to try and get where you want to be, or you'll just stay put.

Dat Phan

#6. We want to be seen as more than just martial artists, or bad stereotype token roles in American TV and movies.

Dat Phan

#7. And I come from a small Vietnamese family. We're really close too, all ten of us.

Dat Phan

#8. I learned that money's not happiness. The more famous I am and the more money I make, the closer I stay to my family and friends that I've known since junior high school. True happiness to me is the connection with fellow human beings I've known for a long time.

Dat Phan

#9. I knew comedy was the thing for me when I was the only Asian kid in high school ... who failed math.

Dat Phan

#10. Money comes and goes. I'm thankful I have money. I'm trying to save up more. I would like more money. But it's not happiness. If you're a millionaire and hate your family, hate your friends and your life, then what is the point? You're just a person with a lot of money and power who is not happy.

Dat Phan

#11. I did whatever it takes to do stand-up. There is an abundance of material in struggling and poverty and trying to make it. There is so much humor in that, it's unlimited.

Dat Phan