Las Vegas Weekly

May 8, 2009 · 9:21 AM

Photo Gallery: Last Comic Standing winner Dat Phan hits the Improv

By Robin Leach

Dat Phan at the Improv in Harrah's.

Photo: Erik Kabik/Retna/www.erikkabikphoto.com

The odds of a youngster being born in Saigon, South Vietnam, and making it to the Las Vegas Strip as a headline entertainer are nigh on impossible. The odds of the same youngster making it into the finals of the very first Last Comic Standing on NBC are just as insurmountable. But, somehow, Dat Phan proved everybody wrong, and he became the million-to-one long shot winner.

Dat immigrated to the U.S. when he was a kid with his mother and nine siblings and grew up in the impoverished neighborhoods of San Diego. He entered NBC’s standup comedy reality show in 2003 and overcame all the odds to become the first-ever winner of the show.

He went on to make cameo appearances in movies and, as in all great showbiz stories, he now lives in Hollywood. He’s just wrapped a new Disney movie and is about to go into pre-production on a starring movie titled Yellow Fever as he celebrates the upcoming release of his debut live DVD and CD.

Last week, Dat was the guest headliner at the Improv here at Harrah’s, and our contributing photographer Erik Kabik went along to capture some of the hilarity. Said Erik: “His over-the-top impressions of his Vietnamese mother never fail to amuse. His take on cross-cultural misunderstandings and Asian stereotypes is the real power of his comic genius and the key to his success.

“He makes light of subjects that don’t often get discussed such as racial issues and delivers them in a way that is both humorous and enlightening. He maintains a slapstick delivery about real life subjects and experiences and the difficulties and absurdities of combating stereotypes and racism. He has come a long way since the NBC show and this was a great catch-up!”

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Share This