Jewpanese comedian Dylan Akira Adler performs Feb. 18-19 at Revue Stage. <\/i>(photo from Jewpanese Project)<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/i>\u201cSoy vey\u201d and \u201cmazel tofu\u201d are just two of the word mashups created by Jewpanese comedian Dylan Akira Adler, who is coming to Vancouver\u2019s Just for Laughs with his show Haus of Dy-Lan<\/i>, Feb. 18-19 at Revue Stage. He will likely open for Atsuko Okatsuka\u2019s Feb. 21 performances at Queen Elizabeth Theatre as well, also part of JFL, which runs Feb. 12-22.<\/p>\n
Born in 1996, Dylan grew up in a predominantly white San Francisco neighbourhood, where both he and his identical twin brother thought they were Asian Buddhists, until his mom explained they were also Jewish, like their dad.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Adler\u2019s obaachan<\/i> (Japanese grandmother) didn\u2019t experience incarceration during the Second World War, but her uncle\u2019s family was sent to Heart Mountain in Wyoming. At 14, Adler\u2019s ojiichan<\/i> (Japanese grandfather) had signed up to be a kamikaze pilot, but the war ended a month before he was old enough to enlist.<\/p>\n Adler\u2019s mom was born in Tokyo, but, because of the air pollution, the family moved to California, where they grew carnations. Meanwhile, his dad was born in Los Angeles into a Polish and Ukrainian Jewish family that fled the 1800s pogroms. His parents met at University of California, Berkeley, \u201cwhere Jews and Asians procreate to make kids who put on one-man shows about being biracial,\u201d as Adler jokes.<\/p>\n Adler was interviewed for the Jewpanese Project in October 2022. At the time, he was a writer on James Corden\u2019s show, where he also had his late-night stand-up debut. Since then, he has been touring as the opening act for Okatsuka, as well as with his own show. The Canadian tour of Haus of Dy-Lan<\/i> includes stops in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. I caught up with Adler this month, in anticipation of his Vancouver visit.<\/p>\n CT<\/b>: On Dec. 1, 2025, I dropped a 68-page report on the Jewpanese American experience, one finding of which was: \u201cThe two most common ways for Jewpanese couples to meet were through either academic settings or chance encounters, often with the help of mutual friends.\u201d How does it feel to now have one of your most popular jokes backed by research?<\/p>\n DAA<\/b>: It makes me feel very good and scholarly\u2026. I just know a lot of other Asian and Jewish couples who met at UC Berkeley because my parents are friends with them. They\u2019re like my secondary aunts and uncles and their half-Asian and -Jewish kids are like our cousins.<\/p>\n CT<\/b>: How does your Jewpanese identity inform your comedy? And how has it evolved over time?<\/p>\n DAA<\/b>: My Jewpanese identity definitely informs my comedy. I love talking about the difference between spending time with my mom\u2019s family and my dad\u2019s family. But I also love to subvert expectations. My mom and her family don\u2019t behave like a typical \u201cJapanese\u201d family because they are very loud and crazy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n CT<\/b>: In your 2022 interview with me, you mentioned that you had yet to go to your ancestral homelands (Japan, Poland and Ukraine) and that you hadn\u2019t been out of the United States at that point. Where are you now on that journey?<\/p>\n DAA<\/b>: I\u2019d never been out of the country until 2025 and, that year, I went to 20 different countries. It completely changed my life. I\u2019ve officially caught the travel bug. This year, in April, I\u2019m going to go to Japan with my family and meet relatives I\u2019ve never met before. I\u2019m truly so excited. We\u2019re going to Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo. I don\u2019t have plans to go to Eastern Europe yet, but would absolutely love to.<\/p>\n CT<\/b>: Tell me more about Haus of Dy-Lan<\/i>. Who is this show for? What should we expect?<\/p>\n DAA<\/b>: I will be performing parts of my solo show Haus of Dy-lan<\/i> along with some newer material during this tour. There will absolutely be material about being half-Japanese and -Jewish. I love talking about my racial identity because some people are already trying to figure it out when I walk onstage, so it addresses that curiosity. In the audience, you can expect there will be Asians, mixed-race baddies, queers and some straight women who forced their boyfriend to come to the show.<\/p>\n CT<\/b>: Atsuko Okatsuka, who is an incredibly hilarious Japanese-Taiwanese-American comedian, is a major mentor in your comedic career right now. What Jewish influence do you also have guiding you in your journey?<\/p>\n DAA<\/b>: Atsuko is the absolute best. She is so brilliant and kind and I truly am so grateful to have her as a friend and mentor and even surrogate mother. When it comes to Jewish influences, I\u2019ve always admired Joan Rivers, Chelsea Perretti and Rachel Bloom, to name a few.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n CT: <\/b>Do you remember when you shared with me that you made contact with your Jewish ancestors, while on a healing psychedelic trip on bufo (toad venom)? Have you been in contact with them since? How is that work coming along?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n DAA<\/b>: I was actually just thinking about that this morning. It\u2019s true, in 2022, I did a toad venom psychedelic trip, and I woke up in a village in Eastern Europe and felt my ancestors\u2019 inherited trauma but also their light and resilience. I haven\u2019t done it since, and I am still on a healing journey for myself. But I\u2019ve always been very interested in ancestors and how we are profoundly affected by people who we may have never met in our lifetime. I want to continue that work and figure out a way to incorporate it into a creative project in some way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For tickets to one of Adler\u2019s JFL shows and\/or for Okatsuka\u2019s performances and those of other Jewish community members, go to jflvancouver.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n