Asian American, Pacific Islander comics are the main event in an LA comedy and cuisine festival
'It's like we grew up kind of shying away and hiding our Asian-ness,' said Viv Wang, a volunteer festival producer with Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment, or CAPE, who helped conceive the idea for the event. 'It just made a lot of sense to have comedy and food — these two ways that people can connect and just celebrate being Asian and having a place to feel cool to be Asian.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
In 'Freakier Friday,' Manny Jacinto plays Lindsay Lohan's love interest. Why his leading man status is a big deal.
Jacinto hive, rejoice: Our boy's a romantic lead. At this point, it's an undeniable fact: Manny Jacinto is in his leading man era. It's been a whirlwind few years for Jacinto, who is currently on the press tour for Freakier Friday, the Freaky Friday sequel out Aug. 8. A follow-up to its 2003 predecessor, Freakier Friday sees Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis reprise their roles as body-swapping mother-daughter duo Anna and Tess Coleman, who find themselves in familiar territory two decades later, only this time, Anna's daughter and stepdaughter-to-be are thrown into the mix. Jacinto plays Eric Davies, Anna's husband-to-be, who's completely unaware that his fiancée has swapped places with his stepdaughter-to-be, and that his daughter has traded places with his soon-to-be mother-in-law. The 37-year-old actor is aware of how big this opportunity is. 'It's wild that I get to do this. I never would have thought I'd play the love interest to Lindsay Lohan; I watched Lindsay Lohan as a kid,' he told InStyle in an interview published Tuesday morning. 'It's wild what you can do if you put your mind to it.' More than starring opposite Lohan, Jacinto was mostly drawn to the role because of its significance to the Asian American community. It's not often we see a man who looks like Jacinto in such a mainstream role — and he knows that. 'I mean, you don't get to see a lot of Asian American males as a love interest, or as a solid father figure, and that was definitely the part that enticed me about it,' Jacinto told Deadline last week. With Freakier Friday, Jacinto fully seizes his leading man potential. For fans who have been following him since The Good Place, his rise to fame — and newly minted heartthrob status — is a point of pride. 'Without giving the algebra of representation too much credit, there's something pleasurable about seeing an Asian man romancing anyone and getting a break from the more familiar interracial combo of white man/AAPI woman,' Veronica Fitzpatrick, a Filipino American adjunct assistant professor of modern culture and media at Brown University, told Yahoo. 'That we're seeing it in a mainstream film like Freakier Friday … helps further normalize the very normal, very not-novel idea that AAPI men have sex appeal and romantic currency.' Raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Filipino Canadian actor nabbed his breakthrough role on NBC's The Good Place, where he charmed audiences as the often aloof but well-intentioned Floridian Jason Mendoza. From there, Jacinto landed a starring role on the Nicole Kidman-led series Nine Perfect Strangers before appearing in her ex-husband's blockbuster hit Top Gun: Maverick a year later, despite all his lines famously being cut. Jacinto's rise to the top has been slow and steady, though his portrayal of brooding Sith Lord the Stranger on Disney+'s The Acolyte triggered a shift in how Hollywood perceives him: as an Asian male worthy of a lead role. Jacinto has even received the TikTok treatment: He was the subject of several shirtless, lustful edits on the app that had loyal Acolyte fans rethinking their allegiances. 'The Stranger flips classic gender tropes of hypersexualization,' Leslye Headland, The Acolyte's creator and showrunner, previously told GQ. 'But a true sex symbol is someone who resonates emotionally with fans. Manny's magnetism is rooted in his acting, not just his physique. His ability to access vulnerability, empathy and longing is very compelling.' Women, it seems, have played a crucial part in Jacinto's continued success and rise to stardom. His female fans are plentiful, but Jacinto is especially moved by the championing that women behind the scenes are doing for him. Without them, he told InStyle, his career wouldn't have gone in the direction that it has. 'Women have been a huge champion for me. It's always been women who have been able to look past what I have done and see the potential of what I can do,' he said, naming Kidman, Headland and Freakier Friday's Nisha Ganatra. 'Thank God I get to do this during this day and age when there are so many women at the top … who see my potential and are not afraid to explore that.' Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
They're on OnlyFans. It's not what you think.
How comedians, athletes and other professionals are making a buck (and keeping it safe for work) on the steamy platform. When Chanel Ali tells her friends she's on OnlyFans, they're surprised. OnlyFans is best known as a subscription platform used by sex workers to create explicit content for their followers, generally for a fee. But that's not all that it offers. It's also an easy place for creators to monetize their videos, photos and text and share them with their audiences, which, for many people like Philadelphia native Ali, includes non-nude, safe-for-work content. Ali explains to anyone who's confused — after nudging them to check out her page, of course — that she's among the 300 comedians who have been featured in one of the 100 episodes of LMAOF, a comedy series on the OnlyFans streaming platform, OFTV. She tells Yahoo that OnlyFans offered her a stage where she didn't have to worry about censoring herself. '[Some networks] have stipulations — they don't want me to cuss too much. They don't want me to talk about boobs. They don't want me to wear anything that's too revealing,' she says. 'You can have a comedy set that you love so much — you put your heart and soul into it, then you sell it to a platform [and] they make all these edits and changes. Then it comes back to you and you're like, 'I don't even know her,'' she says. 'You change up all these subtleties, and that adds up to a different comedian! … With LMAOF, they said we can just do whatever.' Not only does Ali get to share her stories the way she wants to, but she gets to retain full ownership of them after they're told, which is different from what networks like Comedy Central offer. If she wants to tell the same stories that she did on LMAOF on another platform, she can. To Ali, that makes it clear that they care about her as a creator. It also helps that she gets to keep 80% of the income she generates on OnlyFans. She's making money off of more than just her comedy. Ali learned from another creator on the platform that you can offer free subscriptions to users but ask that people pay to see your uploads, like videos and photos — or just send you 'tips' for the heck of it. She's shared backstage selfies, which are perfectly tame but exclusive for fans, and blunt-smoking photos on the beach that might have gotten taken down on a typical social media platform. Ali's OFTV special came out July 7, and she's already seen the fruits of her labor. 'I've got about 4,000 followers already, and maybe that'll get [me] some really good money,' she laughs. 'I don't want to brag, but we out here.' She also loves a feature that requires fans to pay to message her. That blocks out trolls who want to 'waste her time' with hate and instead focuses on people who are truly supportive — emotionally and financially — who might have gotten lost in her spam folders on other platforms. 'I've made like 50% of my money off of messaging and 50% off of tipping and charging for posts,' she estimates. 'I really feel like [OnlyFans] is the place for people who appreciate art, and if art happens to be me — like they think I'm hot — great!' Fellow comedian Maddie Wiener, who's from North Carolina, is also on OnlyFans but uses it in a different way than Ali. It's still technically safe-for-work, but her content is more adult. It's still not what you think, though. She's using the platform to track how she's deciphering Phenomenology of Spirit, a dense book written by 1800s philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. She's serious about it — the humor is in the irony of being dead serious about philosophy on a platform typically used for sex work. 'It's very difficult to understand,' she tells Yahoo. 'Having a specific [text and video] series made just for this platform has proven very fun for me and hopefully the people following along too.' OnlyFans was founded in 2016 but took off during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of 2023, the site boasted 3 million registered creators and more than 300 million registered users. It sponsors athletes, who have aided in its growth from a NSFW platform to one that supports creators with all sorts of specialties. Though there are some ultra-popular users — in 2022, Twitch streamer Amouranth told Insider that she earned about $1.5 million monthly on OnlyFans — the average creator earns about $1,300 per year. It's not always a full-time job or a huge cash cow, but it provides a unique revenue stream that helps people monetize their hobbies and interests. It's not just comedians — or comedic book club leaders, in Wiener's case — on the non-adult side of the platform, either. The All-American Rejects frontman Tyson Ritter is on there, promising fans 'full-frontal rock and roll with all access,' as are fashion creators who participated in an OFTV series showcasing their safe-for-work designs. Athletes have also found a niche. Hagen Smith, a 30-year-old from California, has been a beach volleyball player all his life. As a member of the Association of Volleyball Professionals, he travels all the time to play professionally, but between flights and training sessions, he makes time to post on OnlyFans, which began sponsoring him in February 2025. 'People might be confused for a second or two until I tell them it's like a Nike [advertisement] reel, or like any other sponsorship,' he tells Yahoo. He posts long-form footage of himself playing with his teammates and connects with fans through messaging. 'Since [my content] can be behind a paywall, I've started to [post] some behind-the-scenes stuff about training. If my opponents are smart, they could go and see some of our secret training,' he laughs. 'I don't think anyone's done that yet … but maybe I should go back and check to see if I've given away anything.' As a professional athlete, he's incredibly fit and often poses shirtless on the beach, flashing his six-pack abs, but he just sees that as his uniform. He never considered doing X-rated content on OnlyFans, thinking of it instead as just another way to interact with his audience. 'At the end of the day, sport is entertainment. It's just a different form of entertainment and something that we pour our blood, sweat and tears into,' Smith says. 'This is our job, but it's for the enjoyment of the fans.' As a female athlete, trail runner Sabrina Stanley offers a slightly different perspective. The 35-year-old Washington native tells Yahoo that she knows she's often sexualized by the people who watch her perform her sport, whether she wants to be or not. Female athletes are also shamed for their confidence. 'Women are asked to wear tiny shorts and sports bras, but not lean into this image too hard. The industry can sexualize our bodies and make money off our images, but if the athlete takes the power and sexualizes herself, there is an issue,' she says. 'Men can be more forthcoming, revealing skin, and it is viewed as an athletic body, a powerful runner. As a female, I don't feel it is acceptable for me to present in the same way.' She had always wanted to start an account, so when the company reached out to sponsor her, she thought it was a natural fit. She became an official OnlyFans athlete in March 2025. Initially, Stanley wanted to focus on sharing fun and flirty photos and videos of herself running on the platform, along with insights into her workouts. But recently, she had to take an extended break from social media to process her ovarian cancer diagnosis. Treatment has slowed her training, affecting how she posts. 'Along with the initial content direction, I am going to do my best to share my journey as an athlete through the mental and physical obstacles connected to my health status,' she says. Through OnlyFans, Stanley is taking her power back — from society and from her health challenges. 'With OnlyFans, I can say, 'Look at the work I've put in; this is my body, I'm proud, and I'll make money off it — not the industry,'' she says. 'This ownership either endears people to me or puts them off, and I'm OK with that.' 🧠 Need a quick break?
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Yahoo
In 'Freakier Friday,' Manny Jacinto plays Lindsay Lohan's love interest. Why his leading man status is a big deal.
Jacinto hive, rejoice: Our boy's a romantic lead. At this point, it's an undeniable fact: Manny Jacinto is in his leading man era. It's been a whirlwind few years for Jacinto, who is currently on the press tour for Freakier Friday, the Freaky Friday sequel out Aug. 8. A follow-up to its 2003 predecessor, Freakier Friday sees Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis reprise their roles as body-swapping mother-daughter duo Anna and Tess Coleman, who find themselves in familiar territory two decades later, only this time, Anna's daughter and stepdaughter-to-be are thrown into the mix. Jacinto plays Eric Davies, Anna's husband-to-be, who's completely unaware that his fiancée has swapped places with his stepdaughter-to-be, and that his daughter has traded places with his soon-to-be mother-in-law. The 37-year-old actor is aware of how big this opportunity is. 'It's wild that I get to do this. I never would have thought I'd play the love interest to Lindsay Lohan; I watched Lindsay Lohan as a kid,' he told InStyle in an interview published Tuesday morning. 'It's wild what you can do if you put your mind to it.' More than starring opposite Lohan, Jacinto was mostly drawn to the role because of its significance to the Asian American community. It's not often we see a man who looks like Jacinto in such a mainstream role — and he knows that. 'I mean, you don't get to see a lot of Asian American males as a love interest, or as a solid father figure, and that was definitely the part that enticed me about it,' Jacinto told Deadline last week. With Freakier Friday, Jacinto fully seizes his leading man potential. For fans who have been following him since The Good Place, his rise to fame — and newly minted heartthrob status — is a point of pride. 'Without giving the algebra of representation too much credit, there's something pleasurable about seeing an Asian man romancing anyone and getting a break from the more familiar interracial combo of white man/AAPI woman,' Veronica Fitzpatrick, a Filipino American adjunct assistant professor of modern culture and media at Brown University, told Yahoo. 'That we're seeing it in a mainstream film like Freakier Friday … helps further normalize the very normal, very not-novel idea that AAPI men have sex appeal and romantic currency.' Raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Filipino Canadian actor nabbed his breakthrough role on NBC's The Good Place, where he charmed audiences as the often aloof but well-intentioned Floridian Jason Mendoza. From there, Jacinto landed a starring role on the Nicole Kidman-led series Nine Perfect Strangers before appearing in her ex-husband's blockbuster hit Top Gun: Maverick a year later, despite all his lines famously being cut. Jacinto's rise to the top has been slow and steady, though his portrayal of brooding Sith Lord the Stranger on Disney+'s The Acolyte triggered a shift in how Hollywood perceives him: as an Asian male worthy of a lead role. Jacinto has even received the TikTok treatment: He was the subject of several shirtless, lustful edits on the app that had loyal Acolyte fans rethinking their allegiances. 'The Stranger flips classic gender tropes of hypersexualization,' Leslye Headland, The Acolyte's creator and showrunner, previously told GQ. 'But a true sex symbol is someone who resonates emotionally with fans. Manny's magnetism is rooted in his acting, not just his physique. His ability to access vulnerability, empathy and longing is very compelling.' Women, it seems, have played a crucial part in Jacinto's continued success and rise to stardom. His female fans are plentiful, but Jacinto is especially moved by the championing that women behind the scenes are doing for him. Without them, he told InStyle, his career wouldn't have gone in the direction that it has. 'Women have been a huge champion for me. It's always been women who have been able to look past what I have done and see the potential of what I can do,' he said, naming Kidman, Headland and Freakier Friday's Nisha Ganatra. 'Thank God I get to do this during this day and age when there are so many women at the top … who see my potential and are not afraid to explore that.' Solve the daily Crossword
