Submission 11

Comedian Bio

Originally from Taiwan, Ed Hill is an emerging young comic who moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, thinking he was on vacation at his father's discretion. Since then, Ed has performed all over the world. He was voted "Best Vancouver Comedian of 2016" by West Ender Magazine, and "Best Vancouver Comedian of 2015" by West Ender Magazine and The Georgia Straight, and named "Comic to Watch" in 2015 by Canadian Immigrant Magazine. He has also appeared on AXS TV's "Gotham Comedy Live", "Laughs" on FOX, TED talks, Bite TV’s “Stand up & Bite Me”, and XM Radio’s “Laugh Attack”. He was also invited to perform at Comedy Masala in Singapore, Live Comedy Club in Taiwan, the Hong Kong Comedy Festival, NXNE, San Francisco Comedy Festival, Austin Out of Bounds Comedy Festival, North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival, the Vancouver Comedy Festival and many more. Ed's tweets have also been featured on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon", Buzzfeed, The Huffington Post, DOSE, and Distractify. Ed is still currently on vacation with his potato-like dogs.

Story

This all began during an innocent conversation. I was chatting with a fellow friend who had recently decided to move to a remote part of the country. After she invited me to do the same, I jokingly said that my complexion doesn’t exactly warrant my safety in the rural parts of the country. She quickly scoffed it off that these types of racial discrimination don’t happen anymore in 2018. She pointed out that my cynicism as a comedian has tainted my views on the world, and the real world, as she put it, is not the world that I portray on stage night after night. Despite my rebuttal that I’ve witnessed some awfully discouraging things during my tours, she concluded with the following reassurance: “It’s all in your head, Ed.” Part of me believed in her words. Until last week. I was driving home one evening with my wife after a show. By design, the turn in front of my new condo residence was oddly blocked by a cement barrier. The residents of my building, myself included, needed to do a U-turn at the end of a dead-end street in order for any of us to access the street from the opposite side. On this fateful day, as I made the turn, a police cruiser flashed his lights and stopped me from behind. Then, the following exchange occurred: Me: Hello Officer. Police: Did you know you did a U-Turn back there? Me: Yes, I did sir. Police: You know you are not supposed to do a U-turn in any type of intersection? Me: I’m sorry, sir. I did not know that. I thought if there was no "Do not U-turn sign", I am able to make a U-turn. Police: Where are you from? Me: (A bit stunned) Uh…Vancouver? Police: I mean how long have you been driving here. Me: (Confused) Um… 3 months, I just moved here. I live right there (points to the next block). Police: (Impatiently) No, I mean how long have you been driving in this country. Me: Oh! Since I was… He then interrupted me mid-sentence and took my license. He then retrieved the registration from my wife, who sat next to me. There was an odd moment of silence. Puzzled, he looked at the registration, which is under my wife’s name. Police: (to my wife) So this is your car? Wife: Yes. Police: (looking at her) Okay. You know what, I’m going to let you go this time. Just don’t do it again. Me: Thank you, sir. The police officer drove away, leaving us sitting there. Neither of us knew what to say to each other. The laughing of children in the park was ironically loud. Wife: Did he just say and do what I think he said and did? Me: Yeah. I’m pretty sure he let me go because you are white and this is your car. Wife: Is it me or was that really racist? I said nothing. Because somehow, I wished it wasn't reality. I wished this were a joke. I wished it was all in my head.