@thecomicscomic Published April 1, 2026, 6:00 p.m. ET Photo: Netflix More On: Stand-Up Comedy 11 Best New Movies on Netflix: April 2026’s Freshest Films to Watch The Top 10 Shows On Netflix That Are Most Popular Right Now Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Color Theories By Julio Torres’ On HBO Max, The Comedian Explains Life By Giving Shade (Complimentary) Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Jeff Ross: Take A Banana For The Ride’ On Netflix, The Roastmaster General Believes In Laughter’s Healing Powers In A Special On Broadway Aaron Chen found his comedic voice in Australia and a global audience thanks to Fisk on Netflix. Now living in New York City, Chen and his deadpan style of observational comedy reflects on his new surroundings, and how well (or not) he is adapting to them so far.
The Gist: You most likely recognize Chen from Fisk, where he plays the probate clerk and “webmaster” George.
Chen, like Fisk, is an Australian export.
He started finding success in comedy at a young age, winning the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s nationwide “Class Clowns” competition at age 15. Chen returned to the festival five years later and won Best Newcomer for his first one-person show. But his banner year so far was 2024, where in addition to raves for Fisk, Chen won the people’s choice award at the Melbourne fest, won on Taskmaster Australia, and served as the assistant on another TV comedy competition series Down Under, Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee. This isn’t Chen’s first filmed special. That would’ve been If It Weren’t Filmed, Nobody Would Believe, which he posted to his YouTube in 2022.
What Comedy Special Will It Remind You Of? He has traveled in similar comedy circles as Ronny Chieng, coming from an Asian family to Australia to America, and yet Chen’s sense of humor and delivery is almost a polar opposite of Chieng’s.
Memorable Jokes: Much of Chen’s comedy comes out of learning on the fly or reading between the lines.
The former, represented by Chen accidentally subscribing to JFK airport news while logging into the airport’s WiFi; the latter, in bits such as wondering why overnight oats exist (“That’s too busy!), or remarking on his O-1 Visa status for Extraordinary Ability: “What I’m doing now no American can do.”
Or there’s this joke of his about describing someone as a “family friend.”
View this post on Instagram Chen finds wonder in the American project by witnessing a Korean man yell at a Hasidic Jewish person in Spanish: “Isn’t that beautiful?!”
And he gets some comedic mileage out of the fact that his wife’s culinary education comes from a school in New York City called ICE, while her alternate choice would’ve been another cooking school whose abbreviation is CIA. These are what you ni a different era might’ve called fun facts.
Our Take: One of the idiosyncrasies of Chen’s observational humor, perhaps accentuated by his immigrant status, is that filming months in advance can change the timings of jokes by the release of the special.
Finding out how Chen learned about Southwest Airlines “open” seating policy, for example? No longer so relevant, now suddenly nostalgic? Conversely, his bit about getting caught falling asleep at the opera might hit a bit harder as a premise and punchline (thanks, Timothee).
Of course, the big change in his life and career is the impact from Fisk on his comedy audiences. He usde to draw mainly young men under 35; now the crowd is dominated by women older than that. For now he seems OK with that, but is he giving the audience what they want, or what he even wants?
Like the title of his special, Funny Garden, the whole thing is a bit of a head-scratcher in general, in ways both amusing but also sometimes bewildering.
Our Call: The mood here is light but also lightweight. You almost get the sense this is what Netflix critics talk about when they refer to second-screen programs you can have on almost as just background noise while you’re attending to other interests. For some, that’s enough for a STREAM IT. For my tastes, however, it felt a bit of a waste. It left me thinking Chen is great as a supporting character onscreen, but struggling to hold interest as a solo performer. Then again, perhaps my view of the world is upside down.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.
