Dayo Wong Tze-wah (born 5 September 1960) is a Hong Kong actor and standup comedian. Known as a pioneer of stand-up comedy in Hong Kong, he is known for his stadium shows integrating political satire and social commentary.[1][2] He has performed at the Hong Kong Coliseum, including 26 sold-out shows at his farewell stand-up performance.[3]

Dayo Wong
黃子華
Dayo Wong in 2003
Born (1960-09-05) 5 September 1960 (age 63)
Education
Occupations
  • Actor
  • Standup comedian
Years active1984–present
AwardsTVB Anniversary Awards


Chinese name
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese
Musical career
GenresObservational comedy
LabelsEMI

Biography edit

Wong gained a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Alberta in Canada.

He began his career in the entertainment industry in Hong Kong in 1984, but he is best known for his works in live stand-up comedy which he started performing regularly since 1990. Since then he has starred in TV dramas and films and has recorded several albums.

Television edit

Dayo had his TVB TV series debut in 1999, acting as "Lai Sam" in "Justice Sung 2".[4] A year later, he reached a milestone as a lazy law firm assistant in War of the Genders,[5] winning the "My Favourite Television Character Award" in 2002. He won two awards in 2004: the My Favourite On-Screen Partners (with Ada Choi in "Catch the Uncatchable") and again, the My Favourite Television Character Award (also in "Catch the Uncatchable").

He was nominated for the TV King Award in 2007 and 2009. He was finally crowned as TV King with "Bounty Lady" in 2013.[6] To Dayo, the award was an accumulative result of his TVB dramas. In that year, Julian Cheung started as the clear favourite of the audience due to his popularity in "Triumph in the Skies 2".[7] Though Chilam ended up winning the Most Popular Male Character, he sounded disappointed in his acceptance speech (the price is widely recognised as a consolation prize to The Best Actor Award). Chilam did not stay behind the ceremony for the TVB official interview. He explained that he was not informed to stay behind for any interview. The discord rumours between Chilam and Dayo begin to spread out widely. However, the rumour was shot down when Chilam surprised Dayo by his sudden appearance at a meal gathering of the Bounty Lady.[8]

Stand-up edit

Besides the TVB drama career, Dayo is also well known to be a stand-up comedian. He introduced stand-up comedy to Hong Kong and is well known for including a lot of political and philosophical content in his sets. "Hong Kong's housing issue is absolutely ridiculous. I have discussed this in my stand-up shows too. Hong Kong residents need to have 13 to 14 times their current annual salary to finally be qualified for home ownership."[9] said the comedian. He has performed in Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, and the United States.[10]

Film edit

In comparison with his stand-up comedy and TV dramas, his movies are not as successful. When asked the reasons behind, he explained that his ultimate goal is to look for something new in his movies. His visions make his work good to watch, but it is not good enough to attract people to pay for a cinema ticket. Additionally, he hates doing promotion for his work.[11] However, this situation has changed recently with his last four movies namely, Agent Mr Chan (2018), The Grand Grandmaster (2020), Table for Six (2022) and A Guilty Conscience (2023) helping to break him out of the box-office poison moniker. Table for Six in particular, has become the most successful comedy release in Hong Kong and the second highest-grossing Chinese film in Hong Kong.

Filmography edit

 
Dayo Wong at a promotional event for House of Mahjong.

Stand-up comedy, Free Man Show, Stage edit

Year Name Remark
1990 娛樂圈血肉史 -
1991 色情家庭 -
1992 跟住去邊度 -
1994 末世財神 -
1995 棟篤笑雙打之玩無可玩 Cheung Tat-ming
1997 秋前算帳 -
殺出廚房
1998 Free Men Show (鬚根Show) Cheung Tat-ming, Francis Ng
1999 拾下拾下拾年棟篤笑
2000 Free Men Show 2 (鬚根Show 2) Cheung Tat-ming, Francis Ng
男親女愛舞台劇
March 2003 冇炭用 -
October 2006 兒童不宜 -
December 2007 越大鑊越快樂 -
September 2008 男磨坊
August to September 2009 嘩眾取寵 -
November 2010 娛樂圈血肉史 II -
June to July 2011 咁愛咁做
February 2012 野豬
October 2012 洗燥
October 2014 唔黐線唔正常
July to August 2016 前度 Fala Chen
June 2018 金盆啷口

Films edit

Year English title
1992 The Magic Touch
1993 Two of a Kind
Pink Bomb
No. 1 3rd Ave
Even Mountains Meet
1994 I've Got You, Babe!!!
Mr. Sardine
Long and Winding Road
Oh! My Three Guys
From Zero to Hero
New Tenant
Born innocent
1995 Once in a Life Time
Wind Beneath the Wings
The Meaning of Life
Spider Woman
Thunderbolt
Only Fools Fall in Love
The Dan That Doesn't Exist
1996 Satan Returns
Top Banana Club
13 July
All of a Sudden
Love and Sex Among the Ruins
Big Bullet
1997 24 Hrs Ghost Story
Walk In
Legend of the Wolf
Those Were the Days
Tamagotchi
Love, Amoeba Style
97 Aces Go Places
The Wedding Days
My Dad is a Jerk
1998 F*** /Off
2000 What Is A Good Teacher
Don't Look Back or You'll Be Sorry
Titanic (dub)
2001 The Emperor's New Groove (dub)
Let's Sing Along
2002 Fighting to Survive
Scooby Doo (dub)
2004 Leave Me Alone
2005 Teacher in University
2006 Lethal Ninja
Over the Hedge (dub)
Nothing is Impossible
2007 Zhui Bu
House of Mahjong
2014 Golden Chicken 3
Temporary Family
2015 Secret Treasure[12][13][14]
2016 Zootopia (dub)
2017 Earth: One Amazing Day (dub)
2018 Agent Mr Chan
2020 The Grand Grandmaster
2022 Table for Six
2023 A Guilty Conscience

TV series edit

Year Title Role Network TVB Anniversary Awards
1999 Justice Sung II
狀王宋世傑II
Lai Sam TVB
2000 War of Genders
男親女愛
Yu Lok-ting TVB My Favourite Television Character
2001 Unusual Citizen
非常公民
Puyi Mainland Chinese production
2004 To Catch the Uncatchable
棟篤神探
Mok Jok-dung TVB My Favourite On-Screen Partners (Dramas)
My Favourite Television Character
2005 Hail The Judge
新九品芝麻官
Song Shijie China Mainland
The Great Adventure
大冒險家
Pak Wut ATV
2006 Loving Insurance
情愛保險
Tang Tianshou Mainland Chinese production
2007 Men Don't Cry
奸人堅
Ho Kei-kin TVB Best Actor Nomination (Top 20)
My Favourite Male Character Nomination (Top 5)
2009 You're Hired
絕代商驕
Mak Tai-song TVB Best Actor Nomination (Top 5)
My Favourite Male Character Nomination (Top 5)
2013 Bounty Lady
My盛Lady
Heung Kwong-nam TVB Best Actor

Discography edit

Album

Year Title
1998 鬚根Sound
1999 關老三
2000 我有小小強
2001 Experience
2005 哈痞(痞:音鄙,happy)

Other albums

Year Title
November 1999 華納99最好精選
December 1999 華納千禧世紀好精選
October 2000 華納天碟2000
September 2001 關不掉的聲音— 前途萬里行
October 2001 華納23周年紀念精選(華納群星)
September 2003 1:99電影行動(原裝導演加長版)
September 2004 愛唱主題曲 Theme Songs(香港群星)— 衰邊個

Not included in the albums

Year Title
2006 知彼不知己
2007 奸人堅
2009 冇問題
2013 My盛Lady

References edit

  1. ^ "Interview: Hong Kong stand-up Jordan Leung takes his comedy seriously". 9 January 2022.
  2. ^ "Hong Kong comedy group on the transformative, hopeful power of laughter". 12 February 2022.
  3. ^ "Talk about scalpers! Speculators make a fast buck as $880 tickets for Dayo Wong's farewell talk show resell online for $4,000".
  4. ^ [1] Brief résumé of Dayo Wong
  5. ^ [2] Critics and viewers fear for the future of Hong Kong's golden TV tradition
  6. ^ [3] Dayo Wong and Kristal Tin were crowned the TV King and TV Queen of the year
  7. ^ [4] 'Captain Cool' upset with TV King loss?
  8. ^ [5] Dayo Wong and Chilam Cheung shoot down discord
  9. ^ [6] Dayo Wong guest stars in "Temporary Family"
  10. ^ "Sony Centre - Events | Sony Centre for the Performing Arts". Archived from the original on 12 August 2014. Retrieved 12 August 2014. Ticket selling for Dayo's 2014 talk show in Toronto
  11. ^ [7] An interview with Dayo Wong
  12. ^ Kevin Ma (16 July 2014). "Bona launches Secret Treasure". Film Business Asia. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
  13. ^ "Dayo Wong". imdb.com. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
  14. ^ "Dayo Wong". chinesemov.com. Retrieved 4 April 2010.

External links edit