Comedian and co host of new television show Rush TV, Ahn Do talks with Marcus Casey.

Well, we're sitting outside on a wharf in Pyrmont, a pretty cool workplace - it can't be too hard. Tell us what you're doing here today.

We're filming "rush TV", a new show on Channel 7. It's a great location - a big warehouse that we've decked out. It suits the style of our show, a bit alternative.

You've been doing standup for a few years now, you were a comedian of the year last year. How important is it for you to step into this wider role in TV where you're interviewing people and maybe showing a bit more of a serious side?

Yeah, it's a good opportunity to do that. I've been on the "Footy Show" and I get recognised a lot in the street for that and I get the feeling those three minutes of Ahn Do is what people think I'm like. It is a part of me, but it's not all. I mean, I did own a Datsun and I do have 10 flanelette shirts, but that's all there is. So this gives me an opportunity to do something more serious, to entertain people in other ways. I'm going to Samoa this week.

For a story?

Yeah, Samoans have this cultural tradition, where if a family has all boys sometimes one of the boys is raised as a girl - they're called Fafafinas. So we'll cover that as a story, it will be fascinating.

You'll have to tip toe over the subject though.

Well, I'll be honest, play it straight. I like to ask questions which allow people to tell me what's going on rather than have an opinion or put my stamp on it.

You're 23 now. How did this all come about?

I think the producers of "Rush TV" saw me on the "Footy Show" and said : "Anh, audition." I said : "I'd love to." I went through the audition with about 1000 other people and they needed a funny guy with a weird head who didn't fit the stereotype.

Why do you say you have a weird head?

The show's been getting feedback, emails and that. They don't say Ahn Do is funny, they say Ahn Do has a weird head. That's fair enough, I've copped that before.

Where were you born, where did you grow up?

I was born in Vietnam, came out here when I was two and a half and grew up with all my mates in the western suburbs. I've lived in Mount Druitt, lived in Granville, Merrylands. Most of my mates were flannelette Aussies and most of them had mullet haircuts. So I got a mullet to fit in with the rest of them, but everywhere else I went I was this Vietnamese kid with a mullet haircut. I was pretty ugly.

Did you cop that sort of sh*t growing up?

About the mullet? Yeah, more about the mullet than about being Vietnamese. Maybe it's also because I kept the mullet going a bit too long - right into the 90's.

When did you know you were funny? How did you do that, wake up one day?

The first time I was asked how it happened, I didn't make it up, I told a true story. So I've got to be consistent. I, ah, broke up with my first girlfriend when I was 17. She said a lot of things, including that I've got a weird head, which was a fair call - but the one thing that she said which buggered me was that she said I had no sense of humour. I thought that was a tad inaccurate. Three years down the track my friend was doing a stand up comedy course and asked if I'd do it with him and something in the back of my head said : "Yeah, that'll teach you how to be funny." So I took that course in how to be funny in everyday life, not to do stand up. At the end of the course everyone has to do a stand up gig at a comedy club and I was approached by comedy management. It's gone on from there.

Where's that girlfriend now? Have you seen her since?

I'm gettin' married to her in February.

You're kidding.

Nah.

How long was that split then?

Four years. We got back together - she'll kill me for this - I don't know, maybe we just got back together and it was a coincidence that it was very soon after I made my first appearance on TV.

Did you play gags in the playground?

I was a quiet kid at school. Every now and again I did like a joke, but while I grew up in the western suburbs, I was lucky enough to get a scholarship to St Aloysius private school which was a very strict school. So every time I made a funny comment that resulted in a penalty. I made sure that if it was going to be a line, it was going to be a cracker.

You went to uni and quit six months shy of graduating.

I never liked law, but you're in Year 12 and you don't know what you're going to do, you get the marks to get you into law, so you say "I'll give it a go, it looks good on TV," and I discovered I didn't enjoy it in the first two months. But I kept going because I didn't have anything else to do. Then stand up comedy gave me an opportunity, and it was a hell of a lot more fun than law. You get out of court and half the people love you, the other half hate you. But if you step off stage after doing your gig and everyone there is your mate. You get blokes especially saying; "Hey China, let me get you a beer." And you think: "Yeah, that's all right," and you have a beer with them. They tell you how they fought in World War II and they shot a guy who looked like you once.

Really?

Yeah, but they mean it in a nice way. They're good guys who have been through a lot. So I don't take offence when they call me China. They've just bought me a beer.

But "China" is rhyming slang, as in "China plate, mate".

Exactly right.

When you're on stage, you're open property. People feel they can come up and talk to you afterwards.

In stand up you get up on stage and tell a story. Like how comedians never get groupies, unlike musicians. Girls never come up to comedians because the comic has just got up on stage and told everyone about themselves and how weird and twisted they are. Girls are never interested after that. I think comedy is a very honest art form.

What about your parents? Did they give you grief about not finishing the uni degree?

No, my father's a very funny guy. He made me laugh a lot, and when he heard I was going into stand up, part of him said : "Ay, he wants to be like me." They weren't against it at all. I was still doing law when I started in stand up and when I got on TV my parents realised I was doing well. They're loving it now.

Do they go along to your shows?

Yeah. They don't understand too much of it because they have a limited use of English. But they see everyone else around them laughing and they have a great time.

How many trips have you done with "Rush TV"?

Vietnam and Samoa - there are four presenters so we spread the trips around and we have correspondents all over the world.

On the first show you went to Vietnam and found a bloke wearing a flanny. He said it made him look tough. Is that why westies wear flannies?

No, because they cost $7 and last for ages, they're good in warm weather and cold, they come in a whole variety of colours, and if you get hot you tie them around your waist - the ultimate fashion accessory.

Did you do any standup in Vietnamese [which he speaks]

No, it's a foreign concept to them. What I did though was eat a cobra.

Really? Was it good?

Well, it tastes like...I was going to say it tastes like chicken, but it doesn't. It tastes like cobra.

What's cobra meant to do for you? Isn't it something to do with...

I don't know...that's a good question. Ummm, I think I was there with two blokes, the cameraman and the producer, so I guess it's a good idea it didn't do anything, 'cause I was with the boys the whole time.

Finally, you're going to be at the Vietnamese Australian Festival at the Museum of Sydney during the day of November 25. What will you be doing?

Every now and then I do charity gigs. People will come along and celebrate Vietnamese people in Australia, have a look at different parts of the culture. I'll do a half hour comedy act, then hang around a bit and chat to people. Why not?