THE
SCOTSMAN Paul
Hyu is Chinese Elvis, the self-styled "King from Beijing".
He performs an affectionate but tongue-in-cheek show in
which he makes fun of his Chinese roots, cooks his audience
Dim Sum and gets his elderly sound guy, whom he jokingly
calls "The Colonel," to dress up in a spectacularly ugly
Aztec-design jumpsuit, a relic from one of Elvis's more
psychedelic sartorial misadventures. He also introduces
us to some of the many tribute acts on "the diverse Elvis
spectrum," showing slides of Indian Elvis, Mexican Elvis,
Jewish Elvis, Finnish Elvis, Female Elvis, Black Elvis,
Disabled Elvis and Midget Elvis. He sings a few Elvis numbers
too, but while he certainly does them justice, they're not
really the main focus of his hour.
Roger Cox
THE
GLASGOW HERALD ChineseElvis's dad, allegedly, thinks his son's at
the Royal College of Surgeons to give a lecture series.
He's not far wrong - ChineseElvis is going for gold at the
gabbing Olympics. It's no surprise that he won the Weakest
Link. He's bright, talking about bell curves and translating
Elvis into Latin, and very likeable with it. He even makes
his audience dim sum, which his put- upon assistant, Colonel
Tom, serves up. All very diverting, but a mighty long road
from rock 'n' roll.
Rob Adams
THREE
WEEKS (3 stars) I think I must be on drugs. See, this Chinese guy just
walked into the room wearing an Elvis costume and started
serving me dim sum whilst giving a lecture on the history
of themed Asian restaurants. Not being an Elvis fan myself,
I didn't think much of the music but then the 'King from
Beijing' seems to be more about the piss-take than the musical
legacy anyway, using a mixture of stand-up style banter,
Powerpoint 'lectures', oh, and the odd song. Though a very
friendly guy, his show did feel rather fan-exclusive and
the gags weren't all that great, though the sheer surreal
nature of the experience is sure to pull in some curious
punters.
Sonia Hallet
CONFLUENCE.org.uk
Paul Huw is no ordinary Elvis sing alike. There is definitive political creed with his powerpoint on the Diverse Elvis Spectrum done with the required irony, about identity. He states that the Chinese have not been embraced within the genre of Asian in England, as they are the singular minority emerging from Asia that does not play cricket. Through the comedy, some questions of what it means to be Asian are raised and looking at differences and similarities – particularly in the fascination with Elvis.
EDINBURGH
FRINGE BLOG
Despite never having even read a blog, I agreed to write
250 words for this one...
BBC
NEWS
I even made the news, complaining, as per usual...
SCOTTISH
TV
Sal Bashir and I appeared shortly on The Five Thirty Show
- August 6, 2008. They called me Paul "HUGE" on
the subtitle. All I can say to that is "thangyuveramuch...."
They're not wrong, but its not very Chinese to boast. This
was available online... but is no longer; and I didnt even
have access to a tv while I was up in Edinburgh, let alone
a video recorder...
SCOTTISH
RADIO
I was on BBC Radio Scotland as the tanks rumbled into Georgia
during the Olympic opening ceremony - and in fact was the
1st person to announce it to the Scots on this auspicious
and prestigious radio channel. Unfortunately it is also
no longer online. But it also has the distinction of being
the only media thing where I actually got paid.
