Courtesy of Charlene Kaye
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Charlene Kaye is no stranger to the big stage.
She’s not only toured as an opener for indie music darlings like St. Vincent and alt-J, but has headlined in her own right under the mononym KAYE. Yet after almost two decades of being in the spotlight for music, she’s her sights set on her biggest stage yet: headlining her own comedy show at the upcoming Netflix Is a Joke festival in Los Angeles.
You can see the former Valley resident perform on Wednesday, May 6, at Desert Ridge Improv.
“There’s still a confusion that after music, which is the most impossible career to imagine stability, the thing I want to do after that is stand-up comedy,” Kaye says as she sits in her Brooklyn home after a whirlwind weekend auditioning for “America’s Got Talent.” “It really is the American dream that my mom never expected. But I feel that I am living the American Dream. Like, what’s the point of her bringing me to America if I’m not going to be my truest, most authentic self? Even if that means I’m, like, really crass and my ass is hanging out, starting a million crazy cover bands like Labia Head and Guns N Hoses. Like, this is my American Dream!”
Kaye was born in Hawaii. Her parents relocated to the Valley from Singapore when she was a child, and she attended Cocopah Middle School and Chaparral High School in Scottsdale. Her story mirrors that of many immigrant families who make the journey across oceans.
“It was such a big culture shock … I spent time in Hong Kong and Singapore; my parents are Singaporean. Coming to America, or what I thought was America, my first thought was ‘Oh my God, it’s just like the movies!’ because Chaparral and Cocopah had those lockers that I’d seen in “Ten Things I Hate About You.” I was like, ‘Where’s Julia Stiles? Where’s Heath Ledger?’”
But the novelty wore thin as the reality of being a rare gem, ethnically speaking, put her in a much different spotlight.
“It was such a funny feeling to realize that I was kind of the only one that looked the way that I looked. And there were only a few other Asians and like a handful of black people at my high school and basically everybody else was white … and wealthy,” Kaye recalls. “It’s been an interesting thing to reflect on as an adult, how that impacted my sense of identity, because I was deeply trying to assimilate and be accepted and make friends and stuff. I spent a lot of time not wanting to be a nerdy Asian. I wanted to be a cool Asian.”
Courtesy of Charlene Kaye
Kaye went on to attend the University of Michigan to study music.
“But before that, I did the open mics at Chaparral and I took classical piano. That was my gateway into music. Every Asian I knew had to take classical piano lessons,” she laughs. “It was so annoying because my mom put every instrument into my hands, gave me all these instrument lessons like clarinet and ukulele and violin. And I even played saxophone at one point. And then when I actually fell in love with it, she’s like, ‘Wait, we didn’t expect you to want to do this for a living. We just wanted you to be well-rounded so you could go to college.’ And so comedy was the furthest thing from my mind.”
Kaye’s May 6 show in Phoenix is her last opportunity to fine-tune her act before she appears at the Netflix Is a Joke Festival, which has become somewhat of a Coachella for stand-up comedy
She into comedy through something she wrote about her upbringing, a one-person show called “Tiger Daughter: Or How I Brought My Immigrant Mother Ultimate Shame.” Kaye’s theater act chronicling her life in Arizona upended her mother’s hopes for a future of financial stability outside of the arts, went on to play for international audiences at Edinburgh Fringe Fest in 2024 and the Melbourne Comedy Festival in 2025 and even earned the attention of Kaye’s comedy idol, Margaret Cho.
In her sophomore effort, “Diversity Shredder,” which Phoenix audiences will see on Wednesday, she shares the moments that inspired her freshman outing.
“I wrote it because I just had all of these outrageous stories of us growing up in Arizona, where she gave me all these classical music lessons, and I was like, ‘Oh, actually, I want to play Ludacris’s “Area Codes” on acoustic guitar at the high school talent show’ … which I did.” She did the song as a mashup with John Mayer’s “Back to You.”
“That actually was a huge precursor for what my musical comedy is now,” Kaye continues. “It’s very mashup-based. It’s very unhinged. I love switching from genre to genre … I have a whole series of like, how music works and how do I break down a Taylor Swift song? How do I break down an Ed Sheeran song? I think my observational tendencies have always been comedic.”
Kaye went viral last year with her spot-on parody of what every Taylor Swift song sounds like. The clip amassed millions of views across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.
“I actually didn’t make it public at first because I was so scared that I was going to get ripped apart by (Swift’s) fanbase because they’re so intense,” Kaye recalls. She posted it on a friend’s social media, where it was seen by a fellow comedian, who loved it and encouraged her to share it more widely. “And he was like, ‘Charlene, you can’t live your life because you’re afraid of what other people on the internet are going to think of you.’ And I was like, ‘Ooh, those are fighting words!’ So I made it public.”
The decision propelled her further into the limelight and closer to becoming a household name. What’s most remarkable about Kaye’s venture into comedy is her high-energy musical approach to her live show. In a sea of stale cookie-cutter standup acts, Austin edgelords and a deluge of crowd work comedians, Kaye is a light in the darkness, putting the rock star theatrics of her comedy center stage.
“I think I already have something that no one else has. My act is very. I don’t know … rock comedy,” Kaye says. “I’m really proud of the show that I’ve created. I think it blends a lot of my standup and personal storytelling and vulnerability with the kind of unhinged, madcap energy that people know and like me from.”
What can Phoenix audiences expect from Kaye this week?
“I have songs about mental health. I have songs about these stupid beefs that I have with other musicians. And, like, the time I gave a one-star review to this restaurant. Like, you know, it’s like it covers a lot of ground,” she says. “I think it’s going to be the kind of thing that people want to see again, because there are a lot of details in it, too. So I’m really excited to run it in Phoenix before going to L.A.”
“Charlene Kaye: Diversity Shredder”: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 6. Desert Ridge Improv, 21001 N. Tatum Blvd. Tickets are $31.90.
