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Raybon Kan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Raybon Kan is a Masterton, New Zealand-born Chinese comedian and newspaper columnist. His family moved to Wellington, New Zealand soon after his birth, where he began his education at St Mark's Church School (where he was Dux in 1979 and showed an early flair for public performance) and continued through to Wellington College. He attended Victoria University of Wellington's law school, for what he called 'inexplicable reasons', and earned his LL B(Hons). He first came to prominence writing television reviews for The Dominion newspaper in Wellington and was soon performing stand-up comedy on stage and on television. His television work included regular appearances on sketch shows, though it has been reported that live comedy is his passion.
To that end, he has been named Best Comedian by Metro and North and South magazines on repeated occasions in New Zealand. He has performed at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, the Montréal Comedy Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe. According to his web site, he has also performed in Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sydney.
His movie reviews have seen him present a segment on TV3's Nightline nightly news programme. His other network television appearances have been on Skitz and Inside New Zealand, and was profiled in that country's edition of 60 Minutes.
He authored Five Days in Las Vegas in the early 1990s, about his travels to the United States during which he appeared on Wheel of Fortune. Another travel-based title, America on Five Bullets a Day, was published in 1998. The latest compendium of his work, An Asian at My Table, was published in 2004.
He now lives in Auckland, New Zealand and writes a regular column for the Sunday Star-Times newspaper.
His humour can be described as self-deprecating.
He has two film roles in Tongan Ninja (directed by Jason Stutter) and Spooked (directed by Geoff Murphy).
In November 2004, he became the TV commercial spokesman for the Freedom Air airline in New Zealand.
His family's Chinese surname is not, in fact, Kan. This came from a clerical error when one of Kan's ancestors emigrated to New Zealand and one of his given names was recorded as his surname.