2022 Keynote Address
Thank you President Fitts, Provost Forman, Distinguished Faculty, the entire Tulane Family, and most importantly to the graduating class of 2022, thank you.
And a special congrats to Dr. Picard, Gen. Berger, and of course the legendary Hank Aaron on being honored for their outstanding legacies and contributions to society.
It is so great to be back home in New Orleans! It’s beyond surreal coming back here! I love New Orleans, and have lived and passed out here for many years.
Ahh, the memories I have completely forgotten.
And to the Green Wave scholars who just staggered in from The Boot, we’re taping this just in case you don’t remember. Take a nap, won’t hurt my feelings.
My life may have begun in North Carolina, but my livelihood began in New Orleans. I truly owe my success to New Orleans. If it wasn’t for my experiences here, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
I did research here at Tulane Med School, did my medical residency at Ochsner, I cut my teeth doing stand up and improv here, shout out to Brown my old improv group, and even got my SAG card here, appearing on “The Big Easy” in 1997 on the USA Network, playing, you got it, a wacky doctor.
And a special shout to my good friend Mike Strecker, Tulane’s director of Public Relations, who I actually started out doing stand up with. That’s how deep these roots go. Congrats Mike, Mr. Chow just gave you a national shout out.
Thank you New Orleans, thank you for letting me be me.
And to the class of 2022, a sincere heartfelt congrats. Because if you think about it, your class is the toughest class to have ever graduated college in recent memory.
You started out your sophomore year when the COVID pandemic began. You survived a lockdown, online classes, you’ve gone through vaccines, Omicron, you have been through so much and have come out stronger for the experience. And now you’re here, graduating and more than ready to face the real world, because you already have.
You have persisted.
People ask me all the time, what is your key to success? Is it talent? No. Is it luck? No. Is it even being smart? No. To the class of 2022, the key to success is persistence.
Michelle Obama once said, “There is no magic to achievement. It’s really about hard work, choices and persistence.”
Senator Bill Bradley said “Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.”
And most importantly Chumbawumba once said, “I get knocked down, but I get up again.” And then they danced like idiots.
But my point is, the key to success is persistence. And I’ve learned the art of persistence while living here in New Orleans.
You gotta persist, right President Fitts? That kinda rhymes. You’re a persister, mister. And so’s your sister. Want to get together and play some twister? I better stop, the sun’s giving me a blister.
And scene. The reason I did that god-awful joke was to prove a point. I bombed, got back up, persisted, and I’m moving on from that failure. Real world example.
It’s all good, we’ll throw in some canned laughter for the live stream, and everyone will be none the wiser.
Back to the speech. I’ve actually never said what I’m about to say right now.
I came to New Orleans in personal turmoil. I was in med school at UNC, and the reason I came to Tulane was because I was burned out. I wasn’t doing well in med school, and I was close to failing out. In fact I did fail. I had failed not only my first step of my medical board exam, I also failed my second step. It was the first time I really failed when it counted. Twice. And I was taught all my life NOT to fail. And if you failed, you were a failure.
And I tell you, those standardized tests are culturally biased, against people who don’t study very hard.
I didn’t know if medicine was right for me. I was at a crossroads, thinking I don’t have what it takes to be a doctor, and I really had to figure out who I was.
So, I took a year off. I did a year of independent study at Tulane Med School, working with Dr. Roy Orlando, head of the Gastroenterology Department at Tulane Med School at the time, and was also my mentor at UNC Med School. And when he came to Tulane, he invited me to do research in his department, and he saved my career. I worked in his lab, and by the end of the year, I got published in the medical journal of Gastroenterology, and I even got UNC med school credit for it.
Long story short, I was able to hang in there, and by the end of the year, I retook both steps of my board exams here in New Orleans and passed, and ultimately was able to graduate medical school.
I had a second chance in life. I got myself back on track. In fact, I loved New Orleans so much I decided to stay here and do my Internal Medicine residency at Ochsner to become a physician here in New Orleans. And it all began with Dr. Orlando and Tulane Med School for giving me a second chance in life, and so from the bottom of my heart, thank you, Tulane.
And yet at the same time, New Orleans magically opened a new life for me. I discovered the wonder and joy that is this city. I had a blast. I even emceed at the Cat’s Meow, the Karaoke bar on Bourbon Street on weekends. I wish I worked there now because, as a graduation gift, I would let you all sing “Mr. Brightside” one by one all night long, and I am sick of that song! That’s how much I love you guys.
New Orleans was where I really cultivated and deepened my love of stand up comedy and improv. I had first started acting and doing theater in college at Duke and fell in love with it so much that I pursued it more deeply here. I performed at Movie Pitchers in mid-city, where I performed with the improv group Brown every Saturday night for years. And it was one of the most inspiring times of my life, I made lifelong friends. And at the same time I was learning the art of improv and stand up. And although there wasn’t a comedy club per se in New Orleans, I did stand up at multiple one-off spots, Amberjacks on Lakeshore Drive, True Brew Cafe in the Business District, and various venues all over Metairie and the West Bank, constantly heckled by people who just wanted to hear some jazz. And ultimately I won the Big Easy Laff Off at the Orpheum, and the judges were Budd Friedman, founder of the Improv comedy clubs, and the late Brandon Tartikoff, former president of NBC. And that was my big break. I got to perform at the Improv in Hollywood and two years later I moved to LA, fully qualified, thick-skinned and ready to pursue my comedy dreams as well.
So if you think about it, it’s because of New Orleans I was able to persist and become both a doctor and a comedian.
I always had the tools to do both, but it doesn’t matter if you have the tools, if you don’t know what to do with them, it’s useless. So to the class of 2022, find out who you are first, and in New Orleans I did just that.
I cultivated both. All because of New Orleans.
Some of you may be thinking, you ultimately became a comedian anyway, so why does it matter that you became a doctor?
It matters everything because in life if you quit one thing, what’s to say I wouldn’t quit my next endeavor, what’s to say I wouldn’t quit being a comedian. There is so much rejection and failure in Hollywood, far more than in any other profession. Persistence is my greatest talent.
Never give up, never close the door on your life, always persist.
I’m not just a doctor. I’m not just a comedian, I’m not just an annoying overactor. I persisted in annoying the world for decades, and the world relented.
I’m just me, and in New Orleans I discovered my fully integrated sense of self.
My mentor at Ochsner said you never have to choose comedy or medicine. He predicted that I would blend both worlds. And that’s was happened, when I created “Dr. Ken” a show on ABC that was based on my medical life and I co-created it with one of my best friends from my improv group, Mike O’Connell. So in a real way, New Orleans helped me create the most fulfilling project I have ever done in my life. Something that fully integrated my true self. And for me, “Dr. Ken” will always symbolize the persistence and cultivation of what I’ve learned here.
Cultivate. Never give up. You never know what can happen. I’m a person who learned how to persist when times were tough, and be stronger for the experience.
And that trait exists to this day. In fact, I’m practicing what I’m preaching right now. My life is this speech.
I couldn’t attend last night’s Honorary Degree Recipients Dinner because I’m filming a TV series in LA, sorry I can’t disclose what it is. “The AfterParty” only on Apple Plus, season one currently streaming, but I was determined to get here this morning no matter what.
I took a red eye flight, operating on no sleep, because nothing is more important to me right now than talking to you.
Persist, never give up, then pass out on your return flight.
I challenge you, the graduating class of 2022, to find your toughness, cultivate your love for what you do, and never give up.
The world is tough, the world has obstacles.
People get in the way of their own success all the time. I’m telling you, don’t get in your own way. How? Persist.
Look at me, there’s always second chances. If I can do it, so can you.
You’ll find your own New Orleans. Sorry if I’m saying New Orleans a lot. I’m sure there are some are you saying, “Bro, I am in New Orleans, and I’m graduating from a college in New Orleans. So what do you mean Mr. Chow, find your own New Orleans?” To which I reply, “Hey Bro, back off, commencement speeches are hard. You think this is easy?”
My point is, as you move forward, there are a lot of obstacles that can get in your way. Don’t let it. Don’t let yourself get in your way. Don’t be afraid to fail.
Michael Jordan once said “I have failed over and over again in my life, and that’s why I succeed.”
New Orleans helped answer all those questions about myself.
Do I have what it takes to do both comedy and medicine? Yes.
If it wasn’t for New Orleans, I never would have been a full-time physician, I never would have practiced for seven years in LA, I never would have met my wife in LA who’s also a doctor, I never would have had the worldview I have about COVID, the importance of vaccines, the importance of critical thinking in general. And believe me, our society needs critical thinkers like you more than ever.
And if it wasn’t for New Orleans, I never would have been a comedian, I never would have done “The Hangover,” “Crazy Rich Asians,” “Dr. Ken,” my own Netflix special. None of that happens without New Orleans.
Everything I’ve done in my life is a result of persistence. And I challenge all of you to do the same.
We’ve all had a New Orleans education. I lived in New Orleans for four years as well.
Cultivate what you’ve learned, make something special out of it. And never give up.
Thank you, congrats and all my love to the graduating class of 2022.
And in the words of Mr. Chow, “Toodaloo, Green Wave!!!!”
