The Happiest Refugee

As chapter ten opens, life is good for Anh. He’s traveling around Australia performing, and Suzie is on the road with him. Most of the people he encounters are friendly, though there are some dark spots. A racist bouncer at a comedy club nearly denies him entry. Suzie is more outraged than he is, having never experienced overt racism before. She encourages him to pick a fight with the bouncer on the way out, but Anh declines. Anh describes the hardest gig of his entire life, when he was hired to perform a benefit for a crowd of veterans of World War Two, Korea, and Vietnam. Although the MC introduces him with a fake name, the crowd instantly goes dead silent when they see Anh’s face. One man in the crowd even mimes shooting at him, which Anh uses to launch into a routine that shows he is essentially just another Australian kid. He jokes about the ordinary things he encountered in his working-class childhood, and eventually wins them over. Anh says he’s never encountered an audience scarier than that, and that it has prepared him for every future gig. Anh’s father continues to help him on the road.