Paper Son takes an alternately funny and poignant look at the subjects of immigration and personal heritage as it tells the story of Oklahoma born-and-bred Chinese/American Byron Yee, who moves to California to start a career in stand-up comedy. A disastrous audition for a movie role as a stereotypical, Pidgin-English-speaking Chinese restaurant owner prompts Yee to investigate his own long-ignored heritage. Along the way he learns about the Chinese Exclusion Act, a law which restricted Chinese immigration to the children of current U.S. residents, and that many people claimed fictive relationships and faked documents to get around the law--hence the term "paper son." A trip to the National Archives reveals the startling truth: Yee's own father was one such Paper Son.

Part of the FringeNYC Encores series.