Variety.com
So I got done watching the 2008 Asian Excellence Awards and here's some of my thoughts:
- Watching Bobby Lee with his shirt off always makes me feel better about myself.
- In an hour long show with commercials - does Rob Schneider really need that much time on screen getting the Half Asian Award? I'm not against him or his roles in a lot of ways - but in a short show, did we really need the recap of his sometimes forgettable movies? And did Quentin Tarantino really need to do an introductory speech for him? And in a way - didn't it go against one of the themes of the show which seemed to embrace Asian Americans of mixed race?
- Carrie Ann Inaba wasn't as bad of a co-host as I thought. She was really pretty good, and I don't think she did one DWTS "snap" with the word "girl" coming out of her mouth the whole night.
- I thought the backstage scene was funny - the show needed more of that.
- It was interesting to me that they focused more on the Reality TV and Asian Americans, which begs the question of why they don't call it the Asian American Excellence Awards - because that's really the focus.
- For a while it almost looked like Tamlyn Tomita was going to wet her pants because she was so excited introducing Kristi Yamaguchi (and I love you both so don't take any of that in a bad way - peeing is cool).
- As much as I like Tia Carrera - her album really hasn't been all the buzz. I could have used a dose of Kina Grannis instead. It's a little more up-to-date.
- Did Steven Seagal really need to be a presenter? I mean he's looking good and everything, but they could have given Kelly Hu some more face time instead.
- The dance intro between Kaba Modern and Jabbawockeez was too short. Less banter, more dance.
- I winced every time they referred to YouTube as a "little invention".
- I still really do enjoy seeing a lot of Asian American faces on the television for an awards show - no matter how much face time they give Rob Schneider.
