Raybon Kan (born 1966) is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

comedian and

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

columnist.

Early life and family

Kan's family moved to

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

, New Zealand soon after his birth in Masterton. He began his education at St Mark's Church School. He showed an early flair for public performance which he continued at

Wellington College Wellington College may refer to: *Wellington College, Berkshire, an independent school in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England ** Wellington College International Shanghai ** Wellington College International Tianjin * Wellington College, Wellington, Ne ...

and was School Council President and proxime accessit to dux. He attended

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well kno ...

's law school, and earned his LL B(Hons) and was admitted to the Bar. During his university days, he captained his team to second place in the World Universities Debating Championships, losing the final to the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. While at Victoria University he won the Dominion Journalism Scholarship, and the Energy Law Research Scholarship. His article on energy law was published in the New Zealand Law Journal.

Career

Kan first came to media prominence writing

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

reviews for '' The Dominion'' newspaper in Wellington and performed stand-up comedy on stage and on television. His television work included regular appearances on comedy sketch shows. Kan was named Best Comedian by ''Metro'' and ''

North and South North and South may refer to: Literature * ''North and South'' (Gaskell novel), an 1854 novel by Elizabeth Gaskell * ''North and South'' (trilogy), a series of novels by John Jakes (1982–1987) ** ''North and South'' (Jakes novel), first novel ...

'' magazines on repeated occasions in New Zealand. He has performed at the

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Comedy Festival, (where The Age newspaper named him one of the festival's highlights,) the

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Comedy Festival (1998 and 2001) and the

Edinburgh Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

. He has also performed in Calgary,

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

and Sydney. He was nominated for the inaugural

Billy T Award The Billy T Award is a New Zealand comedy award recognizing up-and-coming New Zealand comedians with outstanding potential. It has been presented annually since its inception in 1997 when Cal Wilson and Ewen Gilmour shared the award. The Billy T ...

in 1997. His movie reviews featured in TV3's ''Nightline'' nightly news programme. His New Zealand TV appearances include "Pulp Comedy", "Laugh Festival Gala," "Before Stardom", "Look Who's Famous Now", ''Skitz'', "Test the Nation" (which he won three times), "The Great New Zealand Spelling Bee", ''Inside New Zealand'', a documentary in which he trained for two months to be a casino croupier; and a profile in TV's ''60 Minutes''. In Australia he performed on "Hey Hey It's Saturday" and was interviewed by Bert Newton. Kan wrote ''Five Days in Las Vegas'' in the early 1990s about his travels to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

where he appeared on '' Wheel of Fortune''. Another travel-based book ''America on Five Bullets a Day'' was published in 1998 and featured his love of tennis. A collection of his short writings was published by Penguin in 2004 as ''An Asian at My Table''. For many years he continued to write a column in The Sunday Star Times. He has film roles in each of "I'll Make You Happy" (directed by Athina Tsoulis), '' Tongan Ninja'' (directed by Jason Stutter), and '' Spooked'' (directed by

Geoff Murphy Geoffrey Peter Murphy (12 October 1938 – 3 December 2018) was a New Zealand filmmaker, producer, director, and screenwriter best known for his work during the renaissance of New Zealand cinema that began in the second half of the 1970s. His s ...

). In November 2004, he became the TV commercial

spokesman A spokesperson, spokesman, or spokeswoman, is someone engaged or elected to speak on behalf of others. Duties and function In the present media-sensitive world, many organizations are increasingly likely to employ professionals who have receiv ...

for the

Freedom Air Freedom Air (legally ''Freedom Air International'') was a New Zealand low-cost airline which operated since 8 December 1995 to March 2008. It was part of the Air New Zealand Group which ran scheduled passenger services from New Zealand to Aust ...

airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...

in New Zealand. For a time, Kan was based in the United Kingdom, and in 2009 he performed his stand-up show 'Spermbank Millionaire' at the Edinburgh Fringe. The film he starred in, and co-wrote with Jason Sutter, '' Diagnosis: Death'', was also released in 2009.

Personal life

Kan has returned to New Zealand. He continues to provide commentary on social issues in print media, and is a guest speaker for events. He is of Chinese heritage and has commented on how racist attitudes affect people of Asian appearance in New Zealand. In 2008, Kan was awarded a Bravo award by the

New Zealand Skeptics New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

for his column "I see dud people," wherein he stated "I don’t want to get in the way of entertainers earning a crust, but it’s scummy to pretend to communicate with the dead to take advantage of grieving relatives."

References

External links

Raybon Kan - official site
* * https://web.archive.org/web/20090725034254/http://www.diagnosisdeath.co.uk/
Raybon Kan - Eventfinda
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kan, Raybon People educated at Wellington College (New Zealand) Living people New Zealand stand-up comedians New Zealand people of Chinese descent People from Masterton Victoria University of Wellington alumni 1966 births

Early life and family

Career

Personal life

See also

References

External links