by B. Andrew Plant

Suzanne Whang is the host of HGTV’s House Hunters, which takes viewers along as potential home buyers shop for homes. And, while being the host of that channel’s number one-rated show has brought Whang increased visibility, it’s but one of the many undertakings of this multitalented entertainer.

Indeed, you might call Whang a Renaissance woman: She sports an Ivy League education and has succeeded at many things, from modeling to voice-over work and, of course, television hosting. Just last year she added “stand-up comic” to her résumé and will be featured in a comedy special that debuts this month on Comedy Central. Oh, and in the New Year she hopes to publish a book.

Best of all: No matter what she is doing, this funny and fine lady is reflective and thoughtful, always wondering what she can do to improve herself—and others.

Whang (pronounced Wong) paused during a stopover in Atlanta to talk with me about her many projects and about HIV/AIDS. The House Hunters star was in town for appearances at a major home show. We met for breakfast at her hotel, where I encountered a casual-but-focused woman who, despite still-wet hair and very little makeup, was disarmingly attractive.

I was also struck by Whang’s diminutive size, but quickly realized why most folks probably never realize she’s compact: This little dynamo exudes enthusiasm and an aura of positive energy.

Over a glass of juice and a small bowl of fruit at The Palms Restaurant, we jumped right into the subject at hand. “[HIV and AIDS] really firmly became part of my consciousness when I became an actor,” Whang tells me. “That was in Boston…in the late eighties. In the world of acting I started having a lot of gay friends and, especially at that time, many of them had been touched by the emergence of HIV.

“Also, two to three years before that I worked for a public health consulting firm. We did a lot of work in the areas of AIDS research, family planning. So, I learned a lot of facts about HIV/AIDS professionally,” she says.

“[That] was a wonderful blessing because there was so much fear-based stuff going on about the disease,” Whang notes. “People were afraid if you shook someone’s hand or kissed them, or drank from the same drinking glass…you were going to contract HIV.”

She recalls reading information generated to disprove such misinformation about AIDS, like the fact that you would have to exchange a great many gallons of saliva to really have a chance of contracting HIV through activities like kissing. “There would have to be extraordinary circumstances within casual settings to be able to contract HIV,” she says. “Luckily, I think most people have come to understand the unlikelihood of scenarios like that.”

Whang’s consulting work may at first seem out of character for the entertainer until you consider her educational background: She is a graduate of Yale with a B.A. in psychology, and holds a Master’s Degree in cognitive psychology from Brown University.

My breakfast companion was born in Arlington, Virginia; her father was an engineer for the navy, so the self-described “military brat” and her family moved around. Still, in her always-positive manner, Whang casts the frequent moves not as a hardship, but as a learning experience and an opportunity to have lived in San Francisco, Honolulu, Cambridge (Massachusetts), and eventually Virginia again, where she graduated from high school.

We return several times to a discussion of her background, particularly in regards to the solid foundation she feels her parents provided. She references this as we continue talking about how “fear-based hysteria actually happens a lot in our culture and our country…in discussions of touchstone subjects like AIDS…and way beyond.”

“Fear, paranoia, and bigotry are really a big part of our culture,” Whang says. “Some of the fears are encouraged to get you to hate other people, others to get you to buy things, but when the fear encourages misinformation—like keeping [incorrect] information about AIDS out there—it’s especially dangerous.”

She proudly relates that her parents raised her to treat everyone equally. “I never heard my parents utter a racist remark or bigoted comments in my entire childhood, and so I expected that that’s how everyone was going to be,” she says. “Then I find out that that’s really not the case. Hate and bigotry and generalizations are taught.”

The previously New York-based Whang now calls Los Angeles home, having lived there for seven years. She laughingly tells me that her time in L.A. “has broken my six-year barrier!” Between her family’s many moves, then schooling and living in various places for work, she had never lived anywhere longer than six years.

In fact, she recently bought a house. (Natch for the host of House Hunters, huh?) It might surprise you that the I-can-do-anything Suzanne Whang has not done her own decorating or renovations. “I know exactly what I want,” she says, “but I hire professionals to help me get there.”

Well, Whang obviously does it herself in terms of making it in entertainment, having been a consistently working artist for almost twenty years. Being able to enjoy what she does and pay all of the bills through her entertainment career, she says, tells her that, “that’s how you know you are doing what you were put on the planet to do.”

“My parents instilled in me so much confidence and love,” Whang says. “They sent me out into the world telling me I was wonderful and beautiful and talented and, most importantly, that I can accomplish anything. I know how lucky I am to have that background, that base.”

Likewise, says this optimist, when someone says something that might otherwise dash her hopes, like telling her she would never succeed at comedy because she is too pretty—that no one would laugh, she proceeded to win several awards for her comedy routines. In November of last year, Whang won the first-ever Andy Kaufman Award at the New York Comedy Festival. Not bad for a relative newcomer to comedy.

One reason she succeeds? Her very conscious choice of the people with whom she surrounds herself. “It’s hard to be an artist in a vacuum,” she says. “It’s difficult even with great support. So it’s important to surround myself with people who support me. Surround yourself with people who believe in you.”

She says that kind of philosophy stands, whether you’re trying to make it as an artist and entertainer, or if you’re battling HIV/AIDS. Surround yourself with positive support and you will succeed and thrive. “You owe that to yourself,” she says.

And Whang is thriving in new ways all the time. She surprises me by announcing she’s writing her first book. And she envisions doing her own talk show one day…and perhaps creating and hosting a “good news” program….But back to her book, for now.

Tentatively titled Happy House Hunting Adventures with Suzanne Whang, our cheerful entrepreneur hopes to publish her tome in 2006, and stresses the fact that “happy” is not just part of the book’s title but also part of its overall concept. “Too often, [people] enter house hunting nervous and anxious,” she says. “I want people to know they can choose to create a happy journey and find a great house they love.”

That theme of positivity is one of the many things she loves about her House Hunters gig. “Everyone wants to own a home,” she says, “it’s a common American theme. Our show portrays many different kinds of people pursuing that dream in a positive way. We’ve had gay couples, interracial couples, divorced people…and we never refer to that.

“Whatever that might do for tolerance,” she says, “and I think it does have a strong, if subtle effect…I am very proud of that aspect of the show.”

Whang’s comedy routine especially strikes pioneering blows for tolerance, though it may not seem such at first blush.  The confessed “adrenaline junkie” developed a character—an alter ego, really—called Sung Hee Park, who initially seems to be an Asian stereotype, right down to her traditional Korean dress. Still, through the laughter, audiences soon find the faux immigrant’s racy routine is actually a send-up of stereotypes. In broken English, the sweet and naïve innocent obviously has no idea that what she is saying is offensive.

“This material is based on the stupid things people would say to me because of the way I looked,” Whang says. “I am very American, yet people show ignorance. And I know this is true of so many prejudices—not just those directed at Asian or Asian-looking people.”

“People ask me if I speak ‘Oriental,’ or want to know if I can teach them karate,” she says. (You can also get an idea of other absurd questions Whang has been asked by seeing the “Things I Don’t Do” section of her résumé, available on her Web site. We’ll leave you to discover that on your own….)

Once Sung Hee Park was born (in acting classes at the Beverly Hills Playhouse), the comedian realized she had a hit. Her teacher’s initial reaction: He said Whang was so good that she had an obligation to continue.

“There are different ways to explore prejudice and racism,” she says—as Whang, “and laughter is one of those ways. The problem with political correctness is that we pretend everything is just fine, so there is no dialogue. If nothing else, Sung Hee Park creates a dialogue. If people go home and reflect even for a moment on their own prejudices…I have made a difference.”

And, yes, some detractors feel Sung Hee Park’s humor is malicious, but Whang stresses that there is a difference between ignorance and malice. “She [Sung Hee Park] is telling us something about ourselves and our culture through her naiveté about the things she is saying, even if she does not understand them,” she says.

“Many of the negative reactions have come from Korean-American women who feel I am perpetuating stereotypes,” Whang says.

“Why would I do that when I have experienced racism myself? Their criticism may say more about them than it does about me: One stereotype of Asian women is that they take themselves too seriously; their response to my act is more stereotypical…than my act is. It’s my greatest joy right now to address socio-political issues through comedy.”

And, yes, Sung Hee Park would probably tell an AIDS joke. The character has certainly told gay jokes and crossed many other lines.

For now, Whang reemerges, saving her irreverent, thinking-person’s, world-changing humor for another time. Her final word on HIV/AIDS? “Fortunately, I have not lost someone I am very close to to AIDS,” she says frankly, “but I have had very close friends who have lost their significant others and many friends [to it]. I have not experienced the grief firsthand, but I have certainly seen others impacted by it. It’s not something any of us should feel [insulated] from.”

She reiterates that she hopes everyone—and especially people affected by HIV/AIDS—reads Excuse Me, Your Life Is Waiting [see Sidebar]. With the help of that book or other books or other means entirely, Suzanne Whang’s message is clear: Each individual has the power to surround themselves with the best support systems possible and to start changing themselves—and the world—for the better.

Better yet, she hopes you’ll do it with a bit of laughter.

Required Reading

Other than her parents’ influence on her and two degrees in psychology, where does this can-do attitude come from? Whang says she is a self-help junkie, reading just about every book in that genre. She mentions two of her favorites:

• Excuse Me, Your Life Is Waiting, by Lynn Grabhorn, which is subtitled, The Astonishing Power of Feelings. (www.lynngrabhorn.com)

• Ask and It Is Given, by Esther and Jerry Hicks, which builds on their ongoing theme, “the teachings of Abraham.”

(www.askanditisgiven.com)

Of Excuse Me, Whang says, “it would be wonderful if everyone read this book. People affected by HIV/AIDS…anyone, really. Everyone needs to know they have the power to change….”

Of Ask and…, Whang says the book confirmed what she already knew: “Karma is a boomerang. You get back what you put out,” she says. “I knew this to be true, but I didn’t know there was actually a quantum physics explanation of it.”

In keeping, she goes on to say that, “everything that happens in my life I have created and manifested and I am responsible for. Not that it’s my fault. It’s not a blaming kind of thing. Rather, it is my responsibility to put out the right things and help create the right situations.”

Keep up with the many activities of Suzanne Whang by visiting www.SuzanneWhang.com. Visit Sung Hee Park at www.SungHeePark.com.

B. Andrew Plant is an Atlanta-based freelance writer and is Editor at Large of A&U. He interviewed Rich Merritt for the July issue.

November 2005