North Korean refugees in South Korea face many hardships in trying to adapt to a new country. Among them can be the acquisition of English, without which they may struggle to find employment or even be able to further their education. Freedom Speakers International (FSI) seeks to address this issue.

FSI offers free, personalized tutoring in English and public speaking. In teaching North Korean refugees to speak English, the organization not only improves their lives but also helps their stories travel and be heard around the world. To this end, FSI also holds public speaking competitions in English.

On Saturday, Stand Up Seoul will hold a comedy show to benefit FSI, with all the proceeds going toward supporting North Korean refugees. The show will feature seven comedians, including Simmone P., who is also a support advocate for FSI. The show is being produced by Pat Bong, a prominent Canadian comedian in Seoul.

Bong says he was already putting together a show when he heard that Simmone P. would be in Seoul on the date of the show. “We saw this as an opportunity to do a good show for a good cause,” Bong explained, adding that Simmone had already done a comedy show in the city for FSI back in 2023.

Bong thinks that comedy can be a great tool for social healing, observing that a charity show and its cause “coexist in a symbiotic relationship.” He went further, stating that “money talks, but laughter is the best medicine.”

“Comedy is not a substitute for therapy, but it can have therapeutic value,” Bong opined.

He added that jokes allow us to be vulnerable without taking ourselves too seriously, and that comedy innately forms connections. “It can challenge assumptions, expose hypocrisy and make ideas easier to hear,” he said.

Economically, Bong says, he doesn’t think that Seoul has fully recovered from the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, and venues are looking for new opportunities. While this can be a boon to the comedy community, it can also add stress for producers. “I can’t count the number of times I’ve wished I could be in multiple places at once, pitching to and putting on shows for prospective venues,” he said.

However, producing a show is no easy task, as he will tell you, and not just in terms of corralling comedians. Bong emphasized roles played by people offstage as well. He mentioned the door person, who “is often the first person that the audience will interact with, so they’re important to the overall experience.” He also shouted out the crucial contributions of the sound people, as well as the venue staff, all of whom contribute to the overall success of an event.

Bong strives for variety between his shows, stressing that if audiences have been to a previous show he has produced, they should expect something completely different at the next one. He’s always on the lookout for new performers, and so he keeps abreast of who’s in the city, even if only briefly. He mentioned that along with Simmone, there is another visiting comedian, Sang Don Park, originally from Seoul but now living in London.

In the same vein as when he saw a chance to produce a show to help North Korean refugees, Bong is always on the lookout for his next opportunity. His advice to others? “Think about what you’d like to see that you aren’t currently seeing, and don’t wait for someone else to create it,” he said.

The Stand Up Seoul show for Freedom Speakers International will start at 8 p.m. on Saturday at Taco Amigo in central Seoul's multicultural Gyeongnidan neighborhood. The show will feature performances from comedians Mina Jung, Hookyoung Lee, Kris James, Sang Dong Park, Fernando Kim, Kanganri and Simmone P. Tickets are 15,000 won and can be purchased at the door or in advance. For more information or to reserve tickets, visit standup-seoul.com or follow @standupseoul_official on Instagram.

*Rory Kelly is a writer, actor, improviser and stand-up comedian based in Seoul. He's also often spotted not quite winning pub quizzes in the Itaewon area. *