Dr. Ken Jeong - Tulane 2022 Commencement Speaker

class of 2022 please join me in welcoming actor comedian dr ken jong [Applause] thank you so much thank you president fitz provost foreman distinguished faculty the entire tulane family and most importantly you thank you graduating class of 2022 thank you bow down and a very special congrats to dr picard general berger and of course the legendary hank aaron on being honored for their outstanding legacies and contributions to society thank you so much congratulations and it's an even bigger honor and the highlight of my experience right now to this day to talk to right now future icon dr laday thank you for inspiring me on this day my favorite part of this experience thank you thank you and it is so great to be back home new orleans is home it is so surreal coming back here i never thought in a million years i would be back here in this context at tulane where i got my start i love new orleans new orleans is the greatest town in the world i have lived i have you i have lived i have lived and passed out here for many years truth ah the memories i have completely forgotten and to the green wave scholars who just staggered him from the boot we're taping this just in case you don't remember so all good take a nap it ain't gonna hurt my feelings my life i was born in detroit my life but i grew up in north carolina my my life may have begun in north carolina but my livelihood began in new orleans and i truly owe all of my success professionally and personally to this town because if it wasn't for my experiences here i wouldn't be where i am today i did research here at tulane med school i did my medical residency at oxner i cut my teeth doing thousands and thousands of stand-up and improv shows here shout out to brown my old improv group and even got my sag card here appearing on the big easy in 1997 on the usa network playing you got it a wacky doctor so and a special shout out to my good friend mike schrecker he's tulane's director of public relations who i actually started out doing stand up with that's how deep these roots go so congrats mike mr chow just gave you a national shout out so stupid [Applause] thank you new orleans thank you for letting me be me and to the class of 2022 a sincere heartfelt congrats because like everyone has said today president fitz dr leday your class is the toughest class to have ever graduated college in recent history you started out your sophomore year when the pandemic began you survived coveted hurricanes lockdown online classes you've gone through vaccines omicron ba2 you have been through so much and have come out stronger for the experience and now you're here you're graduating and more than ready to face the real world because you already have you have persisted and i salute you congratulations [Applause] ask me all the time what is your key to success is it talent no is it luck no is it even being smart no to the class of 2022 the key to success is persistence is persistence michelle obama once said there is no magic to achievement it's really about hard work choices and persistence senator bill bradley said ambition is the path to success persistence is the vehicle you arrive in and most importantly chumbawambo once said i get knocked down but i get up again and they dance like idiots my point is the key to success is persistence and i've learned the art of persistence while living here in new orleans and give it up for give it up for president fitz i didn't know he was a dj for god's sake jeez louise steve aoki give a run for her money you know what i mean i mean you gotta persist right president fitz that's kind of a rhyming beat you know so you're a persister mister and so is your sister want to get together and play some twister i better stop the sun's giving me a blister and scene the reason why i did that god awful joke was to prove a point i bombed i got back up i persisted and i'm moving on from that failure real world example dig it it is all good we'll throw in some canned laughter for the livestream and everyone will be none the wiser back to the speech god i'm day drunk now but this is the place am i right am i right [Applause] i've actually never said what i'm about to say right now uh they don't a lot of people they don't know my new orleans history real talk i came to new orleans in personal turmoil i was a med i was in med school at unc boo i went to duke and um the reason why i came to tulane was because i was burned out i wasn't doing well in med school and unlike dr leday i was i was close to failing out in fact i did fail i had not only failed my first step of my medical board exam i also failed my second step it was the first time i really failed in my life when it counted twice and i was taught all my life as a kid not to fail if you fail you're a failure you're a failure and i tell you those standardized tests are culturally biased okay against people who don't study very hard now it's a criminal it's criminal i didn't know if medicine was the right road map for me i was at a crossroads i was thinking maybe i don't have what it takes to be a doctor so i really had to figure out who i was so i took a year off i did a year of independent study at tulane med school working with dr roy orlando head of the gastroenterology department here at tulane med school he was also my mentor at unc med school and when he came to tulane he invited me to do research in his department and quite honestly he saved my career i worked in his lab for a year i got published in the medical journal of gastroenterology i even got unc med school credit for it long story short i was able to hang in there just by pure persistence and at the end of the year i retook both steps of my board exams here in new orleans at the superdome and passed and ultimately was able to graduate medical school i got a second chance in life got a second chance got myself back on track and true to god i love new orleans so much i decided to stay here and do my internal medicine residency at ochsner to become a full-fledged physician here in new orleans and it all began with dr orlando and tulane med school for giving me a second chance in life and from the bottom of my heart thank you tulane thank you so much [Applause] and yet at the same time this is new orleans this is like magic this did opened a whole new life for me i discovered the wonder and joy that is the city and i had such a blast i did everything i would like i did i moonlighted on i emceed i had a job emceeing on weekends at the cast meow karaoke bar real talk on weekends honestly i wish i worked there right now because as a graduation gift to you i would let you all sing mr brightside one by one all night long and i am sick of that song and that's how much i love you guys so new orleans was where i really cultivated and deepened my love not only medicine but of stand-up comedy improv i first started doing acting and theater at duke and i fell in love with it and i pursued it way more deeply here i performed at so many venues that they're not here anymore but i give a shout out to movie pitchers mid city where i performed with brown every saturday night for years it's one of the most inspiring times of my life i made lifelong friends and at the same time i was learning and immersing myself in the art of stand up improv and comedy and although there wasn't a comedy club per se in new orleans at that time i did so many multiple one-off spots shout out to rest in peace the amberjacks on lake shore drive a true brew cafe in the business district and all over like various venues all over metairie and west bank constantly heckled by drunks who just wanted to hear some jazz now ultimately in 95 like like president fitz said i won the big easy laugh off at the orpheum theater and the judges were bud freeman founder of the improv comedy club and the late brandon tardikov former nbc president and that here in new orleans was my big break and because of that i got to perform in hollywood two years later i moved to la fully qualified thick-skinned and ready to pursue my comedy dreams as well so if you think about it it's only because in new orleans i was able to persist and become both a doctor and a comedian i always had the potential to do both i had the tools but it doesn't matter if you have the tools if you don't know what to do with them it's useless so to the class of 2022 find out who you are first just like i did in new orleans i cultivated both all because of new orleans and some of it some you probably thinking you ultimately became a comedian anyway so why does it matter that you even became a doctor it matters everything because in life if you quit one thing what's to say i wouldn't quit my next thing what's to say i wouldn't quit being a comedian there is so much rejection and failure in hollywood far more than in any other profession it's not comedy persistence is my greatest talent never give up never close the door in your life always persist i don't define myself by my job i'm not just a doctor i'm not just a comedian i'm not just an annoying overactor i persisted in annoying the world for decades and the world relented yo i'm just me and in new orleans i discovered my fully integrated sense of self and my mentor at oxford said you never have to choose between comedy or medicine he predicted i would blend both worlds and that's exactly what happened when i created dr ken showing abc although based on my medical life and i co-created it with one of my best friends from my improv group here mike o'connell so in a real way new orleans helped me create the most fulfilling project i've ever done in my life something that fully integrated my true self and for me dr ken is new orleans it symbolizes the persistence and cultivation of what i learned here cultivate never give up you never know what can happen i'm just a person who learned how to persist when times were tough and be stronger for the experience and that trait exists to this very day in fact i'm practicing what i'm preaching right now my life is this speech i couldn't attend last night's honorary degree recipients dinner because i'm filming a tv series in la sorry i cannot disclose what it is after party on apple plus season one currently streaming but i was determined to get here this morning no matter what i took a red-eye flight i am operating on zero sleep because nothing is more important to me than talking to you now persist never give up then pass out on your return flight i challenge you the graduating class of 2022 to find your toughness cultivate your love for what you do and never give up this world is tough has obstacles people get in their own way of their own success all the time i see it so many times i'm telling you don't get in your own way how persist look at me there's always second chances if i can do this so can you you will find your own new orleans you know what i mean you'll find your own new orleans i mean sorry i keep saying new orleans a lot i'm sure there's some dudes in the back going bro i am in new orleans i'm graduating from a college in new orleans so what do you mean mr chow find your own new orleans to which i reply hey bro back off commencement speeches are hard you think this is easy now my point is as you move forward there are a lot of obstacles that can get in your way don't let it don't let yourself get in your own way don't be afraid to fail michael jordan once said i have failed over and over again in my life and that is why i succeed new orleans helped answer all those questions about myself do i have what it takes to do both comedy medicine yes because in new orleans i never would have been a full-time doctor i practiced seven years in l.a i never would have met my wife who's also a doctor and encouraged me to do comedy full-time shout out to the ho that's my wife's last name back off censors dr ho dig it and i'm her pimp for life now i never would have had the world view i have about covid the importance of vaccines and the importance of critical thinking in general and believe me our society needs critical thinkers like you more than ever and if it wasn't for new orleans i never would have been a comic i never would have done hangover crazy rich asians community dr ken my own netflix none of that happens without new orleans everything i've done in my life is a result of persistence and i challenge all of you to do the same we have all had a new orleans education i lived here for four years as well cultivate what you learned make something special out of it and never give up thank you congratulations and all my luck to the graduating class of 2022. thank you and in the words of mr chow to the lou gruenway [Applause] thank you

Channel: Tulane University

Views: 248,172

Keywords: tulane

Id: OH8vZGg3KVc

Length: 15min 21sec (921 seconds)

Published: Sat May 21 2022