Jonathan Kite, who amongst other projects plays Oleg the chef on the American TV series 2 Broke Girls, is doing China right. He arrived in Shanghai last Thursday, swiftly built a decent Weibo following (almost matching his Twitter numbers at the time of writing) with constant updates and high engagement, met fans and went to press conferences, ate crayfish with Vice China, took photos with Sherpa's and Chinese streetwear magazine 1626, and lots more. Hats off to his PR team, Mingyian, who specialize in connecting Western celebrities with their Chinese audience. Dude's schedule seems packed every day. While it is hard to determine exactly how popular 2 Broke Girls is in China -- it's certainly not as viewed as Prison Break, Friends, or Big Bang Theory -- the show is big, especially among the young, educated class who grew up in the '80s and '90s. Season one has 130 million views on the Chinese streaming site Sohu (Prison Break season one has 190 million views there, and the Korean show My Love From The Stars had 601 million views on another streaming site, Xunlei Kankan). Who knows how people have seen 2 Broke Girls via places like PPTV, torrents, or DVD stores. Either way, Kite is pouncing on this opportunity in ways a lot of foreign celebrities could learn from. This is also an interesting test for how relevant Weibo remains in the WeChat era (the kind of promo Kite is doing would be impossible on the latter). In person, Kite is animated, calculated, and debonair, with a distinctly American perspective. Seems like genuine, hard-working dude from Illinois. Ahead of his three nights of standup at The Pearl this Thursday–Saturday, we met at Massé bar and discussed China, TV, sarcasm, and cereal.

How's everything going so far?

: Good. I've seen very specific things, and there's so much to see…I saw a blue sky yesterday. It was like a Ray Bradbury, where they lock the girl in the closet and they're like "you miss the sun". And we went to the Bund, it was cool. We're staying in the middle of everything, and that's pretty touristy, but I went out all day yesterday for like 12 hours so I got to see a lot.

Did you go to any clubs?

: We did, we went to Bar Rouge on The Bund, and we had a table there.

What did you think of Bar Rouge?

: It's interesting. If it was inside, I probably would have really disliked it, because I don't tend to care for the Euro clubs. In LA, where I live, and obviously New York, they have them, but I think that there's nothing new about them. You'd think that somebody in LA would figure this out, that you could put [an outdoor terrace bar] in like Malibu or something. So that's the thing about Bar Rouge, the fact that it was right on the water, with that view…that was an experience, it was very nice.

When you go out, are people recognizing you?

: Yeah. Most of them won't come up to me, I think it's shyness or something. But I'm aware when somebody recognizes me, almost all the time -- even if I can't see them. Like you can just feel that something in the room has shifted. But very nice, people have been extremely nice to me.

There's a lot of fans here…

: Yeah it's great. I mean, that's one of the reasons I'm here is to meet people. I think that more Americans tend to travel to Europe, because it feels like languages maybe we took in high school -- it feels very relatable. I think there's something about Asia, where there's not as many countries on top of each other that you can get to by rail -- the American cliché of backpacking when you get out, you can do it on the cheap in Europe, but if you look at the countries in Asia, the money is crazy…the swings, you know. Like Laos, and China. They're close but they're not close [laughs]. So I wanted to come out here because there's so many people and an opportunity to meet these people who love what we do, and being so close to LA just feels like, well, why not.

How aware are you guys on the show of the Chinese fanbase?

: You know, to be honest, we're always told that China likes the show, but…we live in a bubble. You don't really think about it. It's not like 1980, where everyone's at The Ivy, and you're like "is that Richard Gere..ho ho ho". It doesn't work that way, because people are famous for such short periods of time, and there are more famous people today than there have ever been in the history of the world. So there's so many levels of fame…it's like, that's a reality star, is she more famous than that baseball player? You don't know. Maybe in the moment she is -- it's offseason for him and her finale is on tonight. It's such a wide net. It isn't really until you get out and come places like this that you really feel it.

I've heard it's probably the most popular American show now...

: We had heard that rumor, and that is an amazing thing, considering that we're not Chinese. In America, you think of the most popular shows, Game Of Thrones is the one thing where it's British people. But everything else, we do our own version. So like, the The Office [the original], which I love, we go "yeah that's a great show -- let's make our version". If you think of the shows that do really well -- Breaking Bad, Walking Dead -- even though there might be Brits, they're playing Americans. It's a really interesting thing to come to a country and feel so well received, because in America that doesn't usually happen.

What are your all-time favorite sitcoms?

is number one, 100%. I grew up on that show. It's so ahead of it's time; the writing is unbelievable, and those four women…exceptional actors. I love Taxi. There's a generalization that I don't find true, that sitcom acting is kinda schmaltzy. I don't think that's true when you look at really strong acting like Cheers, but I think in spades is Taxi. The stories are so realistic and there's so much truth in these struggling people who work in a cab stand in the '70s. So in terms of sitcoms, it's those two, and then The Simpsons. That shaped my life. The two shows that shaped my comedy were the urban sketch show In Living Color. That to me was…that's like impossible. For them to be THAT successful and have that much talent on that show, was kind of ridiculous, and then The Simpsons.

Remember the Poochie the dog episode of the Simpsons?

: Yeah of course [laughs]. Dude, when they write in this character, and to get rid of Poochie they pulled the cell out, and Homer did the voice…he was a rapping dog. And then they were like "you gotta move out" and then they had a random walk in character like "Whatever you say Mr. S" [does spot-on impression].

Have you watched any Chinese TV?

: No, I haven't. I tried to watch it in my room, a lot of it is news stations…CNN, BBC…I don't know if the [hotel] gets a special white person package, but there's not that much Asian television available.

Whoa, I usually stay in cheap hotels and the TV is crazy…flying pigs and shit.

: Oh I saw a game show yesterday when I was shooting something in a massage parlor. And it was these celebrities running around on The Great Wall, as it was intended -- to keep the Mongols out and to boost ratings. And they [were] wearing swimming flippers, running, [and] doing crazy obstacles on The Great Wall.

What were you doing at the massage place?

: I was doing kind of a tour of Shanghai and the things that China are known for, maybe Shanghai in general is known for.

Massage?

: Well everyone knows Chinese massage [laughs]. This guy, Mr. 17, just like rubbed my legs. Nice guy. Supple hands.

Getting into the comedy, what can we expect from the stand-up show?

: Not my usual, to be honest with you. I'm gonna try to do a lot of 2 Broke Girls stuff that people have never seen before. I don't do 2 Broke Girls material on the road, which I think is maybe surprising to a lot of Chinese fans. It's wonderful that they know me as Oleg, but it is such a small part of my life. We don't even do it for half the year, we do it for 22–24 weeks. But because something filmed has the ripple effect and is very long lasting…People in China ask me online, "when is season 5, when are we gonna get to see it?" and we haven't even started filming it yet. I've been off for four months. What I'm gonna do in Shanghai is different than what I've ever done before. I'll talk about 2 Broke Girls, I'll talk about Hollywood, I'll do impressions, I'll see what people have heard of, and hopefully it's a good time for everybody.

Do you ever get crazy messages from Chinese fans?

: Ummm…I do. I don't know what a lot of them mean, but they don't understand sarcasm. So on my [Weibo], I posted "traditional Chinese breakfast" and I posted a picture of Cocoa Krispies, and I got fifty comments, saying "I don't know what you've been told, but that's not traditional Chinese breakfast". And every now and then you'll have someone go "guys it's a joke", but no one is hearing them. That comment is being trampled over ten more that are saying "you've been lied to. this is not the traditional Chinese breakfast".

Have you had that traditional Chinese breakfast?

: I've had dumplings…I mean, at the hotel they have a large spread, but a lot of it is Western. They have Dragonfruit, a lot of exotic fruits. I don't eat cereal, ever. Here I ate it, but on the show, I don't start the day off with bread, but because I don't do it, it's something nice to see Coco Pebbles and Coco Puffs so I just wolf down a bowl of that every morning. It's been worth the trip.

Have any companies here approached you asking to do commercials?

: They have, they have…It's interesting. The thing about America is, we are the Michael Jordan of marketing. We can sell you stuff that will kill you, that's poisonous, that is designed simply to make money. And it sells exceptionally well. And I think with a lot of the people I've been approached [by], they're very nice, but I think that the marketing is very, very different here. So I try to offer as much of my own [ideas]…you know, "can we try it like this?" There's like an idea that they want it to be eye-catching and explosive, and like a living firework. But I think sometimes they don't know how to get to it. I'm very bias, but I think that America's good at some things and sucks at other things, but even in Europe, we are the best advertisers in the world. I was just in Paris and I thought "oh that's like a good ad" but I'm like, no one would buy it in America. So I think here, it's not the worst, but I think there's a lot of disconnect in some of the advertising I've seen.

So you're gonna do any ads for massage parlors or anything?

Jonathan: Well I don't know, maybe I was being filmed and didn't know it. You'll have to let me know if I'm doing ads for massage parlors. *** Jonathan Kite performs this Thursday–Saturday at The Pearl theater. Tickets are available on SmartTicket