Lia Chang: 10 minutes with Sullivan & Son’s Jodi Long, Award Winning Actor and Filmmaker

Jodi Long can currently be seen on Steve Byrne & Rob Long’s “Sullivan & Son”, a new sitcom on TBS, in which she portrays Ok Cha, the Korean mother of Steve Sullivan (Byrne), a successful corporate attorney from New York who brings his girlfriend home for his father’s 60th birthday and learns his parents are preparing to sell the multi-generational family business, a bar known as Sullivan & Son.

Jodi Long. Photo by Lia Chang

It doesn’t take Steve long to realize that where he really belongs is in the old neighborhood and running Sullivan & Son. And so begins Steve’s quest for a more meaningful and rewarding life behind the bar.
Updated 9/4/12: Hollywood Reporter reports TBS Renews ‘Sullivan & Son’ for Second Season

(L-R) Steve Byrne as Steve Sullivan and Jodi Long as OK Cha, his mother, seated at table in a scene from Sullivan &a Son. ( Photo courtesy of TBS)

Long is based in L.A., but I caught up with the award winning actor and filmmaker in the Filmmaker’s Lounge at the 35th Asian American International Film Festival, held at Clearview Chelsea Cinemas in New York in early August. Fresh from wrapping her season of shooting on Sullivan & Son, Long was giddy with excitement to talk about the show, her castmates and her new projects in the works.

Jodi Long, Chris Tashima and Les Mau before the screening of Lily Mariye’s Model Minority at Clearview Chelsea Cinemas in New York on August 4, 2012, a selection of the 35th Asian American International Film Festival. Photo by Lia Chang

Lia: What are you doing in New York?
Jodi: We just wrapped “Sullivan & Son” a couple weeks ago and I came into town to do a little movie in Pennsylvania that J.P. Chan has directed, called A Picture of You. It is about a brother and sister who go to close up their mom’s house after she’s passed away. That’s the other reason I’m here, my stepmother passed away right before I started “Sullivan & Son” and I’ve come back to close up her apartment that she lived in with my dad.

Dan Lauria and Jodi Long in a scene from Sullivan & Son. (Photo courtesy of TBS)

Lia: Who do you play on Sullivan & Son?
Jodi: I play Steve Byrne’s mom. Steve Byrne is comedian who wrote it with Rob Long, who comes from Cheers, and it’s executive produced by Vince Vaughn. We have amazing executive producers and writers and we all just laugh a lot. It’s like the best job. We go in and because Steve is half Korean and half Irish, I play his mom. Dan Lauria who was in Lombardi on Broadway, plays my husband, Steve’s father. Christine Ebersole who won a Tony for Grey Gardens plays one of the bar regulars, and Brian Doyle-Murray is in it too. The show takes place in a working class bar. So we have these four old theater actors on one side, and then we have Steve with three of his good friends who are comedians, who play his friends on the show. So you’ll go in and someone will be wearing a green dress, so they’ll do five minutes, each of them on that green dress. It’s hysterical. We make each other laugh all day long, and then we go and make an audience laugh, because it is a sitcom, we do two shows.

(L-R) The cast of All American Girl featured J.B. Quon, Amy Hill Margaret Cho, B.D. Wong, Jodi Long and Clyde Kusatsu. Photo courtesy of ABC TV

Lia: When was the last time you did a sitcom?
Jodi: The last time I did a sitcom was “All-American Girl”, where I played Margaret Cho’s mother. It was 17 years ago, and I’m still playing a Korean mother.

Lia: How did you meet J.P. Chan, the director of A Picture of You.
Jodi: I did not know J.P. before working on the film. Jo Mei brought my name up and my people were contacted. I asked to read the script. Thank God I have television money right now, because I can afford to do these indies. The script, I really liked, because what happens is, as they are going through their mom’s things, they find some compromising things about their mother. It throws them into a dither about who their mother really is. It’s very funny. I also just did another series, shot in New Jersey.

JP Chan, writer/director of the recently wrapped A Picture of You, is flanked by his castmembers Jodi Long, who can currently be seen on Sullivan and Son, and Jo Mei, at the 35th Asian American International Film Festival, at the Clearview Chelsea Cinemas in New York on August 4, 2012. Photo by Lia Chang

Jodi Long is a veteran of stage, film and television whose regular series work includes co-starring with Valerie Bertinelli in “Cafe American”; playing Margaret Cho’s mother in “All American Girl” and playing Alicia Silverstone’s secretary in “Miss Match”. Long has had recurring parts on “The Cosby Show”, “Michael Hayes”, “Eli Stone” and “Law and Order: LA”. She is also known as Patty, “the power lesbian,” in an episode of “Sex in The City”.

Long’s film work includes Beginnings, with Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer; Paul Schrader’s Patty Hearst; Mike Newell’s Sour Sweet; Striking Distance; Rollover; and The Hot Chick.

In 2006, Long’s one-woman play, Surfing DNA, was produced at East West Players in Los Angeles and garnered her an Ovation nomination for Best Solo Performance. She went on to write and co-produce a documentary about her vaudevillian parents, Long Story Short, was directed by Christine Choy. The film played numerous film festivals, including the 2008 Hawaii International Film Festival, and it won the 2008 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival’s Audience Award for Best Documentary. In 2008, Long Story Short was voted one of the top ten documentaries by UCLA’s Asia Institute. Click here for the official website and here to purchase the film at Amazon.com.

Jodi Long and Randall Duk Kim in a rehearsal of David Henry Hwang’s revisal of Roger’s and Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song in New York in 2002. Photo by Lia Chang

Long made her Broadway debut at age 7 in Nowhere To Go But Up, directed by Sidney Lumet, the first of five Broadway shows in which she would appear. As an adult, she has starred in Loose Ends, with Kevin Kline; The Bacchae, with Irene Papas; Stephen Sondheim’s Getting Away with Murder; and the recent revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song, a performance for which she won an Ovation Award at The Mark Taper in Los Angeles.

Numerous off-Broadway productions include Wendy Wasserstein’s Old Money (Lincoln Center), Red and The Wash (Manhattan Theater Club), David Henry Hwang’s Golden Child and Family Devotions (Public Theater); and The Tooth of Crime (LaMama). Long has also performed in the world tour of Phillip Glass and David Henry Hwang’s 90-minute solo piece 1000 Airplanes on The Roof.

Upcoming episodes for “Sullivan & Son” (Check your local listings)
Creepy Love Songs
Thursday, August 23 at 12:00 am
The guys realize an old comic book is valuable and try to sell it to Pittsburgh’s top collector (guest star Billy Gardell). Owen and Carol bring a new act to the bar while Steve and Melanie uncover middle school mysteries.

The Fifth Musketeer
Thursday August 23rd at 10:00 pm, Friday, August 24th at 12:00 am, Monday, August 27th at 01:00 am, Thursday, August 30th at 12:00 am
Steve unexpectedly finds himself juggling dates after Ok Cha sets him up with a fake profile on an online dating site. This sparks the guys to create their own fake profile to lure a highly rated bachelor into the bar to learn his secrets of picking up woman, hoping he will join their group as the fifth Musketeer.

How Carol Got Her Groove Back
Thursday, August 30 at 10:00 pm, Friday, August, 31 at 12:00 am, Monday. September 3 at 12:05 am, Thursday, September 6 at 12:00 am
Carol falls into a funk when she learns she’s going through menopause. In an attempt to convince Carol she’s still attractive, Ahmed crosses a line.

The Prodigal Sister
Thursday, September 6th at 10:00 pm
Steve’s grifter aunt comes into town and shakes things up at the bar. Doug tries to find his mojo. Susan confronts Ok Cha about her criticizing ways.

http://www.tbs.com/shows/sullivanandson/

Other Articles by Lia Chang
Illeana Douglas, Kimberly-Rose Wolter and Michael Kang Set for 4 Wedding Planners Screening in Screen Actors Guild Foundation Conversations Series in NY on August 21, 2012
Meet Lil Tokyo Reporter’s Star Chris Tashima and Director Jeffrey Gee Chin at the Little Tokyo Historical Society’s Booth at the 72nd Annual LA Nisei Week Japanese Festival on August 18, 2012
Multimedia: Screen Actors Guild Foundation’s Conversations with Derek Ting, Linus Roache and Michael Park of $upercapitalist
Konrad Aderer’s Enemy Alien Screens at Japanese American National Museum in LA on September 8, 2012
Lily Mariye’s Model Minority, Jayshree Janu Kharpade’s Fire in Our Hearts, Eliaichi Kimaro’s A Lot Like You, Vincent Sandoval’s Señorita, and Liang Cheng’s My Spiritual Medicine among AAIFF’12 Award Winners
AAIFF’12: Richard Wong & H.P. Mendoza’s Yes, We’re Open, starring Lynn Chen, Parry Shen, Sheetal Sheth, & Kerry McCrohan, screens at Clearview Chelsea Cinemas on August 4, 2012
AAIFF’12: Lily Mariye’s Model Minority, starring Jessica Tuck, Nichole Bloom, Chris Tashima, Helen Slater, Laura Innes and Takayo Fisher, screens at Clearview Chelsea Cinemas on August 4, 2012
$UPERCAPITALIST starring Derek Ting, Linus Roache, Kenneth Tsang, Richard Ng and Kathy Uyen is the AAIFF’12 Centerpiece Presentation on July 28, 2012; opens in U.S.Theaters in August
Daniel Hsia’s Shanghai Calling, Simon Yin’s Supercapitalist & Michael Kang’s Knots to Screen at 35th annual Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) in New York, which runs July 25 – August 5, 2012
35th Asian American International Film Festival Line-up in New York
Janet Yang to receive 2012 Asian American Media Award at AAIFF’12 Opening Night Presentation of Shanghai Calling on July 25, 2012
Click here for more articles on Film.
West Coast Premiere of David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish at Berkeley Rep stars Michelle Krusiec and Alex Moggridge, August 24-October 7, 2012
Three Year Swim Club, Encounter, TEA, Christmas in Hanoi and Chess set for East West Players 47th Anniversary Season
Photos: All-Access Pass to Disney’s Aladdin at The Muny with Thom Sesma, Francis Jue, Robin De Jesus, John Tartaglia, Jason Graae, Curtis Holbrook, Eddie Korbich, Samantha Massell and Ken Page
Rick Shiomi helms Mu Performing Arts’ Asian American Cast of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods at Park Square Theatre in St. Paul, July 17-August 5, 2012
Performing Arts Images from the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection on Display at the Library of Congress to Celebrate APA Heritage Month
Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.

Lia Chang. Photo by Brianne Michelle Photography

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2012 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

Lia Chang: Edible Queens Presents Asian Feastival on Labor Day Monday, 9/6 in Flushing, Queens

From noon to 5pm on Labor Day Monday, East Coast Asian cuisine foodies can whet their appetites at the Asian Feastival, at the Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel, 135-20 39th Avenue in Flushing, NY.

Prompted by the overwhelming interest in exploring the culinary treasures of New York’s largest and most diverse borough, Edible Queens is presenting Asian Feastival, a one-day culinary festival and tasting event celebrating local, authentic Asian cuisines in Queens. Feastival goers will have the chance to see, taste and appreciate the diverse culinary landscape of Queens all in one place. Curating a select group of Asian restaurants representing the best in the borough, Asian Feastival brings together a kaleidoscope of regional specialties ranging from piping hot Tibetan yak momos and delicate sake-paired Japanese zensai to miniature Indian dosas dipped in spicy sambal. The diversity of Asian cuisines represented include Burmese, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Nepalese, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Thai, and Tibetan.

Tickets to the event are $60 at the door, or $55 online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com. All proceeds from the event will benefit the Food Bank For New York City and City Harvest.

In addition to a comprehensive tasting, Asian Feastival will have a variety of interactive and educational programs focusing on Asian flavors, culinary techniques, including:

On-site Asian farmer’s market featuring Asian fruits and vegetables
Kian Kho Lam, Culinary Educator and Chinese Food Expert, redcook.net
Cathy Erway, Cookbook Author, Art of Eating In

Cooking demonstrations throughout the day
Okonomiyaki
Vegetable Carving
Cooking with Fish Sauce
Korean Cooking Demo

Cookbook Corner, where there will be cookbook signings and a variety of books available for purchase.

Schedule of the Asian Feastival
9:30AM-12:00 PM Asian Feastival Culinary Bike “Tour du Jour” in the morning prior to the main event for the first 10 people to sign up
Youngsun Lee, Chef and Culinary Educator, Institute of Culinary Education

Panel Discussions with culinary experts (*programs and panelists subject to change)
12:30-1:30 PM
The Asian Spice Cabinet
Leah McLaughlin, Editor and Publisher, Edible Queens
Geetika Khanna, Indian Culinary Center
Nirmala Narine, Cookbook Author, Founder of Nirmala’s Kitchen

Walk the Wok and Talk the Talk
Francis Lam, Food Writer and Editor, Salon.com
Grace Young, Author, Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge
Ramin Ganeshram, Sweet Hands: Island Cooking From Trinidad & Tobago

1:15-1:45 PM Opening Remarks & Keynote Speech

1:45-2:30 PM
Rice: The Long and Short of It
Jay Weinstein, Author of Ethical Gourmet, Culinary Educator at Natural Gourmet Institute
Akiko Katayama, Food Writer, Judge on Iron Chef America

Asian Fusion Confusion
Ed Schoenfeld, Asian Culinary Authority and Restaurateur, Red Farm
Jamie Tiampo, Host of EatTV.com, Partner at dell’anima and L’Artusi
Bruce Cost, Asian Food Expert and Restaurant, Big Bowl and Wow Bow Restaurants

3:00-3:45 PM
The Next Generation of Asian American Cuisine
Lee Anne Wong, Chef and Consultant, Top Chef
Akira Back, Executive Chef, Yellowtail Restaurant and Lounge at the Bellagio
Eddie Huang, Chef and Owner, Baohaus

Deconstructing Southeast Asian Flavors
Cheryl Tan, Author, A Tiger in the Kitchen
Andy Yang, Chef and Owner of Rhong-Tiam restaurants
Kian Lam Kho, Redcook.net

4:00-4:15 PM Food Bank of NYC Raffle Drawing

4:15-5:00 PM Tastehunting Tour of Flushing & Understanding Sustainable Seafood
Joe DiStefano, Contributing Editor, Edible Queens

“Our most popular articles are those that take our readers on exotic adventures in their own backyard, and Flushing is by far one of the most exciting neighborhoods to explore from a cultural and culinary perspective,” said Leah McLaughlin, editor and publisher of Edible Queens, the borough’s only food-focused magazine, website and monthly newsletter. Since its launch in 2009, Edible Queens has shown a much-needed spotlight on the incredible diversity of culinary culture in Queens and has become the go-to publication for adventurous food-loving New Yorkers.

Wendy Chan, a seasoned consultant in the Asian food industry, co-author of New Asian Cuisine: Fabulous Recipes from Celebrity Chefs and producer of many food related events for trade and consumers, is producing Asian Feastival.

“I am passionate about promoting Asian cuisine as well as Asian food products. I see more Americans who did not grow up eating them becoming increasingly fond of exploring and adopting new Asian flavors,” stated Chan, who has consistently championed small businesses and Asian chefs and is a proponent of food education. Since moving to Long Island City two years ago, she has grown increasingly proud of showcasing the many excellent dishes, frequently inviting culinary experts and gourmands to go taste-hunting with her.

Tickets to the event are $60 at the door, or $55 online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com.

Date: September 6, 2010
Place: Sheraton LaGuardia East
135-20 39th Avenue
Flushing, NY
Time: noon – 5pm
Purchase Tickets
Event Website

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Online Media Partner:
New Asian Cuisine promotes Asian food, culture, people and trends worldwide. The website is the largest provider of Asian recipes from over 100 chefs, restaurateurs, bloggers and Asian food experts worldwide. In addition, it is also an online resource guide of Asian cookbooks, Asian ingredients and lists over 1000 Asian supermarkets and Asian online grocery stores in the US and Canada. Please visit www.newasiancuisine.com.

Non-Profit Partners:
Food Bank For New York City recognizes 27 years as the city’s major hunger-relief organization working to end food poverty throughout the five boroughs. As one of the country’s largest food banks, our mission is to end hunger in New York City by organizing food, information and support for community survival and dignity. As the city’s hub for integrated food poverty assistance, the Food Bank tackles the hunger issue on three fronts — emergency food distribution, financial empowerment and nutrition education — all strategically guided by its research.

Now serving New York City for more than 25 years, City Harvest is the world’s first food rescue organization, dedicated to feeding the city’s hungry men, women, and children. This year, City Harvest will collect 28 million pounds of excess food from all segments of the food industry, including restaurants, grocers, corporate cafeterias, manufacturers, and farms. This food is then delivered free of charge to nearly 600 community food programs throughout New York City using a fleet of trucks and bikes as well as volunteers on foot. City Harvest also addresses hunger’s underlying causes by supporting affordable access to nutritious food in low-income communities, educating individuals, families, and communities in the prevention of diet-related diseases, channeling a greater amount of local farm food into high-need areas, and enhancing the ability of our agency partners to feed hungry men, women, and children.

All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2010 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com.

Other Articles by Lia Chang:
Joël Robuchon, Kunio Tokuoka, Scott Webster and Susur Lee among Superstar Chef Line-up at Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore| CNNGo.com
Dishin’ Favorites: Porchetta is My Lastest Obsession
Dishin’ Favorites: Veselka
Chef Susur Lee at Hilton Singapore
The Dish on Susur Lee and Shang
Multimedia-Photos and Video: Disney’s The Lion King Las Vegas- In the Makeup Chair with Thom Sesma
Crafting a Career
Norman Y. Mineta: A Boy from San Jose by E. Samantha Cheng, screens at National Portrait Gallery
Photo Call: BD Wong and the Cast of Heading East at the Asia Society
Making the Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution Bill a Reality
Photos by Lia Chang at the Shanghai World Expo 2010’s USA Pavilion, Library of Congress and Hollywood Chinese: The Arthur Dong Collection in L.A.
Hollywood Chinese: The Arthur Dong Collection Exhibition at the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, has been extended through November 7, 2010
Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive.

Photo by Lia Chang

Lia Chang is an actor, performance and fine art botanical photographer and an award-winning multimedia journalist.

As a photographer and videographer, Lia is frequently tapped to collaborate with artists, organizations and companies in establishing their documentary photo archive. She has been documenting her colleagues and contemporaries in the arts, fashion and journalism since making her stage debut as Liat in the National Tour of South Pacific, with Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden.

This year, selections of Lia’s archive of Asian Pacific Americans in the arts, fashion, journalism, politics and space will become part of newly created LIA CHANG THEATER PORTFOLIO in the ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN PERFORMING ARTS COLLECTION housed in the Library of Congress Asian Division’s Asian American Pacific Islander Collection.

Lia’s portraits and performance photos have appeared in Vanity Fair, Gourmet, German Elle, Women’s Wear Daily, The Paris Review, VIBE, TV Guide, Daily Variety, Interior Design, American Theatre, Life & Style, OUT, New York Magazine, InStyle, Timeout.com, Villagevoice.com, Playbill.com, Theatermania.com, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, New York Times and Washington Post. A former syndicated arts and entertainment columnist for KYODO News, Lia is the New York Bureau Chief for AsianConnections.com. She writes about culture, style and Asian American issues for a variety of publications and this Backstage Pass with Lia Chang blog.