When Matina Leung takes the stage at TakeOut Comedy, she starts by systematically tearing herself apart.

“The smallest part of my body as a typical Chinese girl is” – and here the diminutive comic pauses for effect – “my pair of eyes”. The crowd laughs. “That has brought me huge inconvenience at times. When I was watching TV attentively in the dorm, my flatmate often came and turned it off – she thought I had fallen asleep.”

The feisty Leung is one of the budding local talents in our city, performing regularly in both English and Cantonese at TakeOut and at other gigs such as last month’s charity event Twestival. She also has the distinction of being one of the only female competitors to regularly perform in Hong Kong, and one of only three entered in the Chinese division of the international comedy fest (she’s also entered in the English division). In a city where the most well-known comics are dudes – Dayo Wong, Jan Lam, and Jim Chim spring to mind – that only puts more spotlight pressure on the relative newcomer.

But it’s also a position Leung thinks has its advantages. “It’s a big no-no for typical local women to be made fun of – telling others that she is stupid,” she says of Hongkongers’ attitudes about comedy. “[But] poking fun at women’s taboos has become my signature.”

Leung, who until last year was living in Boston, has long been a comedy fan, but she never considered taking to the stage herself until she was inspired to do so in TakeOut founder Jami Gong’s comedy workshop during a vacation here at the beginning of 2008. Gong helped her tap into an authentic comedy person and hone her delivery skills.

She soon got to put them to use. Back in Boston, she performed her very first – and very nervous – comedy act at a church carnival. Before the show, she was asked to prepare a 45-minute set. Considering a standard routine lasts for eight to 12 minutes, it was a big ask.

Taken aback, Leung set about supplementing her own material with jokes she scrounged from the internet. It worked out not bad – she got enough laughs to encourage her to keep on trucking. And so, in October last year, she returned to Hong Kong to further her comedic ambitions, which she now juggles with her work as a graphic designer.

During the last 12 months, she has matured considerably as a comedian, coming to realise that failure and occasional humiliation all come with the job. “It’s so embarrassing when people don’t laugh,” she says. “But I soon realised that dying on stage is part of the learning process for stand-up comics.”

Her big test will come at the festival, where she’ll compete against 39 others across both the Chinese and English categories. This time she shouldn’t have trouble finding material. Since starting life as a stand-up, she has become an observer, routinely finding punchlines in the mundane. Says Leung: “Everything that happens around you can be funny if you look at it in an unusual way.”

Natalie Wong

Read our profiles:

The rookie: Pete Grella

The leng-mui: Matina Leung

The breakout: Vivek Mahbubani