‘I was a mess’: how Hong Kong-born comedian turned her life around after serious illness (opens in new tab)

The title of Kiki Yeung’s 2025 comedy special, Don’t Get Sick and Die, always gets a laugh from others. For the Los Angeles-based comedian, however, the phrase was not originally a punchline. “It was everything coming out of my parents’ mouths,” Yeung, 47, says. “‘If your red blood cell count drops again, you’ll get sick and die. If you stay up late, you’ll get sick and die.’” The warning became a constant refrain after Yeung survived a life-threatening autoimmune illness as a teenager. This...