[INTERVIEW] Comedian Kim Byung-sun finds laughs beyond language on Mexico's stand-up scene

Comedian Kim Byung-sun, known online as Comico, says he has built a transnational stand-up career in Mexico City by performing in Spanish and treating comedy as communication beyond perfect grammar. He says confidence, timing and stage experience matter more than vocabulary. His path ran from anxiety in childhood, through study at Seoul National University, to volunteer work in Peru and comedian training at KBS. He now tests jokes in Mexico, draws material from cultural friction and wants to keep doing stand-up for life.

Kim Byung-sun runs a YouTube channel with 1 million subscribers and performs stand-up in Spanish for local audiences in Latin America.

He spent about two and a half years in Peru as a physical education teacher while fulfilling his military-service obligation through a Korea International Cooperation Agency program.

After returning to Korea, he joined KBS’s 28th open recruitment for comedians and received stage training there.

Kim says more than 90 percent of his first sets in Mexico did not work as he hoped, but he says the results are now mostly the other way around.

His family is currently experiencing visa issues as he tries to live and work legally in Mexico.

Published Sep 8, 2026 4:35 pm KST

Updated Sep 8, 2026 5:05 pm KST

Known as Comico, Kim turns his imperfect Spanish and cultural clashes into laughs for 1 million YouTube subscribers

Comedian Kim Byung-sun, known online as "Comico," poses at Meta Comedy Club in Seoul's Hongdae neighborhood during an interview with The Korea Times, Monday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

The words are simple: “I speak Spanish.” But when Kim Byung-sun opens with it before a Mexican audience, the room often laughs before he has delivered a conventional punch line.

Part of the joke is the surprise of seeing a Korean man walk onto a local open-mic stage in Latin America and announce in Spanish that he can speak the language. Part of the joke is his own self-awareness that even by his own account, his Spanish is far from flawless.

“People who majored in Spanish would probably say I cannot speak Spanish well,” Kim said with a laugh during an interview with The Korea Times, Monday. “My grammar is terrible. My vocabulary is a mess. But they cannot ignore me, because they cannot do what I do onstage.”

Known online as Comico , Kim has built a distinctly transnational career through Spanish-language videos and stand-up comedy. Based in Mexico City, he performs for local audiences, tests jokes at open mics and makes online content for his YouTube channel, which has 1 million subscribers.

He is among the very few Koreans — and possibly the only one working at this scale — to perform stand-up in Spanish before local audiences in Latin America. The distinction matters less to Kim, however, than his belief that comedy is a form of communication, and communication is not reserved for people with perfect grammar.

“If you give me three months, I think I can have a free conversation in any language,” he said. “That is not because I am a language genius. It is because I learned that knowing a language and being able to talk and connect to people are different things.”

For Kim, the real currency is not vocabulary lists or grammatical precision. It is about what Koreans call “gisae” — a mixture of nerve, momentum, confidence and the ability to hold one’s ground — along with an instinct for what needs to be said in a particular moment.

“Language is confidence,” he said. “A lot of language teachers say that, and it may be difficult to really understand it. I experienced it. You have to run into people. You have to make mistakes. Once you understand that it is OK to be wrong, you can start communicating.”

Kim Byung-sun, left, performs in a skit satirizing a tax hike on KBS's "Gag Concert" in 2007. Courtesy of KBS

From Seoul to Mexico

Kim’s route to Spanish-language stand-up began far from Mexico.

As a child, Kim did not seem like an obvious performer. He disliked presentations so intensely that even being asked to read aloud in class made him anxious.

“I would stutter,” he said. “I thought people were laughing at me.”

After graduating high school, Kim took an extra year to study so he could enter the physical education program at Seoul National University’s College of Education. The experience helped him begin to see things differently.

“It was the first time I had set a goal and achieved it,” he said. “That gave me confidence.”

At university, Kim began to enjoy speaking in public. “People would laugh, and I started thinking, 'Oh, I made them laugh,’" he said. “Nothing about my performance had really changed. The way I interpreted it changed."

After being rejected from the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, Kim learned about a Korea International Cooperation Agency program that allowed volunteers to fulfill their military-service obligation while working overseas. He applied and was assigned to Peru, where he spent about two and a half years as a physical education teacher.

“I did not even know where Peru was or what language people spoke there,” he said. “I was simply thinking, ‘I have to complete my military service.’”

In rural Peru, English was of little use. Kim had to communicate before he felt ready, learning what he calls “survival language” through necessity rather than textbooks.

“That is where I realized that language is a tool,” he said. “Before that, I studied English to get into Seoul National University. Language was an exam. It was something difficult. In Peru, I realized it was there to help me.”

That experience reshaped his view of communication — and later, comedy. A speaker does not need flawless grammar or a vast vocabulary to connect with someone, he noted, as long as they can make their meaning clear.

After returning to Korea, Kim succeeded in joining KBS’s 28th open recruitment for comedians, where he obtained the training he now relies on: repeated exposure to an audience, the ability to keep his composure and the experience of failing in public.

“There are people who are naturally good at controlling a stage. I don’t think I was one of them,” he said. “But the number of times I went onstage in Korea cannot be ignored.”

Comedian Kim Byung-sun speaks during a Spanish-language stand-up contest in Mexico in August 2018. Captured from YouTube

Kim first tried Spanish-language stand-up in Spain, where he was impressed by performers who could hold an audience for a full hour just by using their own voice and stories. But visa difficulties made it hard to establish himself there long-term.

Mexico offered what he needed most — a stage.

He chose Mexico City not simply as a place to live but as a place where he could perform. Compared to Korea’s still-developing stand-up scene, Mexico offered a more active live-performance culture and audiences that were accustomed to stand-up’s conventions.

The early results were brutal. Kim estimates that more than 90 percent of his first sets in Mexico did not work as he hoped. He says that now, however, it's the other way around.

Along the way, he learned not to let audiences see any anxiety or uncertainty.

“If the audience is cold, you cannot look flustered,” he said. “The moment you show that, you become food.”

Jokes across cultural borders

Kim’s Korean identity is central to his stage persona, but not in the polished, export-ready way often associated with Korean popular culture.

He uses the friction of everyday life, including Mexican assumptions about Asians, Korean assumptions about Mexico and the small absurdities that become visible only when one has spent time away from one's country of origin.

Returning to Korea once a year also gives Kim fresh material. He visits family and eats the foods he misses most, but he also looks at his home country with the sharpened eye of an outsider.

“As a comedian, I deliberately become sensitive to those things,” he said. “I make a note: ‘A foreigner visiting Korea might feel this way.' Everything can become material.”

That openness extends to subjects many performers would avoid, including racial and ethnic stereotypes. During this year's World Cup, Kim turned a widely discussed incident involving a racially charged gesture targeting Asians into material for a Mexican audience.

He said the decision was not driven by a grand desire to exact revenge on behalf of Koreans or a political mission.

“It was funny,” he said. “That was the simple reason. It was timely, and the idea came to me.”

Kim does not believe that comedy must always be a moral lecture, though he does believe it must respond in the room. He said he did not arrive on Mexican stages with a map of every social boundary.

“I do not really have a line,” he said. “I do not know the line because I am not Mexican. So I have to run into it.”

That does not mean he thinks comedians have no responsibilities. He tests his jokes, watches the audience and then seeks feedback from Mexican peers.

“If a room goes quiet, that's the initial signal,” he said. “Then I ask fellow comedians. After that, I try again on another stage.”

Kim’s own experience of being called “chino,” meaning Chinese, in Peru also shaped that perspective. For roughly a year, he interpreted it as mockery. But as he gained more experience, he began asking people what they meant and learned that people simply used “chino” as a broad and imprecise label for any person from East Asia.

When he asked to be called “coreano,” or Korean, most apologized and complied.

“I realized that sometimes I was the one with prejudice,” he said. “When you do not understand the language, you are afraid. I thought they were making fun of me because I did not know what was happening.”

Kim is careful to acknowledge that racism exists and that not every encounter is innocent. Still, he resists treating every clumsy or ignorant remark as proof of malicious intent. The difference, for him, lies in context, reciprocity and what he calls the “feeling” behind a person’s words.

“If I make fun of Mexico, it is because I like Mexico,” he said. “That shows. If I did not like it and just said, 'These Mexicans are like this,’ people would not receive it as humor.”

Comedian Kim Byung-sun, also known as "Comico," poses on a stage at Meta Comedy Club in Seoul's Hongdae neighborhood during an interview with The Korea Times, Monday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

Life that stays funny

For Kim, the pleasures of comedy is not limited to applause, subscribers or the rare triumph of a set that works perfectly. It is also in how it converts daily irritations into something survivable.

“Comedy is not a job,” he said. “Comedy is an attitude toward life.”

It doesn't always work right away. Kim's family is currently experiencing visa issues, which he said has brought genuine stress as he seeks to live and work legally in the country. He cannot yet turn it into a joke because he is too close to it.

“But after time passes, I may be able to make it into a joke,” he said. “Right now it is a tragedy because it is too close. When there is time and distance, it can become comedy.”

Kim once imagined spending about a decade in Mexico before returning to Korea. Having accomplished many of his goals for life there sooner than expected, he is reconsidering how to frame his time there.

“I want to become someone who lives on Earth,” he said.

That life, he said, will include comedy for as long as he can tell stories. He expects there will be plenty of new material: aging, failure, survival, family, countries changed by time and the oddity of being alive.

“I want to do stand-up comedy for the rest of my life,” he said. “Even when I am old, there will be another story waiting.”

网名Comico的喜剧演员金炳善（Kim Byung-sun）表示，他凭借西班牙语表演在墨西哥城建立起跨国脱口秀事业，并将喜剧视为超越完美语法的一种沟通方式。他认为，自信、节奏感和舞台经验比词汇量更重要。他的演艺之路始于童年时期的焦虑，之后在首尔国立大学学习，并在秘鲁做志愿者，最后在韩国广播公司（KBS）接受喜剧演员培训。如今，他会在墨西哥测试段子，从文化冲突中汲取素材，并希望终身从事脱口秀表演。

金炳善运营着一个拥有 100 万订阅者的 YouTube 频道，并用西班牙语为拉丁美洲当地观众表演单口喜剧。

他通过韩国国际合作机构的项目，在秘鲁担任体育教师约两年半时间，同时履行他的兵役义务。

回到韩国后，他参加了KBS电视台第28届喜剧演员公开招募，并在那里接受了舞台训练。

金表示，他在墨西哥的最初几组训练中，超过 90% 的训练效果都不尽如人意，但他表示，现在的结果大多恰恰相反。

他的家人目前正面临签证问题，因为他想在墨西哥合法生活和工作。

发布于2026年9月8日下午4:35（韩国标准时间）

更新于2026年9月8日下午5:05（韩国标准时间）

金（Kim）网名Comico，他将自己蹩脚的西班牙语和文化冲突转化为笑料，吸引了100万YouTube订阅用户。

周一，网名为“Comico”的喜剧演员金炳善在首尔弘大区的Meta喜剧俱乐部接受《韩国时报》采访时摆姿势拍照。照片由《韩国时报》崔元硕拍摄。

这句话很简单：“我会说西班牙语。”但当金炳善在墨西哥观众面前用这句话开场时，在他还没来得及说出惯常的笑点之前，全场观众就都笑了。

笑点之一在于，一个韩国男子走上拉丁美洲当地的开放麦舞台，用西班牙语宣布自己会说西班牙语，这让人感到惊讶。笑点另一部分在于，他自己也清楚，即使以他自己的标准来看，他的西班牙语也远称不上完美。

“那些西班牙语专业的学生可能会说我西班牙语说得不好，”金在周一接受《韩国时报》采访时笑着说。“我的语法很糟糕，词汇量也很混乱。但他们不能忽视我，因为他们做不到我在舞台上的表现。”

金（Kim）网名Comico，凭借西班牙语视频和单口喜剧，打造了独树一帜的跨国事业。他现居墨西哥城，为当地观众表演，在开放麦上测试段子，并为拥有100万订阅者的YouTube频道制作网络内容。

他是极少数——或许也是唯一一位——在拉丁美洲当地观众面前用西班牙语表演单口喜剧的韩国人。然而，对金来说，这种殊荣远不如他坚信喜剧是一种沟通方式，而沟通并非语法完美的人的专属。

“如果给我三​​个月时间，我想我可以用任何语言进行自由交流，”他说。“这并不是因为我是语言天才，而是因为我明白，掌握一门语言和能够与人交流沟通是两回事。”

对金来说，真正的财富并非词汇量或语法精准，而是韩国人所说的“气场”（gisae）——一种胆识、气势、自信和坚持立场的能力，以及在特定时刻对该说什么的直觉。

“语言就是自信，”他说。“很多语言老师都这么说，但真正理解起来可能很难。我亲身经历过。你必须与人接触，你必须犯错。一旦你明白犯错并不可怕，你才能开始交流。”

2007年，金炳善（左）在KBS电视台的《搞笑演唱会》节目中表演讽刺增税的小品。图片由KBS电视台提供。

从首尔到墨西哥

金的西班牙语单口喜剧之路始于远离墨西哥的地方。

小时候，金似乎并不是个天生的表演者。他极其讨厌演讲，甚至连在课堂上被要求朗读都会让他感到焦虑。

“我会结巴，”他说。“我以为人们都在嘲笑我。”

高中毕业后，金多读了一年书，以便进入首尔大学教育学院的体育教育专业。这段经历帮助他开始以不同的视角看待事物。

“这是我第一次设定目标并实现它，”他说。“这给了我信心。”

在大学里，金开始享受公开演讲。“人们会笑，我就会想，‘哦，我把他们逗笑了，’”他说。“我的演讲内容其实并没有改变，改变的是我对演讲的理解。”

金在被陆军预备役军官训练团拒之门外后，了解到韩国国际合作机构有一个项目，允许志愿者在海外工作的同时履行兵役义务。他申请了该项目，并被派往秘鲁，在那里担任了大约两年半的体育教师。

“我当时甚至不知道秘鲁在哪里，也不知道那里的人说什么语言，”他说。“我当时只想着，‘我必须完成我的兵役。’”

在秘鲁农村，英语几乎没什么用。金在觉得自己准备好之前就不得不开始交流，他所谓的“生存语言”并非来自课本，而是出于生存的需要而学习的。

“正是在那里，我意识到语言是一种工具，”他说。“在那之前，我学习英语是为了考上首尔国立大学。语言对我来说是一场考试，非常困难。在秘鲁，我意识到语言是用来帮助我的。”

那次经历重塑了他对沟通的看法——后来也影响了他对喜剧的理解。他指出，只要能清晰表达自己的意思，说话者并不需要完美的语法或丰富的词汇量才能与人建立联系。

回到韩国后，金成功参加了 KBS 第 28 届喜剧演员公开招募，并在那里获得了他现在所依赖的训练：反复面对观众、保持镇定的能力以及在公众面前失败的经验。

“有些人天生擅长掌控舞台，我觉得我不是其中之一，”他说。“但我在韩国的演出次数不容忽视。”

2018年8月，喜剧演员金炳善在墨西哥参加一场西班牙语脱口秀比赛时发表讲话。视频来自YouTube。

金最初在西班牙尝试西班牙语单口喜剧，他被一些仅凭声音和故事就能吸引观众一小时的表演者所深深打动。但签证问题使他难以在西班牙长期发展。

墨西哥为他提供了他最需要的东西——一个舞台。

他选择墨西哥城不仅仅是为了居住，更是为了表演。与韩国仍在发展中的单口喜剧圈相比，墨西哥拥有更活跃的现场表演文化，以及更熟悉单口喜剧惯例的观众群体。

早期的结果令人沮丧。金估计，他在墨西哥的首批训练中，超过90%的训练组都没能达到预期效果。但他表示，现在情况恰恰相反。

在此过程中，他学会了不让观众看出任何焦虑或不确定。

“如果观众冷漠，你就不能显得慌乱，”他说。“一旦你表现出慌乱，你就成了他们的盘中餐。”

跨越文化界限的笑话

金的韩国身份是他舞台形象的核心，但并非像韩国流行文化中常见的那种经过精心包装、适合出口的形象。

他利用日常生活中的摩擦，包括墨西哥人对亚洲人的看法、韩国人对墨西哥的看法，以及只有离开祖国一段时间后才会显现的小荒谬之处。

每年回韩国一次也为金恩惠提供了新的创作素材。他探望家人，品尝最想念的美食，同时也以局外人的视角审视自己的祖国。

“作为一名喜剧演员，我会刻意对这些事情变得敏感，”他说。“我会记下来：‘一个来韩国的外国人可能会有这种感觉。’一切都可以成为创作素材。”

这种开放的态度也延伸到了许多表演者会避而不谈的话题，包括种族和民族刻板印象。在今年的世界杯期间，金将一起广受关注的、针对亚裔的带有种族歧视意味的手势事件，改编成了面向墨西哥观众的表演素材。

他说，这一决定并非出于替韩国人复仇的强烈愿望，也不是出于政治目的。

“这很有趣，”他说。“原因很简单。时机正好，而且这个想法就突然出现在我的脑海里。”

金认为喜剧不必总是说教，但他确实认为喜剧必须能引起观众的共鸣。他说，他登上墨西哥的舞台时，并没有掌握所有社会界限的全貌。

“我其实没有固定的界限，”他说。“我不知道界限在哪里，因为我不是墨西哥人。所以我只能碰运气。”

但这并不意味着他认为喜剧演员没有责任。他会测试自己的段子，观察观众的反应，然后向墨西哥同行寻求反馈。

“如果房间里突然安静下来，那就是最初的信号，”他说。“然后我会问问其他喜剧演员的意见。之后，我会尝试在另一个舞台上再次演出。”

金在秘鲁被人称作“chino”（中国人）的经历也影响了他对这个词的看法。大约一年时间里，他都觉得这是在嘲讽他。但随着经历的增多，他开始询问人们这个词的含义，这才了解到，人们只是把“chino”当作一个宽泛而模糊的标签，用来指代任何来自东亚的人。

当他要求别人称呼他为“coreano”（韩国人）时，大多数人都道歉并照做了。

“我意识到有时候我才是那个抱有偏见的人，”他说。“当你不懂他们的语言时，你会感到害怕。我以为他们在嘲笑我，因为我不知道发生了什么事。”

金谨慎地承认种族歧视的存在，也明白并非每次遭遇都是无辜的。但他并不认为每一句笨拙或无知的言论都一定是恶意之举。对他而言，区别在于语境、互惠以及他所谓的言语背后的“感受”。

“如果我拿墨西哥开玩笑，那是因为我喜欢墨西哥，”他说。“这一点显而易见。如果我不喜欢墨西哥，只是说‘这些墨西哥人就是这样’，人们就不会觉得这是幽默。”

周一，韩国喜剧演员金炳善（艺名“Comico”）在首尔弘大区的Meta喜剧俱乐部接受《韩国时报》采访时，在舞台上摆姿势拍照。照片由《韩国时报》崔元硕拍摄。

充满乐趣的生活

对金来说，喜剧的乐趣不仅限于掌声、订阅用户或完美演出的难得成功。它还在于如何将日常琐事转化为可以忍受的事物。

“喜剧不是一种工作，”他说。“喜剧是一种生活态度。”

事情并非总能立即奏效。金的家人目前正面临签证问题，他表示，这给他带来了实实在在的压力，因为他正努力寻求在美国合法生活和工作。他现在还无法拿这件事开玩笑，因为它与他息息相关。

“但过段时间，或许我能把它变成一个笑话，”他说。“现在这的确是个悲剧，因为距离太近了。等时间过去，距离拉远，它就能变成喜剧了。”

金某曾设想在墨西哥待上十年左右再返回韩国。由于他比预期更早地实现了许多人生目标，他正在重新考虑如何规划自己在墨西哥的时光。

“我想成为一个生活在地球上的人，”他说。

他说，只要还能讲故事，他的人生就会一直包含喜剧。他预计会有很多新的素材：衰老、失败、生存、家庭、随着时间变迁的国家以及活着的种种奇特之处。

“我想一辈子都从事单口喜剧，”他说。“即使我老了，也会有新的故事等着我。”