Comedian Park Jong-wook, who is active as the character ‘Kim Gra’ due to his striking resemblance to Kim Gura, shared a funny story involving Seo Jang-hoon.
Appearing on the May 25th episode of KBS Joy’s ‘Ask Anything’, Park Jong-wook opened up about his inner struggles, wondering, “How long do I have to live under someone else’s name?”
During the episode, Seo Jang-hoon recalled the first time he met Park Jong-wook at a funeral.
Seo Jang-hoon shared that he heard a familiar voice from behind calling “Jang-hoon-ah,” and when he turned around, it was Park Jong-wook performing a perfect Kim Gura impression.
Park Jong-wook surprised everyone by revealing, “He loved it so much that he took out all the money in his wallet and gave it to me,” noting that the amount was a whopping 600,000 won.
When Lee Soo-geun mentioned that there were rumors in the comedy world that Park Jong-wook was actually wealthy, Park confessed to a difficult childhood, contrary to the rumors.
He explained that while his family was once well-off due to his parents’ business success, things took a turn for the worse after a gas explosion and business failure. He revealed, “I personally experienced property seizures and even fleeing in the middle of the night. I decided I had to succeed as a comedian to escape poverty.”
He shared his journey of moving to Seoul with only 300,000 won and facing numerous failures before finally passing the SBS open recruitment. However, he hit another wall when the show ‘Ut-Chat-Sa’ was canceled.
Park then turned to internet broadcasting, where he began to gain attention through his content ‘Kim Gra’s Black Box’.
However, Park expressed his frustrations, saying, “No matter where I go, everyone calls me Kim Gra. People even ask me to do a Kim Gura impression while I’m in the restroom. I worry about how long I have to live as Kim Gra.”
To this, Lee Soo-geun advised, “If you’ve lived as Kim Gra until now, you need to show the world Comedian Park Jong-wook to have longevity. Characters based on imitating others have an expiration date.”
On the other hand, Seo Jang-hoon showed his love for the character, saying, “Kim Gra is too good to waste. He’s so funny,” but added the advice, “If you want change, you ultimately have to find a breakthrough yourself.”
Born in 1988, Park Jong-wook debuted in 2016 as part of the 16th SBS open recruitment of comedians.
‘Ask Anything’ featuring Park Jong-wook will air on the 25th at 8 PM.
