Playwright Loh to Be Host of NBC’s ‘Later’ for a Week

Sandra Tsing Loh--essayist, playwright, novelist, and radio chronicler of L.A.’s eccentricities on KCRW-89.9 FM--adds to her resume tonight by beginning a weeklong run on NBC’s “Later,” which airs at 1:30 a.m. following “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.”

Loh’s stint is part of “Later’s” current experimentation with female guest hosts, most of them comedians. There are no plans to make Loh a permanent host, says a show source, and Loh herself said she taped the shows as more of an experimentation than a career move. Still, her literary and journalistic backgrounds recall “Later’s” early years, when the talk show was hosted by NBC broadcaster Bob Costas.

“There were no guidelines given on how to do these shows, so in that sense it was fun,” said Loh, on the phone from Seattle, where she is performing her latest one-woman show, “Aliens in America.” True to her offbeat spirit, Loh says she tried to forgo the obligatory talk show questions; her guest Wednesday, for instance, is actor Steve Park, who was the only Asian American cast member on Fox’s sketch comedy show “In Living Color” and later had a memorable scene as a lonely ex-classmate opposite Frances McDormand in the Coen Brothers film “Fargo.” With Park, Loh says, she discusses why he’s considering giving up the acting business altogether.

Loh’s other guests for the week include talk show legend Steve Allen, “It’s like, you know . . . “ creator Peter Mehlman and satirist Harry Shearer.