Putting a smile on lips all around the country
In 2015, stand-up comedian Song Wanbo gave his debut show at a cellar bar in Beijing.
The audience was sparse, about 10 people, and included some of the other performers on the bill.
Song’s performance lasted less than five minutes, and his jokes didn’t raise as many laughs as he had expected, with only two or three people squeezing out a few polite chuckles.
Nevertheless, after the show, he decided to quit his job with a video game company and devote himself to full-time comedy.
He called it “a bold move”, so bold that he didn’t tell his previous colleagues, friends or family that he had changed his job.
“If I had been an onlooker, I would have probably advised myself not to do it. It was too reckless,” the 32-year-old said.
Song had his first taste of standup comedy in 2014, when he went to see a show in Beijing. The comedic style, which originated in Western countries, was still new in China, and Song said he wasn’t interested when he watched the show so he didn’t take it seriously.
Yet the art form was on the rise in China. After a video of Chinese-American comedian Joe Wang roasting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner went viral in 2011, comedy clubs started springing up across China.
In 2015, the country’s first standup comedy festival was held in Beijing, attracting the nation’s top performers to the event.
The same year, Song started learning more about the genre by watching numerous videos of foreign performers and attending live shows. By that point, he was intrigued.
“I felt I had this talent, too,” he said. “Everyone probably feels they have a good sense of humor, so when I saw other people performing, I was not impressed. I thought I could do it as well and even do it better. I wanted to try.”
Song loves video games. After graduating from university in 2012 with a degree in Chinese language and literature, he worked for several video game companies, dreaming of writing original scripts.
However, in the early days, companies mainly imported or even copied games from other countries or their peers.
That meant Song always did mundane jobs such as entering data onto spreadsheets, which required minimum creativity.
Confidence in his sense of humor and boredom with his job pushed him to sign up for his first show in the underground bar. He spent a week writing material and although he didn’t get many laughs, he felt satisfied.
“I felt I did pretty well, considering it was my first time on stage. I am very easily satisfied,” he said. “I had never performed on stage before, and I didn’t have much hope or see it as a lifelong career, so I didn’t feel nervous at all.”
That first attempt saw him fall in love with stand-up comedy and prompted him to quit his job. Apart from the sense of satisfaction he derived from the applause, Song said he was initially a little too optimistic about his prospects.
“I was thinking that if I could carve a solid place in the industry and gain a little fame in a year, break even in two years and make some money in three years, then in five years I could join television shows (as a writer) or start screenwriting,” he said.
However, reality was harder than his dreams. He was paid less than 200 yuan per gig and there weren’t too many performance opportunities at the time, sometimes less than one a week.
“There was a long time when I had no income at all,” he said.
In 2016, Song was forced back into more stable work to help pay some family debts. Having solved the crisis, he was quickly back on stage.
In 2017, he quit work again and joined Danliren Comedy, one of the most popular comedy management and promotion teams in China, which had been founded earlier in the year.
Three years on, Danliren organizes comedy shows every night in Beijing and also arranges nationwide tours, while Song has gained great recognition in the industry. He plays three or four solo shows a week and also has several screenwriting jobs.
Despite that, stand-up comedy is still taking baby steps in China and lacks general recognition. Unlike some traditional cross-talk shows or roast programs that have been successful via streaming platforms, stand-up comedy is struggling to expand its audience in theaters.
Danliren has 16 comedians on its books. About one-third of them are part-time performers who work as lawyers, teachers or civil servants because most performers barely earn enough to make ends meet.
Song’s family still has no idea exactly what he does and he hasn’t invited them to his shows. “They are happy as long as I can earn money. They still don’t know much about this industry,” he said.
Although the industry is not big enough to support every performer financially, Song has never regretted his “bold move”.
He remains optimistic about the future of stand-up comedy in China and believes there’s plenty of room for development.
“Woody Allen is a world-renowned screenwriter, Robin Williams was a world-class star, and many well-known sitcoms have also featured stand-up comedians,” he said.
“It is already quite an achievement for this new form of performance to have developed to this scale in a mere 10 years — it just needs time.”
If I had been an onlooker, I would have probably advised myself not to do it (quit his job). It was too reckless.” Song Wanbo, stand-up comedian in Beijing