China Daily Global Edition (USA)
COMEDIANS STAND AND DELIVER LAUGHS
X Audiences wooed at open-mic nights
Running errands one afternoon, Han Yanni rushed onto a crowded subway train in Beijing, squeezing into a small space while trying not to spill her coffee.
Clinging firmly to a strap handle, she noticed a passenger near her watching a popular soap opera, which Han had been following at home every day.
As she rode the cramped train, Han suddenly remembered a joke told by standup comedian Yingning, who said that when she took the subway during the rush hour in Beijing, she looked over people’s shoulders on different trains in order to watch a TV series. In 30 days of commuting, she viewed an entire series.
Han, 28, who works in the finance industry in the Chinese capital, is an avid fan of standup comedy, an art form that is becoming increasingly popular in China.
Unlike traditional forms of Chinese comedy such as cross-talk, which follows a storyline, standup lends itself more to self-expression, imparting the humor of everyday life to audiences.
In recent years, standup comedy has won fans in large cities, aided by online variety shows that have notched up more than 1 billion views.
Shi Jiefu, founder of Danliren Comedy, a leading standup comedy company in Beijing, said the city is now home to some six “open mic” sessions, in which new comedians practice in front of small audiences, a situation hard to imagine six or seven years ago.
“Standup comedy is a worthwhile and burgeoning industry. It was only a matter of time before it took off,” Shi said.
In June 2015, he quit his job in the financial sector to become a professional standup comic, forming his own comedy company two years later.
“A comedy company can gather many talented comedians together to establishing a brand,” he said.
Shi estimated that some 50 new standup comedy clubs were formed in China last year. With some shows debuting online, the genre has rapidly attracted a wide audience.
There are usually two types of standup performance. One involves six or seven comedians, who have more than a year’s onstage experience. They perform for 10 to 15 minutes each over a period of 90 minutes.
The other form involves a one-person show featuring a well-known comic, performing his or her own jokes.
Solo performances
Shi said there is still a lack of comedians in China capable of performing solo onstage.
However, Mao Dong, 31, has been doing so for the past two years.
He names his act Mostly Harmless, and his jokes address young white-collar workers’ concerns such as how to handle relations with parents who hold traditional values, achieving a worklife balance, and dealing with taxi drivers and deliverymen.
Mao said: “When you’re onstage, you expose your negative emotions and vulnerability to your audience. This is important to me, as I can show another side of my personality when I have a microphone in hand, which I don’t usually reveal in everyday life.”
Inspired by Western standup comics, Mao became involved in open-mic nights five years ago, when he started a clothing business in Shanghai.
“The business didn’t go well at the time and I was on edge,” he said.
“I was thinking that all the anxiety and pressure could push me in another direction, where I could really focus. However, I lost my self-discipline after quitting my job, and the lease on the apartment I rented was also about to expire.”
The turning point for Mao came when a standup comedy open-mic competition was held in Shanghai.
“I won the competition and felt that I could perform this type of comedy. My confidence came flooding back,” he said.
In August 2018, Mao arrived in Beijing, and two months later he landed a job with a leading Chinese internet company. A comedy club also offered him the chance to perform part-time standup.
In December 2018, he embarked on two jobs, working from 10 am to 6 pm in an office, while performing in front of an audience from 7 pm to 9 pm.
“Performing onstage, you have to express yourself, which includes describing your anger and problems,” Mao said.
“Different from other art forms, standup comedy attaches great importance to self-expression, so it gives you a sense of pleasure and fulfillment that other forms can’t.”
Mao is usually booked for five or six performances each week, including a solo show and gigs where he shares the stage with other comics.
“Creating jokes is not a challenge for me, but I’m worried that after delivering the punch lines I’ve written, the jokes will flop with audiences,” he said.
However, such awkward moments are rare occurrences for Mao, who values his audiences highly, viewing them as friends, not fans.
After performing a solo show in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, last month, Mao wrote a letter to the audience members, stating: “We (standup comics) think we are important, but others don’t take us seriously. I hope you are the ones who clearly know where your ‘towel’ is and deserve to be taken seriously.”
According to the book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, a person who knows where his or her towel is lives a well-organized life.
Mao also gave each audience member a sports towel as a present.
A live standup performance typically involves four jokes being delivered per minute, and a short comedy act has sufficient material for five to seven minutes.
During the winter, a female standup comic became a viral hit in China, due to the jokes she delivered while taking part in a popular online variety show.
Xiao Lu had young audiences roaring with laughter.
Having been involved in the industry for seven years, She said she now regards standup comedy as her favorite genre.
“It makes me happy. No matter whether I have money or not, or whether I’m tired, or where my future lies, I am happy to speak out,” she said.
Yingning, 25, the standup comic, whose real name is Fan Yingning, is a big admirer and a good friend to Xiao Lu.
Fan graduated from China University of Geosciences in 2018 after majoring in oil and gas exploration.
She said that in January she had the chance to perform in a standup comedy show that included a sketch with Xiao Lu.
Fan said: “She is very funny. While chatting, I let everybody who is present talk or tell some jokes, encouraging a creative atmosphere.
“Xiao Lu is very natural and I decided that I wanted to become a standup comedian one day and perform onstage, as she does.”
In March 2018, Fan signed up for a class at a comedy school, where she learned how to write punch lines.
She was attracted by the relaxed environment at the school, and the following month she attended open-mic nights to perform her own material.
“Initially, I didn’t choose to become a full-time comedian. I lacked confidence and thought that I didn’t win enough applause at open-mic nights,” she said.
In July 2018, Fan started work at a public institution in Beijing related to her graduate major. She was extremely busy and seldom had the time to write jokes.
“I basically had little time for rest in 2019, but weekend gigs rejuvenated me. When I took the stage, I felt I was escaping my routine life,” Fan said.
She continued performing live standup comedy part-time for the next 18 months, during which time she became clearer about her future career path.
“I’m the kind of person who can’t handle two important things at the same time, as this is not in my nature. As a result, I decided to concentrate on one thing — trying to become a good standup comedian,” she said.
Fan has been a full-time comic since January last year, riding her bike most of the time to performance venues in Beijing’s hutongs, or alleyways.
She believes there is a group of people who share her conviction that comedy can cure all misfortune.
Language spreads
Huang Chuxin, director of the digital media research center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute for Journalism and Communication, said the popularity of standup comedy has been helped by the internet.
“The jokes are short, but call for a degree of repetition, which creates a specific persona and particular punch lines,” Huang said.
“Furthermore, the language of standup comedy has seeped into the expressions young people use in their daily lives.”
Han, the Beijing white-collar worker, has changed the language she uses after watching standup comedy for several years.
She and her husband — a Beijing native who is also a fan of the genre — watch a live show at least once a month in the city.
“I have a lot on my plate every day, including catching the subway each morning to arrive at work before 9 am. The journey takes an hour,” Han said.
“My husband is also busy with work most of the time. When something awful happens, we now try to use some of the punch lines we’ve learned from the comedians to tackle our problems.”
Meanwhile, Yingning, the standup comic, is accumulating material for her first solo performance.
“I have discovered — and some standup comedians have also told me — that the reason we make people laugh is that we think ahead of everyone else,” she said.
“However, I don’t think this form of comedy will be around that long, but we hope to create more content from our observations and thoughts about life.”
Different from other art forms, standup comedy attaches great importance to self-expression, so it gives you a sense of pleasure and fulfillment that other forms can’t.” Mao Dong, comedian