On any given Saturday night, you can hear laughs coming from inside the Hot Cat Club in Fangjia Hutong, near the Lama Temple. Saturdays is the night for Chinese-language standup comedy, an American art form that is finding its way into China.
While I sometimes hear stories about a bigger scene in Shanghai, the Beijing stand-up circle is, shall we say, intimate. The Saturday night performances are the biggest regular shows in town, and last night about 25 people showed up, with ten comedians making up a good portion of the audience. While this makes it hard to try out new material and get good reactions, it has the benefit of bringing us all together. In an amazingly short time, I have found a great group of people to discuss comedy with, and whose advice and support has brought my comedy up to another level.
This past Saturday, there was a surprise in store. A rumor was circulating on our Weixin (chat group) that Joe Wong might be coming to the show. It had been Joe Wong’s repost of my standup routine that had given me so much great feedback on my last routine, so I was eager to have the chance to thank him in person. Sure enough, right before the show started, I saw the performers suddenly congeal around the entranceway. It was a good feeling to be able to welcome my fellow Bostonian to the club. Pic of me and Joe Wong!
I love going to Chinese-only standup shows because it is a great way to find out what sorts of topics Chinese people joke about. I find that at the English language standup nights (also at Hot Cat, but on Wednesdays), the topics that come up are generally ones I expect—as a foreigner living in China, I can anticipate which aspects of living here tickle people’s funny bones. But what do the Chinese see when they look at China? What do they think is funny?
Last night we had jokes about all sorts of things. Tony Chou had a great one-liner “I don’t know what everyone else has been up to recently; myself, I’ve been realizing the Chinese Dream,” a reference to the illusory corollary to the American Dream that Chairman Xi has been pushing in the media. I loved the joke, and apparently the audience found the vagueness of the term to be funny as well. “Don’t laugh,” Tony continued, “nobody said that the Chinese dream has to be a nightmare.”
Joe Wong’s set was extremely interesting, as his comedy is very cross-cultural. As a Chinese that moved to America and later became a citizen, he was able to e completely believable as he surgically approached a series of amazing topics that fit between the cultures. He had a series of jokes on Americans and religion that left me in stitches, all the funnier because I know how the Chinese audience would view such things. For example:
“I was not used to Americans and how they believe in their religions so deeply. Once a person came to my door, and asked me, ‘Have you found Jesus?’ I was confused. ‘Should I be looking?’
The man explained that if I did not accept Jesus, then I would go to hell when I died. I was confused. ‘What about all the people back in China that haven’t heard of Jesus?’ He said that they don’t count, you only go to hell if you know you are supposed to accept Jesus, and don’t. Then I got angry. ‘Well, then, what did you just tell me for?’
So now, friends, you all know! And you will all go to hell.”
He also told a seven-minute joke about him driving three hours to perform at a bar because they promised him $50, but then they stiffed him on the payment. Driving home, he brooding over the payment issue when his car was set upon by a crackhead on the highway. The crackhead demanded money to pass. With no cash on him, he said, “Go back into town and find the boss of the comedy club. He owes me money.”
“How much money?”
“$300.”
My own set went fairly well. Having performed most of the jokes at previous open mic nights, I was fairly certain of where I would get laughs, and that made me more confident in playing up those parts. I had a few jokes about being Jewish, and one about how I never smoked in America but smoke everyday in China (what do I smoke? Mostly, the air), and a few others as well. I don’t want to give away too many of the jokes (not that many people read this blog anyways…). A friend recorded my performance as part of a short documentary she is making on my comedy work, so I hope to be able to put the video online soon!
It was a great feeling to come off the stage, walk over to Joe Wong, ask him what he thought of my comedy, and get an encouraging “very good!”
Indeed, I feel a sense of great satisfaction when performing standup here. Even though it is not nearly as hard as Xiangsheng—and much more forgiving—it is in some ways harder because I need to write my own material. When I get a laugh, it confirms many things that I have theorized about Chinese comedy, and, therefore, Chinese culture. It’s a plus that afterwards I get to chat with my friends and discuss how the show went.
Right now, I feel like I am still making baby steps as a standup comedian in China, but those baby steps are steps that as far as I can tell have never been taken by a foreigner here before. And when taking these simple steps is so fun, why should I ever stop?
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