Curiosity Spans Generations

Curiosity spans generations, though the ways it expresses itself changes. Tonight I sat in a subway car, reading a Chinese book. Normally this is not something that would cause a scene, but seeing a foreigner reading in Chinese was unusual enough that the man next to me couldn’t hold back. He was older, perhaps in […]

Standup, Joe Wong, and Writing my own Jokes

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 […]

Reading About Xiangsheng, Sharing about Xiangsheng

My Xiangsheng master recently published a book and I’ve tried to read a little every day. Reading is fun for me, as it definitely gives a sense of achievement. A single page of Chinese text will often contain twice as much information as a page of English text, and so putting down a book after […]

Chinese netizens’ notes on my Standup!

As a comedian, the most important thing to do to work on your comedy is to perform. If the audience laughs, it was funny. If not, back to the drawing board. But knowing why someone laughs or doesn’t laugh is difficult. It’s even harder when you’re making jokes for someone from another culture. This is […]

Standup comedy… in Chinese!

It’s here! My Chinese language standup! Take a look!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSh2KdiNuzs (Youku version: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTcyMzA1MDY0.html) The last few weeks I’ve been thinking a lot about stand-up comedy in China. It’s been a journey that’s led me to ask a lot of questions both of myself and my Chinese friends, but it’s yielded some fun times, some nervous moments, […]

Street Comedy

It’s been a while since I updated the blog… but I’ve got some post topics being saved up just waiting for a break in my schedule to write! Meanwhile, I did want to share this new piece of writing I did for Sino-US.com. It hits all the things you want in a story, including waking […]

Morally Bankrupt Americans

Morally Bankrupt Americans My previous post has been published on World of Chinese! Take a look and read the (sometimes hilarious) comments!

Morally Bankrupt and Untrustworthy Americans in the News

Last week, a friend of mine who works at an online newspaper in Beijing tagged me in a Weibo message. The tag was attached to a screenshot from the People’s Daily, the newspaper previously (and rightfully) venerated for their daring report on Kim Jong-Un’s world ranking on the scale of physical attractiveness. Needless to say, […]

Different Audiences, Different Approaches

Comedy is a delicate concoction, and the comedians know that their audience plays a huge role in the success or failure of a piece. Indeed, in some ways, the audience is the only thing that matters in a performance. But if the audience is full of strangers one night and strangers the next, what’s the […]

Jesse Appell: Connect China and the west through humor CCTV News – CNTV English

Jesse Appell: Connect China and the west through humor CCTV News – CNTV English Check out this awesome piece done for CCTV News English channel! Laowai Stlye, Xiangsheng, Improv, and bilingual rapping all included!