Comments on: Jesse Appell Delivered An Impressive Stand-Up Act On Saturday, In Chinese

By: DSLAM

DSLAM — Fri, 21 Jun 2013 11:45:49 +0000

Very interesting. Yes, what you say makes sense. Cool, I hope to see more.

By: Jesse Appell

Jesse Appell — Fri, 21 Jun 2013 11:21:23 +0000

Yeah, this is actually a real problem. The soul of what makes standup standup to most foreigners–sarcasm, social & political commentary–is almost impossible to pull off as a foreigner performing standup. My routines are vastly limited not by any direct censorship but simply by what Chinese people are willing to hear a foreigner joke about. Combined with a culture that is also hesitant to joke at themselves in the first place, it means that the standup that is done in Chinese looks very tame compared to western standup, where we are used to having someone go onstage and loudly rail against social ills and the government.

That being said, from a Chinese perspective, there are a lot of issues that hit between the West and China that a foreign comedian could take advantage of, and I’ve been trying to hit those points in my pieces designed for Chinese people.

By: DSLAM

DSLAM — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 03:07:27 +0000

Jesus that hardcore Beijing accent makes me cringe but it was interesting to watch. I’ve been wondering how long before fluent westerners doing real, American-style stand up would start to happen.

It’s hard because the more sophisticated stuff usually drips with sarcasm. You don’t realize how much sarcasm there is in standup until you start to translate it, and Chinese aren’t big on sarcasm in the same way. It will be interesting to see how people develop it.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 01:57:58 +0000

Fuckin well done! The whole, ‘Here in China you can yell at the waitstaff’ is kind of sad… sorry was that supposed to be part of the culture? Or people are just generally assholes?

In America.. or.. “the world”, the waiter comes to your table.. and… talks to you? So.. yeah..That’s his job.

My takeaway from this, not surprisingly, is that for all the progress we’ve made as foreigners, in China, there is still NOTHING FUNNIER than a guailo that can speak Chinese.

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:40:17 +0000

Great stuff, thanks for sharing.

By: bag-o-pussies

bag-o-pussies — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:29:51 +0000

Good imitation of PRC hick speech. There must be some useful application for this skill!

Shame he wasn’t funny.

By: bag-o-dicks

bag-o-dicks — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:37:59 +0000

NEVER go full Dashan.

By: kp

kp — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 09:28:05 +0000

Impressive indeed!