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September 28, 2013

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It’s no joke ... making people laugh is hard work!

By Nie Xin | September 28, 2013, Saturday | Print Edition

Veteran comedian and dramatist Chen Peisi, who staged his comedy “The Balcony” to rapturous ovations at the Shanghai City Theater in mid-September, regards comedy as a barometer of social tolerance.

The degree of a society’s civilization, he said, can be measured by public acceptance of comedy. Only when people can smile at the world around them are they able to treat one another as equals, he added.

Chen’s 30-year career has spanned times when society couldn’t — or wouldn’t — laugh at itself. It’s a barrier he has worked to break through steadfast commitment.

“The Balcony” tells the story of a desperate contractor named Lao Mu, who demands payments from migrant workers. He accidentally falls on the balcony of Manager Hou’s house and gets embroiled in a “cat and mice” chase with Hou, his wife and his mistress. Lao Mu finally manages to get out of the mess, but accidentally takes with him a large sum of money stashed under Hou’s bed.

Although Chen has usually played Lao Mu when “The Balcony” has been staged, the performance at the Shanghai City Theater feature younger actor Huang Fei in the lead role. It is part of Chen’s attempt to attract younger audiences and also to give up-and-coming actors the chance to perform. Huang is regarded by many as Chen’s hand-picked heir-apparent in the world of comedy.

“Every role and every laughing point in ‘The Balcony’ is the extension of an inner core of tragedy, which makes audiences think,” said Chen in an exclusive interview with Shanghai Daily.

Having written and directed the same play nearly 200 times in more than 40 cities across China, this 60-year-old comedy artist has come to be regarded as an icon in Chinese comedy. Making audiences laugh is his mission.

Chen is the son of the famous actor Chen Qiang, who died last year after a career distinguished by bad-guy roles.

The younger Chen said his role model was the British comedian Charlie Chaplin, not his father.

“To be honest, I was afraid of my father,” Chen said. “I always felt nervous around him when I was a child. He warned me to stay away from theater. He didn’t want me to follow in his footsteps but rather to focus on my studies.”

Advice the younger Chen chose to ignore, much to the gratitude of his legions of fans across China.

Chen’s comedy style is marked by exaggerated body language, quirky actions, humorous dialogue, and a jumble of misunderstandings, dramatic conflicts, coincidences and irony.

He recently founded a school dedicated to the pursuit of stage comedy. That and the Dao Comedy Theater are part of his dream of developing the art form in China.

“I would like to find something new, rather than repeating and repeating,” he said. “Performing is like life. We are performing in our real life every day and at every moment.”

Chen first rose to fame during the 1984 Spring Festival Gala, when he and actor Zhu Shimao held a nationwide TV audience in stitches with their skit “Eating Noodles.”

Since then, the comedian has become a household name in China. For a time, he collaborated with his father — who had come to accept his son’s passion in life — directing and acting in numerous comedy movies.

Talking about his stardom in the 90s, Chen said modestly, “A hero is nothing but a product of his time. During those years, there were not many talented comedians, and then audiences saw me.”

Bumpy road to comedy

Chen and Zhu started down that road very humbly. In 1982, the duo performed for a commercial show, earning 10 yuan (now US$1.61), which was very good pay at the time.

But the going was tough.

“We tried our best to perform funny things, but nobody laughed,” he said, breaking into a laugh. “I was so embarrassed.”

 The pair worked to perfect their routines, their timing and their scripts. The appearance in the 1984 Spring Festival Gala on CCTV, which is watched by millions across China, rewarded their efforts.

 During the 80s and 90s, Chinese performing art was focused on academy training, Chen said. Nobody dared talk about “the entertainment function of art” — at least not publicly.

“My idea was to bring happiness to people,” he said. “I didn’t dare to say that at the time because it was not allowed by the social environment.”

In recent years, Chen has been dabbling in expanded forms of art — films, TV series and then drama. Since 2000, he has devoted himself to theater, writing original scripts and doing adaptations of existing scripts.

“A seven- or eight-minute skit is not enough for audiences,” he said. “The real stage for comedy is in the theater.”

Chen is philosophical about comedy. “One of the hardest missions is to make audiences laugh, laugh harder than they expect,” Chen said.

Minhang


 

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