This Was Funnier In China The Authentic Journey With Comedian Jesse Appell

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Good morning, Jesse. How are you doing today?

I'm doing great. How are you doing?

Well, I'm very excited to share a conversation with you because you really do answer a lot of questions for me.

And especially in the way of everybody used to say, well, if in the country of the United States or any other part of the world,

when a joke is shared, give it 25, 30 minutes.

It'll be clear across to the other ocean.

And what I love about your book is you're going, yeah, it'll get there.

But you know what, it's going to be funnier in China.

It's not going to prove the same exact way in every part of the nation.

Yeah, definitely.

I mean, it's kind of an interesting thing to think about like, you know,

just like the comedy is going to be different in Boston versus, you know, whatever Charlotte versus New York.

You know, you go to China.

It's a whole different thing.

So the same joke, you know, done in different ways.

Sometimes it's hilarious.

Sometimes people don't even get it at all.

Well, it kind of upset me when I came down from Montana and in 1985,

we used to tell North Dakota jokes up there.

You can't tell North Dakota joke down here in the South.

It must be just like burning in your soul.

Yes, they're like, they don't get it.

They don't get it. And that's their problem.

That's so funny.

What did you, what are the, what are the South Dakota jokes?

Oh my God, you know, North Dakota jokes would be, you know, it'd be one of those,

how many North Dakota, you know, does it take to, you know,

to change a light bulb or North Dakota in this, North Dakota in that.

And the funniest thing about it is when you sit down with a North Dakota,

they're telling Montana jokes and it's that little region up there.

We're, we're bashing the hell out of each other like radio people.

We smile about it and move on.

That's so funny.

And that's the way it is in China too.

They have like Hunan people jokes like the joke about the people from Hunan

provinces.

Apparently, they steal the sewer grates and then melt them down for pig iron.

Like who, like who knew?

I didn't know I had to learn this.

I had to, like, I had to go and do a bunch of gigs in a club and they mentioned

about these like, you know, this comedian would go on and do 50 minutes.

And then the host would come up and then say like, you know, like, oh,

thanks for shouting for coming on the stage.

Hey, give us back our sewer great.

And then everybody would laugh.

And then I'm like, what?

Yeah, right.

Speaking of that culture, you actually write in here that the comedy writer

sleep in a heart shaped bed.

Well, I don't, I don't, I don't, I had a round bed in Montana,

but I didn't have a heart shaped bed.

That would have been difficult.

That was so, so this portion of the book is really funny.

I was a writer on the Chinese version of Saturday Night Live.

Basically, we had a new celebrity guest and everything.

You know, first table read, second table read props, rehearsal, blah, blah, blah,

you know, camera's live.

And the only place that this, that the, the comedy company could find for all

of the comedians to live together in close company in Shanghai was in a love hotel.

And so there was, so it was like, we were like, I remember one of the other

comedians who went to his room to write together.

And he had this heart shaped bed and purple lights.

And I was like, dude, like, you know, one of them had like, you know, they had

like basically a post that you could put like chains or ropes or stuff like that.

And I'm like, dude, you just like live here sleeping in this bed all the time.

Do you fall off?

You was like, no, it's fine.

Oh my God.

Oh my God.

That place was a liberious, I'm so jealous of what your eyes have digested

because you have seen so much.

And you've, I mean, you got enough content inside that imagination to last

more than one lifetime.

I hope so.

I got, you know, it's funny.

It's like the, um, a lot of stuff is really funny when it's there.

And then you kind of tell the story here and it's hard to get across.

And then sometimes stuff that didn't even see that funny in the moment.

You try to explain it here and people are like, that's, that's amazing.

That's hilarious.

So in the time when I was doing that show and we, you know, he had the heart

shape bed, you know, my, my place also had some purple, funky mood lights.

And like in, in hindsight, it's really, really funny in the moment.

I was like, you know, I just got to get to my bed and I clicked the, the lights

and, you know, I don't, the lights don't go on.

It's all strobing.

And I'm like, oh, I got to be up tomorrow.

Like, you know, it wasn't funny in the moment.

Sometimes of then I go back.

I'm like, that was wacky.

That was wacko.

Yeah, but don't you enjoy it, though, when, when, when something does bomb

and your mind instantly reacts and the reason I bring that up is because I'll

take a pot shot at, at a Tom Brady.

And if you're not a football fan, you will never understand what I just said.

And man, I mean, it's, it's a total belly flop.

And I'm going to shit.

I got to get out of this, you know, again, quickly.

Yeah.

No, I mean, that was one of the things I think I always had to challenge myself to

make sure that I bombed sometimes because in the beginning, you know, that,

and I don't say that in an arrogant way.

I'm just saying in the beginning, I know bits.

Yeah.

And then once, five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, you know, because I was

American everywhere I went, ironically, I had a lot of jokes that just came

with me and my experience and, you know, I go on stage.

I'm the only American at all these shows.

You know, I have a lot of jokes I can do.

And so once I had 15 minutes, I had the option if I wanted to of having a good

show that night.

But if you just do the same jokes over and over and over and over and over and

over again, you know, you're not growing.

And so even to this day, I really, you know, it's not a bad sign to bomb some jokes.

It means that you're actually trying to write new stuff and you're trying to

expand beyond what you know how to do.

And so that was, that was something that my comedy master, who I

apprenticed to that we talk about in the book.

You know, he was always trying to make me learn new routines and routines that,

um, you know, I didn't know how to make funny.

And so sometimes we would have to really try to figure out how do I do this joke?

How do I do this in a way that that is going to be unique?

Um, and it was, it was a hell of a journey.

I got to ask you, I am so glad that you brought up your comedy master.

And the reason why I'm blessed with the opportunity to talk with a lot of YA

authors or just authors in general who write these books that have comedy in it.

And I will ask them about crafting a joke and they have no fricking idea what I'm

talking about.

And yet I'm blessed with an opportunity to talk to people like yourself,

Jesse, and you guys bust, but until that thing is finally in tune.

Hmm.

Yeah, I think that like people get this impression like I do, you're funny.

You're not.

And if you tell a joke, I think it's good or it's not.

And if you're a writer, well, the good news, you get to rewrite and you get

to try stuff and you get to try it out and see if people laugh.

And if they laugh, you, you can see where they laugh.

I think that the, there are definitely some people that are like

funnier and more skilled than others.

Some people just go up and they, they can just do it.

But, but even for them to be able to do it professionally, you need to learn

how to break down what's working and why.

Why was that joke funny?

Was it the topic was really interesting and really you could, you could go on

that topic for five minutes and anything you say is going to be funny.

Was it an observation?

And you know, if you change two or three words here, all of a sudden the whole

joke doesn't work.

And I always really liked, you know, breaking it down and trying to say, like,

why did, why did that work?

And, and, and if you're going to perform for people who are outside of your

culture, whether that's for another country or whether it's like, hey, you're

the YA author and now all of a sudden you're, you're talking to like, you

know, fancy novelist room or something like that, you got to be able to put

yourself in their shoes and say, what would they think is funny?

And that skill is I think a really useful skill in life just to be able to put

yourself in someone else's shoes and see the world from their perspective.

And then, you know, try to use that for constructive purposes or if not

constructive, at least fun, you know, let's try to make everybody laugh.

Please do not move.

There's more with Jesse Appel coming up next.

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Even the name of the book is funny.

This was funnier in China.

We are back with comedian Jesse Appell.

Our Americans using too many words because when you're up there and you're sharing

things of, you know, they're going to make people laugh in China.

Are you using fewer words?

Because I mean, here in the States, you know, we'll sit here and we'll create a word

and say, yeah, that's it.

That's the way we're going.

That's the new word I'm leaning on.

I think for me, you know, because all the comedy was in Mandarin.

So, if I'm up on stage, you know, you, you, you, you shot, I don't

switch on when I'm on stage, sometimes I would find that I would look up a word

in the dictionary the day before being like, okay, I want to do this work.

I want to do this joke about object permanence.

And so I have to look up in Chinese.

How do you say object and then I would go and do it on stage.

And almost always it would bomb and because the reality was at that time,

like I lived in China for like, you know, by, yeah, I've been in and out for 15 years.

I lived there full time for nine years, 10 years.

If I've been there nine years and I don't know how to say it, people don't say it that way, you know.

And as a comedian, you know, you never want to be like, you know, it's very

different, I think, from being an author.

There are words that you can put in a book and it sounds like the right word.

And there are words that you say that same word in, you know, in a comedy bit

and you sound like you're writing a novel and now the sudden people are completely

taken out of the comedy.

And so I found that if you could find a way to say it with fewer words and simpler

words, that tends to be funnier and then leave the one special word that really shines.

If you, if you can figure out a way to balance these things and then it works really

well, I had to figure out how to do that in Chinese, which are the normal words,

which are the unusual words.

The language is also tonal.

So if you, the word with the wrong tone, you might be something completely unexpected

that you didn't expect, you know, the, the, I had a bit on this where I, you know,

the word for panda is yong maul and the word for chest hair is yong maul.

And they're basically the same.

And so I, you know, would be calling up a travel agent saying like, oh, I want to go to Chengdu.

I want to see the chest hair.

And she's like, you know, you're famous for your chest hair is a problem.

You know, where are they?

And they're like, she's like, sir, we don't have that.

I'm like, what do you mean?

Know what?

Like there's somewhere, you know, but like, you know, the, it's very easy to, to

mess up a joke like that.

Or even just to put the accent on the wrong syllable and now this isn't funny anymore.

So it was, it was this weird tightrope act of, it has to all feel natural.

But at the same time, you know, it's the second language.

It's like you got to figure out a way to make it work and, and you know,

different audiences have different takes on it.

Well, you are very clear with that when, when it comes to mastering that,

because one of the things that you, that you kind of share it as a teacher,

as well as somebody who just wants to educate a fan.

And that is, is that when you hear it, you don't forget it.

So therefore, as you're up there performing, you, you're locked in on what you're

sharing, then, aren't you?

Yeah.

I mean, you have to know what you're going to be doing.

I think, you know, it was in many ways a good exercise because I, like,

grew up as a comedian doing improv comedy.

So I was used to unscripted.

You go up, you'd make it, just try something out three minutes later.

If it doesn't work, whoosh, the scene is wiped, you know, but if I'm doing

traditional Chinese comedy and I'm up on stage with the master comedian,

there's a script, you know, you got to do it right.

But you also can't freeze up.

And that was the problem in the beginning as I would memorize the script.

Every word was perfect.

And that's not funny at all.

So it was this weird balance of, you know, you need to, you know,

it's a second language.

It's a new art form.

It's like, you know, it's, it's a completely different thing.

And yet you, the audience needs to feel like you're just up there.

Like, you know, you're, you're up there and you're doing a show.

And if you can't get the audience comfortable, it doesn't matter how many words

you memorized, you know.

So I think that the finding a way to balance that and to be comfortable

knowing that, you know, hey, the jokes might not work today.

But I'm going to go up and try to have fun.

And at the worst case scenario, I'm going to have a good time up there.

So let me ask you this question, though.

I mean, when you're up on that stage and it's a new audience and basically you're

in a completely different country, do you do what I do?

Which is I have to look for the dick, the dork and the deer out there in the

audience and they in their own way will become a part of what I'm talking about.

So I have somebody to kind of lean on when I need to go in a different direction.

Yeah, I mean, that's a good, that's a good technique.

I would, I would adopt a thing of, you know, cause I did a lot of shows in the

early days of my career at like, you know, company parties and stuff like that.

My people are talking and like, you know, they're, you're in a ballroom and

there's full lights on and, you know, there were, you know, like not good

stages for comedy.

And you know, I did, I did a show once for a birthday party.

I got called into do a birthday party and they didn't tell me that the birthday

girl was a seven year old.

Oh, and they also didn't tell me that the birthday party was just in the restaurant.

They were just one table in a restaurant.

There was no stage.

There was no anything.

There was no one else knew there was a show going on.

And so I just like came into this restaurant and did 10 minutes of comedy for

this seven year old.

So like, you know, you got to look at the audience.

You got to see who's there.

You got to, you know, play with the people that are actually in the room.

And so I would adopt this, I would adopt the chance to just have some eye contact.

If the, if the, if the show is chaos, look at the audience, establish some eye

contact, you know, play to the people who are listening.

And then, you know, ironically, as you get better at comedy and you do bigger and bigger

stages, I think it gets easier.

Like, you know, if you're in a theater and there's 300 people and there's lights and

people have paid ticket money and they're ready for the show, that's easier than doing

a bar with seven people and three of them are on their phone.

And so the, the good thing about the lower levels of comedy is it trains you to be

able to do the, the, the bigger stuff.

Dude, you've got a merchandise diamond here on your hands.

And I would do this on a t-shirt or a hat and a heartbeat in the way that you use L.

P. Hartley's quote, the past is a foreign country.

They do things differently there.

My God, that's everyday life and anybody anywhere in the world can say that's my life.

That is my life.

Yeah.

And it's like, I think nowadays in the States, you know, coming back from living so many

years abroad, it's like, you know, America in some ways is almost a foreign country

to itself.

Like we do think differently now than we used to.

And I actually, I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing.

I think that when, when you recognize that, you know, even your own country can change

and does change, you know, you live a little bit closer to reality and comedy comes from

reality.

You've got, it comes from truth and it comes from people like, you know, trying to explain

this crazy world around them.

And, you know, the past is a foreign country and, you know, it's, so when you go to a place

like even like China, you're dealing not only with modern China, but you're dealing with

the past of China.

Oh my God.

Yes.

So like, you know, you know, I apprentice to a master master Dinguang Chen.

His master was a man named Ho Balin, who is like the Chinese, they called him the Chinese

Charlie Chaplin.

He was the first, he's comedy movie star.

And you know, master host style is in master ding style, master ding style is in me.

And now I'm doing, you know, radio interviews in English and America, trying to bring some

of that comedy style onto the stage in my country.

So, you know, these things kind of live on in ways that you don't expect and, but one

thing that is common is that everybody wants to laugh.

And so in every era, in every country, in every situation, people generally would rather

be laughing than fighting.

And so I think it's important to remember that.

I want every writer, I don't care if they're a journal writer or writing for a newspaper

or a website.

I want them to go into your chapter here.

And I'm going to pronounce this wrong, Zingang Chank, because I mean, you, oh my God,

you gave us the secret, dude.

You sold your soul when you were sharing this, that style, that, I mean, that's amazing.

I can't take my eye off that chapter.

Yeah.

I mean, it was a lot of fun like this traditional comedy style has been passed down master

to student, master to student, master to student for eight generations now.

It's a, it's a two-man bit.

So they go, you know, Joker, straight man, back and forth, back and forth, lots of puns,

lots of wordplay, lots of character in character acting.

So a lot of times, you know, you'll be like, hey, like, you know, you know, those people

who are like trying to sell gym advertisements on the street, you be the gym advertisement

guy and I'll be you, you know, like what?

Now the sudden, the, the Joker is playing the straight man and the straight man is playing

a guy selling, like, you know, putting leaflets out on the street and, you know, it's very

meta.

And, you know, the audience is involved.

So it's, it's a really fun comedy style and if you go to Beijing and you sit in a cab,

this is what the cab drivers are listening to all day long.

They just listen to this comedy and that's actually how I first heard of it.

I was in a cab and people were laughing and I was asking, you know, I asked a driver,

I'm like, what is this?

He's like, oh, this is the comedy and I was like, oh, it never occurred to me.

Of course Chinese people have comedy.

I didn't thought about it, but of course, you know, so it was, it was really fun to be

able to learn it.

God, where can people go to find out more about this book and please tell me you're going

to do an American tour because I would love to just come and just watch you speak Chinese.

I would pay money just to watch you speak that.

That would be great.

Well, I mean, I, I wish there were a hundred thousand people like you that would be willing

to pay if they don't understand the show.

But I do perform shows in Mandarin all over the country, usually in Chinese communities.

I do English shows.

I'm going to be doing more tour shows, hopefully in the future.

I just finished a tour on the East Coast, but the show, but the shows are, the book is

available online.

Just search this was fun here in China or go to your local bookstore and support them.

I also have an audio book out that I read myself over three days.

So go check out the audio book.

Well, please come back to this show anytime in the future.

The door is always going to be open for you.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Oh, oh, dude, if you're going to show me that leaf, that means I'm going to live it with

you.

I know exactly what you just did there and that you're right.

From my heart to your heart, thank you so much, sir.

Thank you.

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We prioritize your needs and are here for you when you need us.

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