Why You Should Never Joke in Another Language On Stage
Why did the chicken cross the world? To get to the other side: China. Excerpt from a funny and entertaining autobiography about an American Born Chinese female executive expat discovering, understanding, and conquering China.
“When I first moved to China I had no friends, hobbies, or anything else to do with my ample time alone. It was an intensely lonely time. One punctuated with excited Skype video calls to friends in America. And, one quickly followed by explosive, nostalgic sobbing when I saw familiar faces, and even more familiar backgrounds. My dad called during my first month to eagerly ask how my new adventure was going. By the second month, he said flatly that maybe I should just come back home. My abysmal melancholy wasn’t all bad, though. Some depressives go off to become artists or rock stars. I became a comedian.
On one of my many evenings alone, I saw a live performance of a Mandarin improv comedy group. They were a troupe of very talented Chinese drama university students. I barely spoke Mandarin and certainly had no idea how to improvise. But it seemed like fun. What did I have to lose? I cold emailed the organizer the funniest message I could think of, asking if I could join. He probably read my message as more desperation than humor. But he invited me to join the following weekly practice session, anyway.
My initiation into the group was to do a solo rap in Chinese. I could barely even rap in English. So, I strung together every random Mandarin word I knew and hoped for the best. Luckily, many Chinese words end with an ‘-a,’ so my solo rap routine was the Mandarin equivalent of something like, “I am new, ha! I sing like la! I go rah, rah, rah! Make you go ga, ga, ga!” They looked at me dumbfounded. Then, quickly exclaimed I was great. That really meant they felt sorry for me.
The most talented of the group — an openly gay and overly flamboyant actor — threw his arms around my neck, gave me a big hug, and said, “Welcome to China. We love you!” It was the nicest thing anyone had said to me during my first few months here. From that moment on, I was a performing member of this Mandarin improv comedy team.
And perform around town we did. My performance sets were always after a serious round of Tequila shots.
I figured that would make my poor Mandarin skills better. In reality, it probably made them worse. Maybe that’s how I missed the social cues my first time on stage. The only phrase I could catch in the quick verbal improv exchange was, “Hitting an airplane.” I had no idea why the audience was laughing. So, I safely chimed in, “I’m going to hit an airplane too!” while swatting the air. For some reason, the audience laughed more. Okay, if I couldn’t follow the dialogue, at least I could act it out. I ran around stage exclaiming, “I’m an airplane!” and then punched into the air pretending to hit planes. When the audience laughed even harder, I jumped all around, asking my team members on stage if they wanted to help me hit planes too.
After the show, my teammates smiled at me and exclaimed that I was excellent. I proudly smiled back. Only later did I learn two great Chinese lessons. One, the Chinese youth are edgier and have a better sense of humor than I thought. Two, hitting a plane is slang for masturbation.”
— Excerpt from the 4.8 Amazon star-rated book: Why the Chicken Crossed the World: 18 Surprising Secrets from China on Success, Wealth, and Happiness (By Funky Chicken)
