The joys of international comedy
Posted by Andre King on Monday, August 1, 2011
Having now had an opportunity to reflect upon the nature of some recent shows in Hong Kong, I can confirm that it wasn't just me and the heady mix of alcohol at 36,000 feet combined with jet lag and diclofenac, the shows there were truly amazing. Why? good question. Having done a few ex pat gigs now, I can see why. English speaking peoples in a non english speaking country are literally starved for entertainment, when a show is announced they all come from near and far literally salivating at the prospect of a show they don't have to translate before allowing their brains to digest what is being said. The shows in Hong Kong, were filled to the gunnels with these people.
The energy in the room was crackling, vibrant, alive with expectation. 'Entertain us!' was the telepathic cry ushered out into the ether with Jedi precision. Thats exactly what we did. Matt Hardy (Australia) & Chris Reilly (UK) were professionals through and through, each show slightly better than the last with each of us pushing harder and harder to really blow the roof off the venue. By the end of the string of shows, new contacts had been made, promises of more work in the future from the bookers, the bar had been drunk dry and people were leaving the venue with backs in spasm and cheeks cramped from laughing so hard for so long.
Hong Kong itself was very different from what I expected it to be, I grew up on Bruce Lee films, I'd seen Hong Kong harbour in those movies, junks littered the coastline, Chinese fisherman ran over the decks of Junks bobbing in the water, others were on skiffs, cooking, waving at the ferry's as they crisscrossed their way to Kowloon and back. Hong Kong today is much like Auckland. Many of the products for sale in the stores are made available at a cost pretty much relative to what you would be able to purchase them for in NZ, most people there spoke some English and with the little Mandarin that I spoke (I knew all that time spent in take away bars back home would pay off one day!!) we were able to establish where the places were that I was interested in visiting.
Probably one of the more surreal moments was inadvertently wandering into the red light district and a lovely young lass sitting outside one of the clubs came running up and hugged me.
'Welcome!' she says, quite excitedly. 'I'm Rone Ree!' she says sweetly as she brushed a few loose strands of long dark hair from her face. 'Gidday! Thats a lovely name...' it was only later I realised it was an unaccustomed ear for the language I had experienced and she was a hooker stating she was 'Lonely'! I'll blame that one on the jet lag. Incidentally, advice from the locals indicated that a house of ill repute will more often than not put their best looking girls on display outside the clubs in order to entice people in, only to find the business itself is stocked full of mingers. Which the equivalent of gift wrapping a turd.
I've been back a week or so now and the buzz is still there, I've just done my first couple of shows for Glee club which was going really well until I told a joke and one of the punters was still finishing of his dinner, which he then proceeded to choke upon, show was stopped, Heimlich manoeuvre was delivered and had to restart the show from a point I was not sure would work, managed to improv my way to a decent gag and the show was off again, ended on a haka which always gains solid support from the crowd. I even managed to spend a bit of time with Tom Stade (CAN) who drunkenly asked if I would be interested in opening for him on his post Edinburgh festival UK tour, I requested that we perhaps chat about it again when we were sober!
Next trip coming up for overseas deployment will be at the end of august where I have been booked in to perform six shows in sunny Cyprus! so looking forward to that trip! I guess it's true, what I have been saying these last couple of years. Comedians travel the world on the strength of how well they can tell a joke. Cyprus, after Edinburgh will make 14 countries I will have performed in, having been away for 14 months! Getting pretty good at dealing with expat audiences by now methinks!
Thanks for reading - live for the funny :D
Dre
The energy in the room was crackling, vibrant, alive with expectation. 'Entertain us!' was the telepathic cry ushered out into the ether with Jedi precision. Thats exactly what we did. Matt Hardy (Australia) & Chris Reilly (UK) were professionals through and through, each show slightly better than the last with each of us pushing harder and harder to really blow the roof off the venue. By the end of the string of shows, new contacts had been made, promises of more work in the future from the bookers, the bar had been drunk dry and people were leaving the venue with backs in spasm and cheeks cramped from laughing so hard for so long.
Hong Kong itself was very different from what I expected it to be, I grew up on Bruce Lee films, I'd seen Hong Kong harbour in those movies, junks littered the coastline, Chinese fisherman ran over the decks of Junks bobbing in the water, others were on skiffs, cooking, waving at the ferry's as they crisscrossed their way to Kowloon and back. Hong Kong today is much like Auckland. Many of the products for sale in the stores are made available at a cost pretty much relative to what you would be able to purchase them for in NZ, most people there spoke some English and with the little Mandarin that I spoke (I knew all that time spent in take away bars back home would pay off one day!!) we were able to establish where the places were that I was interested in visiting.
Probably one of the more surreal moments was inadvertently wandering into the red light district and a lovely young lass sitting outside one of the clubs came running up and hugged me.
'Welcome!' she says, quite excitedly. 'I'm Rone Ree!' she says sweetly as she brushed a few loose strands of long dark hair from her face. 'Gidday! Thats a lovely name...' it was only later I realised it was an unaccustomed ear for the language I had experienced and she was a hooker stating she was 'Lonely'! I'll blame that one on the jet lag. Incidentally, advice from the locals indicated that a house of ill repute will more often than not put their best looking girls on display outside the clubs in order to entice people in, only to find the business itself is stocked full of mingers. Which the equivalent of gift wrapping a turd.
I've been back a week or so now and the buzz is still there, I've just done my first couple of shows for Glee club which was going really well until I told a joke and one of the punters was still finishing of his dinner, which he then proceeded to choke upon, show was stopped, Heimlich manoeuvre was delivered and had to restart the show from a point I was not sure would work, managed to improv my way to a decent gag and the show was off again, ended on a haka which always gains solid support from the crowd. I even managed to spend a bit of time with Tom Stade (CAN) who drunkenly asked if I would be interested in opening for him on his post Edinburgh festival UK tour, I requested that we perhaps chat about it again when we were sober!
Next trip coming up for overseas deployment will be at the end of august where I have been booked in to perform six shows in sunny Cyprus! so looking forward to that trip! I guess it's true, what I have been saying these last couple of years. Comedians travel the world on the strength of how well they can tell a joke. Cyprus, after Edinburgh will make 14 countries I will have performed in, having been away for 14 months! Getting pretty good at dealing with expat audiences by now methinks!
Thanks for reading - live for the funny :D
Dre