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在线翻译:
szdaily -> Culture
Live comedy troop finds new home in Shenzhen
     2014-October-30  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

    Amanda Roberts

    aroberts42@live.com

    BEFORE last Saturday night, I had never been to a real comedy club before. But thanks to TakeOut Comedy, I was able to check it off my bucket list.

    TakeOut Comedy is a group of international comedians who are based in Hong Kong. They hold shows every week in Hong Kong, but they have been holding monthly shows in Shenzhen for about two years. Their performance Oct. 25 marked their premiere at their new permanent venue at The Peninsula 2 in Shekou.

    “We’ve been performing in Shenzhen for nearly two years,” explained comedian Sean Hebert, one of the organizers. “But we were at a new venue every month, which made it hard for people to keep track of us and for us to build a following. So Atmosphere is our new permanent home in Shenzhen.”

    It looks like they are having no problem building a fan base, though. At their show last Saturday night, almost every seat was taken.

    The venue — Atmosphere — is large, but so are the tables. The family-style seating arrangements are excellent for large groups for meeting new people. The only issue is finding the venue in the first place. The location is excellent, just at the north end of Peninsula, but there was no lighted sign to let people know it was there. The cab dropped me off almost right outside the restaurant and I still didn’t realize where it was.

    Tickets for the shows also include dinner and drinks. The show was hilarious. The troop featured five comedians, three Americans (two were Chinese-American), a Canadian, and one Shenzhener. All of the comedians except for the Shenzhener now live in Hong Kong.

    The comedians focused on a wide variety of topics, but Ryan Hynek started with being an expat in China and being a teacher (teaching is always great fodder for comedy no matter where you live in the world). The audience was mainly made up of expats, so they could easily relate. There was some audience interaction, but not with the goal of making people uncomfortable. It was all in good fun.

    The two Chinese-American comedians joked more about the Asian experience. Chris Wong (who was giving his first international performance) appealed to the ladies in the crowd and explained why Chinese women and expat women should try to “date an Asian.” Garron Chew joked about growing up and living in Hong Kong with a mainlander mother.

    Kevin Zou, the Shenzhener, performed a short set where he joked about being married and about work ethics in China. Zou is the person who actually brought TakeOut Comedy to China.

    The last performer of the evening was Sean Hebert. His set was the longest and the most cringe-inducing. They say great comedy comes from great pain, and his long, detailed recounting of having “stomach issues” during Spring Break in the Caribbean was truly hilarious and painful. This is why comedians are awesome, they can take something that most of us would give anything to forget, embrace it and recount it for everyone else to hear over and over again. I don’t think it is a story I will ever forget.

    I don’t think there was a single Chinese man in the audience, but with so many Chinese men performing, I think they would really enjoy it. However, about half of the audience was female, so I would love to see some female performers, both to appeal to more audience members and to have more diversity in the acts. There are several female performers listed on TakeOut Comedy’s website, so, hopefully, some of them can come and visit us in Shenzhen.

    If you are looking for something fun and different to do in Shenzhen, definitely check out TakeOut Comedy for great night out.

    Next show:

    Time: Dinner 8 p.m., show starts at 9 p.m., Nov. 15

    Tickets: 250 yuan

    Reservations: 13823530865

    Venue: Atmosphere, The Peninsula 2, 1-2 Jinshiji Road, Shekou, Nanshan District (蛇口望海路与金世纪路交汇处)

    Website:

    http://www.takeoutcomedy.com/site/

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Shenzhen Daily E-mail:szdaily@szszd.com.cn